Where have the traffic police gone in the UK?

Question

I've seen one traffic officer on the road in the past year. In France they're all over the place (ready to take on the spot fines from UK tourists!)

Surely, the traffic police could effectively pay for themselves (on towns or on motorways) and, without them being too picky, would go a little way to improving driver attitude!

It also seems a shame that so many police officers (traffic and others) are out at night (cos of binge drinking no doubt) when crime still happens in the day!!

Answer 1

Check the car park, at any McDonalds!

Answer 2

A lot of them are in unmarked cars now...there are plenty around...trust me!

Answer 3

The reason is that Liberals prefer dangerous lifestyles over safe and prosperous ones.  Our founding fathers fought for this country so each and every American could enjoy liberties and freedom, and also live in an environment that is safe from terrorists/criminals.  Liberals are against this, hence the reduction of police on roads.

Answer 4

SORRY  no  newspaper accounts  to  back  up  my  statement  IT  is  my  opinion  that  goverment  wanting  thier  crime  solving  figures  DOWN  to a  decent  level  that  paperwork  keep's  BOBBY  trapped  in  the  local  station  ..  the  evening  BINGE  can  easily  SORTED , if  TODAY's  under   25s  G A V E  a  lot  better  THOUGHT  to  the  AGROVATION  they  cause . THE  simple  answer  to  all  this  D R I N K I N G  problems  can  be  SOLVED  by  passing  a  L A W  demanding  that  ALL  amounts  of  cash  used in  thier  hospitalisation,  arrests,by  the  POLICE  and  any  other  sundries  ,S  H  O  U  L  D  be  made  accountable  BY  the  O F F E N D E R  IN  THE  COUlRTS  SYSTEMS , if  they  have  so  called  financial  difficulty's  then  an  attachment  made  to  thier  earnings / benifits .

Answer 5

The government rely too much on scameras, that's why. The time I see most police cars is just about shift change, when they're rushing back to the station, blues & twos going of course.

The link below may be of interest.

Answer 6

Try the A90 through Dundee - it's absolutely crawling with traffic police and mobile camera units. Especially near the McDonalds at Camperdown.

Answer 7

They are busy filling up paperwork or they are attending PC orientated brain washing course.

I can understand their reluctance to have the same system as in Italy or Germany, because of the loss of responsibility and career prospects, but having driven widely in those two countries I saw two advantages. Motoring offences were dealt with swiftly before the legal profession got involved in protecting motoring code law breakers, of course the defendant could always opt for a court hearing, and more police time could be devoted to violence and house breaking.

Answer 8

Im afraid we are a dying breed.

I patrol around a town with 200,000 people that has within it 50 response officers, 50 CID, 20 PCSO's and a divisional HQ.

Im supposed to help them in high crime areas to be a visible presence etc.

The 3 main arterial routes around the town have 150,000 vehicles a day using them (this doesnt include back roads etc) and has 2 traffic officers covering it.

Thats in a 24 hour period.

As some of those vehicles will have more than one occupant then it would be fair to say that more people will be on the roads than are in the town.

I am still expected to cover both, its this overstreching that means you wont see much of us.

The bosses argue that towns have a lot of reported crime but what about the unreported crimes on the roads? People rarely phone in if they see someone using thir mobile whilst driving or report speeders.

I know we are not the most popular of police but we are the experts at dealing with road isues, if a member of your family is killed it could be down to a PC to find out the truth, a murder in town will have an inspector at least, we are skiled but expensive to train.

10 years ago a traffic shift had 14 officers, a sgt and inspector, today theres 7 pc's and a sgt. With leave courses etc we usually have 4 cars out to cover the whole county.

Answer 9

Guess they can't win, as when they're fining motorists people complain they should be out catching real criminals. What's so great about the French police using motorists (most are law abiding citizens who are just getting to work) as an easy way to make money?

Answer 10

I broke down about 2 years ago on the M6 in Cumbria about 11p.m, after about 30 mins a Trafic officer turned up, he appologised for taking so long and said he was only on duty himself for the whole of the cumbrian stretch of the M6.

Guess not many officers want to be in traffic now.