http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/sc ... 1367342004
Speed camera greed attacked as deaths rise
KATE FOSTER HOME AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT
THE number of traffic officers patrolling Scotland?s roads has halved in the past decade and the government?s fixation with revenue-generating speed cameras are to blame, police claimed last night.
Despite a big increase in the number of road deaths and drink-drive cases, there are only 30 traffic cars patrolling Scotland at any one time, compared with 60 in the mid-1990s, according to police.
Over the same period the number of speed cameras has soared to 500 and the number of Scots caught speeding last year rose by more than 60% to a record 180,948, generating £11m in fines.
Despite the increased presence of cameras, the number of people killed on Scotland?s roads rose by 9% last year to 331. The number of children killed rose by 20% to 17.
Inspector Jim Duffy, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation?s Strathclyde branch and a former traffic officer with 20 years? experience, said there were growing concerns about the way Scotland?s roads were being policed.
He said: "There has been a reduction in the number of officers available to go out there and provide a visible presence on the roads. It does not matter at all that there are more cameras, we need police officers out there to exercise discretion. A camera can tell if a car is speeding but it cannot tell if the driver is disqualified or the road tax is up to date.
"There are 30 patrol cars on the roads at any one time in Scotland, each manned by two officers. Ten years ago it would have been double that number of cars. So morale among traffic police is not great. Because there are so few of them operating it is difficult for them to get involved in complicated work because they have to be available, on call, for when there is an incident. It is a fire service response.
"Traffic officers are being taken away from patrols to do camera work and road safety education in schools. These are important, but there?s nothing to beat the presence of road police vehicles."
His comments are backed by recent studies that have shown Scots are continuing to drink-drive and use mobile phones at the wheel because of the lack of visible evidence of law enforcement on the roads.
Last night Norrie Flowers, chairman of the Scottish Police Federation, accused the government of a politically-driven move towards the use of revenue-generating speed cameras.
He said: "Traffic police are at the sharp end of policing, necessary for cases like high-speed pursuit, and although it is a specialist department it has been downgraded over the years. Sometimes speed cameras seem to go up in places where there is little evidence of accidents, which raises the question of whether they are being put up for political reasons, to generate revenue."
The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland yesterday insisted the number of traffic officers employed by forces was the same as a decade ago, but was unable to provide figures. Nor could it provide information on how many of them were on duty in patrol cars in Scotland at any one time.
Martin Papworth, assistant chief constable of Strathclyde Police and the secretary of road policing for ACPOS, said he would like to see more traffic police but "budget constraints" prevented more being recruited to forces.
He said: "I would disagree with what the Police Federation are saying. We are trying to deploy traffic police more effectively. I would love there to be more traffic police, but chief constables have to work within their budgets."
Neil Greig, head of policy for the AA Motoring Trust in Scotland, said traffic police were simply too tied up with paperwork and other duties to go out on the roads.
"We think it?s important that traffic police are maintained as a priority. There is a strong focus on drugs and burglary and general disorder. But road deaths are responsible for the loss of more lives than knife deaths. More people are dying in rural areas than in towns. Three-quarters of all road deaths take place outside cities. But rural roads are the most difficult to police.
"Safety cameras do work but only in the right locations. The big problem is that they are used as a first resort, when they should be a last resort, after measures such as road improvements."
Paul Smith, founder of the pressure group Safe Speed, which campaigns against road cameras, said: "We have to get rid of cameras, it is the wrong policy. They are set up on dual carriageways and catch motorists who drive a few miles per hour above the speed limit, and the real dangerous drivers avoid them.
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Tht's a pretty crap use of the information I gave them that actually triggered the entire article. Never mind. There's no such thing as bad publicity.
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