Shadow Public Safety Minister Michael Dunkley has called on Police to focus more on serious crimes and avoid making false arrests.

His comments came after football coach Keishon Smith spent the night in jail for a speeding ticket he paid in 2005.

"The Police are doing all they can to get the community on their side. All the good work we do can quickly get undermined by an incident like this one.

"I think everyone in the community knows the Police's reputation needs work and I think they have been trying to work on it. Circumstances like this destroy it," he said.

Mr. Smith was jailed a week ago because of a warrant that didn't exist. He missed seeing Ziggy Marley perform at the Bermuda Music Festival as a result.

In Magistrates' Court the next morning, it was discovered the 35-year-old coach of Devonshire Colts and the Knights had paid the fine.

He claims the situation caused him embarrassment and now wants an apology from Police.

Sen. Dunkley added: "I was shocked to see something like this happen. There are Police resources being spent on someone with a speeding ticket when we have people who are being shot and murdered and on and on.

"It defies common sense that we would be taking this approach. The entire justice system needs to be looked at. I don't believe this is an isolated case."

The Senator said he wasn't pointing fingers, but said this was an issue that had been talked about for a "long, long time".

"These sort of things need to be ironed out and we will see changes. I want the Police to be successful in what they do. These kinds of things undermine what they want done.

"We have got gunmen. We have got people who held up an elderly man [77-year-old Calworth Furbert] and robbed him, and we're doing this stuff."