Pele police check over one million drivers

Over a million people were stopped and checked by Panama’s “pele police”  in the  first nine months of 2011 says a National Police Spokesman.

Despite widespread criticism in the two years since the hand held computers have been used to monitor drivers  the police say it is a tool to help combat crime. Manuel Zorrilla, who heads the operation  says  that since February 2010, when the pele police verification system was introduced  it  has been used to "prevent or neutralize" high crime rates.

Official reports indicate that the use of the system has led to the arrest of 2,400 who ow have pending court cases. Of those, 164 are related to drugs.