Roads policing review: have your say

15 July 2020

Federation members are being encouraged to make the most of an opportunity to help shape the future of roads policing by submitting evidence to a Department for Transport (Dft) review.

The DfT has published a call for evidence for the review which comes after a decade in which there has been no significant fall in the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads following years of steady decline.

The review, which is being carried out with the Home Office and the National Police Chiefs’ Council, will explore: 

• How intelligence could be better used to target dangerous behaviours
• How technology can assist in enforcing road traffic law now and in the future and,
• How to better understand the value of enforcement in influencing road user behaviour and the current enforcement capability.

Geoff Bardell, chair of Hertfordshire Police Federation, is urging members to submit evidence to the review.

“Police officers are well placed to give evidence to this review,” says Geoff, “They are the ones who understand the realities of policing our roads network and they will also be the ones who deal with the accidents in which people are killed or are seriously injured on our roads.

“The under-investment in policing in recent years has been felt by every part of the police service but perhaps none more so than in roads policing. We need to see roads policing properly resourced so that we can all partners can work together to improve road safety and cut road deaths.”

A thematic Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) inspection has looked at how roads policing is currently delivered and is due to make recommendations for the future in its report which is due to be published soon.

Earlier this year the Government was urged to prioritise roads policing to save lives and fight wider criminality by the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) which criticised cutbacks in roads policing and pointed to a widespread belief that a failure to reduce the number of deaths on the road is at least partly due to a downgrading of roads policing.

Find out more and give evidence to the DfT review.