Roads policing units need more resource to reverse years of cuts

18 August 2020

Adding resource to roads policing is the only way to reverse the years of cuts it’s endured, Essex Police Federation says.

A recent HMICFRS report threw up some real concerns about traffic policing in England and Wales. It found the number of roads officers dropped by a huge 18% over 2015-2019 while spending on the service has been slashed by 34%.

Death on our roads is starting to increase again too the report revealed – some 1,800 people die on UK roads each year – more than twice the number of deaths from homicides and terrorism combined. A further 25,000 people are seriously injured.

Getting officers and budgets back to the levels they were before must happen, although that won’t provide an overnight cure, Essex Police Federation Chair Laura Heggie said.

“The overarching value that runs through the whole of policing is to preserve life. The fact that this is happening and there may be something that we could do to prevent it is worrying,” she said.

“I was on traffic for a short time earlier on in my career, and at that time, we had the resourcing, and the enforcement was there.

“Over the years the cuts have been made, and they are now starting to try and adjust those cuts and starting to build back up our traffic department, but it’s a slow process.

“It’s not just about moving the officers across into that department, it’s giving them the training that they require, both in traffic law but also in driving so that they’re able to fulfil the role completely. It’s only once we get to that stage that perhaps we can start to see the deaths on Essex roads going down.

“It’s a case of increasing the resourcing, which the force has started to commit towards but it’s going to take some time.

“Unfortunately, the demand is there whether you’re a community policing officer on the local policing team, on CID, or on traffic. Everyone’s got their requirements, but there is a void within traffic that needs to be filled.”