The AA is calling on the Government to appoint 1,000 new roads police officers to improve road safety and help tackle wider crime.
As part of their manifesto, Labour pledged to recruit thousands of new police officers to tackle neighbourhood crime. The AA believes 1,000 of these new recruits should form part of the road traffic section of forces across the country.
The request, which was part of The AA’s own Motoring Manifesto, follows analysis of the latest police workforce statistics released by the Home Office.
As of 31 March 2024, there were 4,215 traffic officers in England and Wales, a drop of 1,022 officers from the highest point on 31 March 2016 (5,237).
The AA says recruiting more traffic officers would increase the visibility of police on the roads.
In a poll of 11,469 drivers conducted last month, more than half (57%) felt that drivers could get away with careless driving due to a lack of police on the roads.
Similarly, more than two fifths of drivers said offences such as using a handheld phone behind the wheel (44%), drug driving (42%), not wearing a seatbelt (46%) and using a dangerous vehicle (43%) were going unpunished due to a reduced police presence.
Jack Cousens, head of roads policy for The AA, said, “Be it driving offences or wider crime, public opinion suggests that too many people are simply getting away it. It’s clear that the public want to see more bobbies on the beat, so the Government’s ambition to increase the number of police officers is welcome.
“We believe there should be a wider approach to tackling crime and that more cops in cars could produce safer communities as well as safer roads. A clear and visible presence is a deterrent itself to ensure better standards of driving, as well as sending a warning signal to criminals that the chances of being caught are higher than before.
“Most traffic cops catch other crimes in the act, such as discovering stolen goods, through routine stops. Similarly a camera can spot the speeding driver, but it can’t stop them if they are under the influence of drink or drugs. Investment in traffic officers does more than improve road safety, it produces safer neighbourhoods too.”
The team at Dtec have seen the highly trained traffic officers dwindle over the past 25 years. It is not Rocket Science to realise that the fewer the number of police cars seen on our roads leads to a reduction in the deterrent to control the poor standards of driving. We fully support the AA’s call for a 1,000 of those police asked to reduce neighbourhood crime are traffic officers. It would still only be an increase of 20 officers for each of the 40 plus forces, enough for 6 officers on shift for the whole of that county. We have to start somewhere to make our roads safer and reduce the nearly 2,000 deaths on our roads each year.
Ean Lewin, Wrea Green
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