Hugo Griffiths

Cuts in police officers are having a worrying effect on attitudes to speeding

AS significant cuts to traffic police numbers leave speed cameras increasingly responsible for enforcing the rules of the road, the consequences of this trend have been emerging with inevitability: offences that are easily detected by automated systems are on the up, while penalties for poor driving behaviours that can (so far) only be detected by the human eye are down.

Official figures reveal, for example, that 2.15 million motorists were caught speeding in 2016, up from 1.6 million in 2011. Compare that with the number of drivers cited for dangerous, careless or drunken driving, which fell from 276,000 to 179,000 over the same period. It seems to me that speeding motorists are being issued tickets at almost every turn, while instances of ‘bad driving’ are increasingly going unpunished.

Yet ask the average motorist if they feel standards of driving have become better or worse over recent years, and I’d bet most would say that things have deteriorated.

Even police aren’t immune from speed cameras: figures unearthed by Auto Express show around 2,000 serving officers (roughly three per cent) from 24 forces, with around 100,000 officers between them, have been issued a speeding penalty over the last five years.

This is made even more interesting by new research from insurer Direct Line which found half of all drivers find speeding acceptable. Cameras may be catching more speedsters, but they’re not helping turn around the attitudes to speeding. For that, you need officers on the street.

“2.15 million motorists were caught speeding in 2016, up from 1.6 million in 2011”