Roads policing: urgent investment needed
3 October 2023
Chief officers must make an immediate commitment to a sustained investment in roads policing if they are to bring it back from the brink of failure, according to the Police Federation’s national lead for police pursuits and driver training.
Tim Rogers, who is also secretary of West Midlands Police Federation, has been highlighting the dangers of under-investment in roads policing for more than 10 years and says the austerity years brought a disproportionate reduction in the number of roads policing officers.
He warned: “It makes no sense at all not to invest in effective roads policing. Each year 1,700 people die on UK roads — more than twice the number of deaths from homicides and terrorism combined. In addition, more than 25,000 people are seriously injured. Is it really the position that we find these numbers a success when we talk about the decade of reductions we have seen?
“We have eroded the numbers of specialist officers policing our roads to the point of failure. But it is not just the reduction in numbers that is having an impact on the safety of road users. A lack of investment in specialist training and a failure to properly consider what the role of a roads policing officers should be is also leaving police forces with a skills shortage which makes it difficult for them to keep officers and the communities they serve safe.
‘We identified a serious risk to road safety when chief officers, forced to make tough decisions around budgets due to funding cuts, seemed content to removing more that 25 per cent of the dedicated, professional and well-trained roads policing resources. This has been a common theme from 2009 when the austerity measures were first introduced.
“But the risk has also been commented upon by the key stakeholders involved in roads policing including the Department for Transport, His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS).
“There just seems to be a common theme of road safety being seen as a ‘nice to have’ by chief officers and this has reduced roads policing to the point where it is not only inefficient but is also failing to meet the road safety strategies set out in policies by Police and Crime Commissioners and chief officers.”
Since February this year – and for the first time - roads policing has been identified as a Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) set out by the Home Office. This sets out the Home Secretary’s view of what the current national threats are, and the national policing capabilities needed to counter those threats.
“In short, this means the Government is recognising the importance of roads policing in terms of keeping our roads safe but also tackling crime. Yet, we are not seeing chief officers responding to this.”
Tim is calling on chief officers to genuinely invest in roads policing.
“They have to do this as a matter of urgency,” he explains, “For the first time in a decade, the number of road deaths and serious injuries are starting to rise. Forces must act. We have been tolerating a decline in roads policing capability for years but it is totally unacceptable for us to continue to do this. It is no good settling for a halt in the decline, that is just not good enough. We have to see a genuine reinvestment but we also need to have all chief constables on the same page, committed to treating deaths on the roads their forces police seriously and with positive action rather than words.
“As an example of the variation that exists across the country, it is still unclear what the consistent minimum standard of training is for a roads policing officer. It differs from force to force which is unacceptable in such a reputationally important and safety critical role. It leaves members of the public facing a post code lottery in terms of road safety and that cannot be allowed to continue.”
In June 2020, PACTS published its ‘Roads policing and its contribution to road safety’ report focusing on the links between roads policing, compliance with traffic laws and road casualties. It summarised the policy and responsibility framework for policing in the UK and identified trends in enforcement, compliance and casualties relating to the “fatal four” offences - speeding, drink and drug driving, not wearing seat belts and using mobile phones while driving.
The report’s recommendations included:
- Reversing the cuts and expand the number of specialist officers
- Taking a more proactive approach to the use of technology and information sharing
- Calling for police forces to:
• Work more closely with other forces and agencies
• Engage the support of the public through communications and use of dashcams
• Collaborate on research and improve monitoring and reporting.
At the time, Tim commented: ““Many of the recommendations from this report are in line with what the Police Federation’s own roads policing group have been putting forward for a number of years now. We need to see roads policing prioritised so that we can bring about a reduction in these numbers so I hope this report will make the Government and chief officers consider a change of direction.”
He now says that while the Government realised the flaw and added roads policing to the SPR, chief officers now need to catch up.
“Talking about zero deaths as a target is welcome but, with no consistent plan, it seems nothing more than warm words,” says Tim, “The inclusion of roads policing as an SPR should have been a game-changer, but we are just not seeing chief officers address the under-investment in roads policing,” he said.
Three years on, Tim says he is disappointed that there has not been a significant change of direction.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster chairs the regional committee for road safety and Tim welcomes his pledges on investment in roads policing, but says more has to be done to actually deliver that investment.
Tim explained: “The reality is that the Road Harm Team has grown in number but these resources came from other areas of roads policing which is just a false economy.”
He also wants full consideration to be given to the launch of a specialist roads policing force along the lines of the Transport Police.
“Some say that the misdirection of budgets designed for road policing and road safety has gone too far but, by taking back this portion of the police budget, setting up a dedicated force to deal with roads under the Department for Transport rather than the Home Office will ensure a focus on road safety and the casualty reduction that many chiefs, Police and Crime Commissioners and politicians speak about,” Tim concluded.
