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POLICE IN CAMERAS ESCAPE
By Aidan Mcgurran

POLICE have been caught more than 5,000 times on speed cameras - but none were booked or disciplined by their force.

Road safety groups are now calling for action after figures were released under the Freedom of Information Act.

They show that in Essex between January and June 2005, 5,070 tickets were triggered by marked police cars and 199 by unmarked police vehicles.

But, because the majority involved officers on emergency calls, tickets were cancelled.

A spokesman for Essex police said: "Any officer who activates a safety camera does so for entirely legitimate purposes."

But Paul Smith of the pressure group SafeSpeed said: "It is stretching credibility to suggest every case was so important.

"It would be nice if some of the discretion the police give themselves was given to motorists."

In Suffolk 40 officers were caught between April 2004 and March 2005 and 13 were fined.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

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BBC story

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

so there were 5000 immediate responses graded by the Essex control room, i notice no figures were asked for involving the ambulance / fire services who would have also have their attendance graded by their control room

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now retired