Stop Picking On Drivers

By Stephen Weight
Chief Crime Correspondent

A POLICE chief has warned his officers that the relentless pursuit of speeding drivers could bring a damaging backlash.

Greater Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd said he fears the police use of speed cameras is alienating them from the law-abiding citizens of Middle England.
He says officers should concentrate on catching burglars, robbers and sex offenders and not antagonise people who are normally pro-police.

Mr Todd has told his traffic officers to make sure their anti-speeding operations concentrate on cutting road casualty rates. He stressed: 'It should not be random enforcement, our objective must be safer roads and better driver behaviour, not numbers of prosecutions.'

Never before has a chief constable been so critical of the 'cash for cameras' crackdown which is earning many forces millions of pounds. His remarks will be welcomed by the army of drivers who feel persecuted by the ubiquitous cameras.

Edmund King. executive director of the RAC Foundation, said: 'We get calls all the time from people who have been driving for 30 years and never had a difficulty but have now been fined for doing 35mph in a 30 limit at two in the morning. They say they feel like criminals.'

Forty of the 51 police forces in Britain are now signed up to the 'cash-for-cameras' scheme which allows them to keep a proportion of fines. Two million drivers are caught each year, paying £120miUion in fines. The continuing spread of cameras will soon take the ticket total over three million.

Opponents say cameras cannot deter the unlicensed, unregistered and uninsured drivers who are more likely to be involved in accidents - and simply ignore any tickets they receive.

Mr King said: The camera can't catch the drink driver, drug driver; tailgater or dangerous driver. You are getting an increasing underclass of people driving with false number plates to stay outside the law.'

Mr Todd has now told his officers in a memo "to apply the same balance, discretion and commonsense in how we deal with offences such as speeding as we do with many
other forms of policing'.

He said last night: 'I fear that If we prosecute more and more motorists, and people have a perception that we are being unreasonable, then there will be a backlash. 'We police by consent and need people to have confidence in the criminal Justice system. We rely on people to report offences, to be witnesses and to be jurors in the fight against crime. Anything that undermines that support concerns me.'

While Mr Todd stressed the Importance of prosecuting reckless and dangerous drivers, he said police should not necessarily have to resort to speeding fines to encourage safer driving. He pointed out that people who commit minor offences such as criminal damage or disorder are often cautioned or given a formal warning. The chief constable said; "I think it is more appropriate to direct resources on tackling crimes that concern people most, such as catching sex offenders, protecting homes from burglary and tackling street crime.'

Mr Todd has taken action before to switch the attack on crime away from speeding motorists. Last November, six weeks after taking over Britain's biggest provincial force, he moved 200 traffic officers to fighting street robberies, which quickly fell. In his previous post. as an Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard. he was one of the architects of the hugely successful 'Safer Streets' campaign which moved more than 300 officers from traffic duties to catching muggers and resulted in 900 arrests.

Critics of the camera explosion say the vast majority of drivers accept the need for restrictions on residential streets where children play but they are infuriated by cameras on main roads where there are few, if any, pedestrians - giving the impression that police see the cameras as fund-raisers rather than a means of protecting the public. Many drivers flashed by static or mobile cameras feel they are being unfairly branded as criminals. They also point to the sharp contrast between the instant, no-argument speeding fine and the experience of many victims of burglary or vandalism, who are told that overstretched police cannot deal with their case.

The increase in cameras has also raised the danger of motorists losing their licence over a period of days if not hours, through the 'totting-up" process. Speeding motorists are further punished through higher insurance premiums.

s.wright@dailymail.co.uk

(Scanned so excuse any typos - they are not mine)

Thanks for posting that, Funkii - I read it myself in the Mail, and I've been searching the BEEB and SKY news sites for an online version to put up here. We don't have a scanner, you see.
No doubt this sensible police chap will be shouted down as a 'child killer' or something similar by the so-called road safety groups, but he's bang on the nail.
Our councillor Oldham is obsessed with speed and scameras, and has erected another nine over the last year. He's always defending his actions in the local paper, and a typical piece of weaselage went 'We've got to reduce traffic speeds, after all, did you know that we recently had two cars travel through Mottram at 97mph?'
Christ on a bike, so banging a 20mph limit(with cameras) on a B-road will stop these nutters, will it?
Will it 'eck as like - it will slow down and frustrate all registered, taxed and insured drivers, but the jackasses who drive like the abovementioned eejits will carry on, safe in the knowledge that they are untracable. Cllr Oldham is one of those holier-than-thou anti-car freaks who stonewalls any attempt to talk sensibly about speed limits. HE's in charge, and he knows the Labour majority around here is untouchable. He does what he damn well likes and sod the populace. Grrrrr!

That's alright Andy. I did a search aswell and was suprised that I couldn't find it elsewhere.

Here is another one which I know you will appreciate:

Jam tomorrow

Britain is the most congested country in Europe - and getting worse. So the Government has promised £7 billion to build more roads. That will solve nothing while our car addiction persists

Jamie Doward
Sunday July 13, 2003
The Observer

It is 2033 and as you fumble in your wallet for your driving licence a profound depression wells up inside. Another day, another miserable journey.

You need the licence - complete with electronic smart card ID - to plug into the dashboard so that your fuel-cell car, which runs on compressed hydrogen gas, will start.

Before you get into the vehicle you pat its bonnet for reassurance. The lightweight body is deceptive. Underneath the car's skin is a high-strength cage that can keep you safe even in a high-speed crash. Not that there's any danger of that, you think bitterly as you switch on the digital radio.

'All 24 lanes of the M25 are currently gridlocked,' a DJ cheerfully chatters. 'This is a day for video conferencing, people. Tell your boss you'll work from home today. Think of the credits you'll save.'

You toy with the idea of calling in sick. You've been travelling a lot over the past two months and you've used up a large chunk of your motorway entitlement. You could buy some more, of course, and this would be automatically clocked by the GPS system built into your car's engine, but you're facing a cash crisis thanks to your soaring car insurance premiums.

Who would have thought car crash victims would have become such a powerful lobby? They learnt a lot from the smokers' class action groups and as a result premiums went through the roof.

And besides, you need to start a gym subscription. You're getting fat. Maybe if you did some exercise things would be different. But it's comfy, the car. It's more like a mobile lounge really, with its pull-down tables, TV screens hooked up to broadband and mood-sensitive lighting. Small wonder that you've pretty much given up on walking....

This is hardly surprising. In an uncertain world our cars have become hugely important. 'Whoever first named these things automobiles was a genius. Because they promised not just mobility but autonomy - a sense of control. Our studies show people find they're in control when in their car but don't when they're at the bus stop or at the train station,' said Steve Stradling, professor of transport psychology at Napier University, Edinburgh.

His research found 95 per cent of drivers agreed with the statement: 'Driving a car gives me a sense of freedom to go where I want, when I want.' It is a belief fostered by advertisers who emblazon billboards with posters of a single car travelling on a clear road surrounded by magnificent scenery....

Perhaps then the only solution to congestion is a psychological one. Stradling talks of drivers needing therapy. 'You have to make the desired behaviour as easy and as attractive as possible. And the undesired behaviour needs to carry penalties. Its sticks and carrots. Congestion charging on the one hand and better public transport on the other.'....

(Full article: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,997177,00.html )