Tim is presented with final Chief’s Award

7 December 2022

In one of his final acts as Chief Constable, Sir David Thompson presented an award to West Midlands Police Federation secretary Tim Rogers to acknowledge his outstanding efforts in bringing about a change in the law that will benefit police drivers.

The Chief presented his final Chief’s Award to Tim on the day that the new statutory guidance underpinning the change in law came into effect.

“It was a lovely and appreciated gesture by the Chief,” says Tim who attended the Force gathering with no idea that he was going to be singled out for praise.

“In all honesty, it was the Chief Constable’s last event of this type and I was surprised when he put the spotlight on my work and the fact that the legal changes affecting police drivers came into force that day. It was a really nice touch at an event which should have been all about the Chief and his retirement from the Force.”

The citation stated: “In recognition of your incredible achievement of securing the reform of police driver legislation. This is a generational change for policing.”

Tim, who is the national Federation’s pursuits driving and driver training lead, has headed up an eight-year campaign to change the law so that police officers’ driving is judged by the standards of their similarly trained peers.

Previously, they were compared to the standard of the careful and competent driving member of the public, which meant that their training, skills, experience and the unique nature of their role could not be taken into account.

This resulted in many officers falling foul of conduct or legal proceedings, putting them through lengthy investigations which often had an impact on their mental wellbeing.

Met with obstacle after obstacle to bring about the legal change he felt was essential for police drivers, Tim vowed to fight all the way to ensure the law offered protection to officers doing the job their forces and the public expected of them.

Tim managed to bring on board MPs and chief officers and worked closely with the Home Office and the Department for Transport to achieve success with the campaign.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which came into effect in the summer, set out that police drivers’ driving would be assessed by the standards of their careful and competent colleagues who have completed the same level of prescribed training.

The onus is now on officers to ensure they are ‘in ticket’ with their training.

“My advice to any officer who is not up to date with their police driver training is very simple – don’t drive a police vehicle because if you do you could be vulnerable to prosecution,” said Tim.

New regulations, enshrined in law through the Road Traffic Act 1988 (Police Driving: Prescribed Training) Regulations 2022 set out the prescribed training that will give trained police drivers the better protection in law afforded through the new legislation.