To think the police should focus limited officers on crime not speedometers

[Chocstrawberries]

The past two days I have driven past two speed checks, yet the last time I saw any police patrolling our high street is years ago. Given that we've got speed cameras I think the police should focus on patrols and solving burglaries and other crime until they get more officers to spare some for speeding. Or give speeding checks to traffic wardens.

Speeding's pretty bad

Speeding is a crime too.

The cops doing the speed checks will be traffic officers. So speeding is their remit. It's not taking anyone away from walking the beat.

Speed kills. Burglars don’t!

I don't want people to speed either of course not. But in one of the checks I passed the officers were very visible and right by a speed camera. Both in 20mph areas. Nobody was speeding. I didn't feel like they were effective.

Speeding kills and maims far more people than petty crime does. YABU

Speeding is a crime like any other and is a major cause of road death. I am often concerned at the speed people drive past the school in my village and wish there was more resource allocated to dealing with this.

Obviously most people on this thread don't care if their home gets burgled or their loved one gets stabbed

If people didn’t speed then it wouldn’t be needed. But they do, and it kills people, so it is. The more people get done for speeding the better, as far as I’m concerned, and if they could also do more people for using a mobile while driving then great.

People slow down because they see a speed camera/trap. Job done. They, sadly, weren’t driving at the speed limit because of their good nature! It’s because the police car was there!

My loved ones are more likely to be killed by a speeding driver than stabbed, on balance of probability.

I think the police should focus on patrols and solving burglaries and other crime until they get more officers to spare some for speeding. Or give speeding checks to traffic wardens.

Or the Roads Policing Unit, which will be doing this. It's part of what they do.

But you don't care if your home gets burgled which is quite likely

Of course I’d care, but I care less about my home than my child’s life/safety.

How do you know that "nobody was speeding"? Did you stand there with the police measuring everyone's speed? Speeding kills lots of people every year; where I live certain drivers regularly do 50 mph and more in a 30 zone. I'd very much like more police to crack down on this.

It’s also not “quite likely”.

Your child could get killed by a driver driving at the speed limit

How do you come to that conclusion. Traffic officers wouldn't be dealing with burglars or assaults. They're there for traffic calls & offences - like speeding

Sometimes burglars do kill or maim.

But it’s a hell of a lot more likely to happen if they’re speeding. Or do you think the speed limits are just there for fun? Equally, your house could still be burgled even if every traffic police officer in the country was redeployed to an anti-burglary campaign. People deserve to be caught and punished for speeding too.

Spot the dangerous drivers on this thread 🙄

No, but they do care that the police are out trying to stop people killing their loved ones from speeding drivers :)

I don't drive actually as I don't have good enough eyesight

If you could just write to the Home Secretary and tell them exactly which crimes should be investigated and which shouldn't, and which departments should be not running any more....
I'm sure your opinion will be really appreciated.

I expect that the police officers at a speed check can drop everything and respond to other incidents when appropriate. If you are a highway patrol officer, where better to be, between incidents, than at the side of the road?

It's not that different from fire fighters who spend part of their time checking compliance on premises. They can't be fighting fires all the time, and the more successful they are at prevention the fewer they have to fight.

The ones in the speed vans are civilians and that is their job role, they are not officers.

Any police officers out doing it will be for a specific operation or in response to loads of complaints from a certain areas. Generally these will be staffed by volunteers or special
constables (also volunteers)