Fears that lack of traffic officers means more road injuries

FEARS have been raised by Essex Police officers that a lack of traffic cops is contributing to an alarming number of people being killed or seriously injured on the county’s roads.

It was revealed recently that seven people died on the county’s roads in the space of 13 days – and 49 people over the past 12 months. In the Police and Crime Commissioner’s February 2016 data, the number of collisions in the county had increased year on year (19.5%).

The number of fatalities also rose (19.5%), as well as the number of serious injuries on Essex’s roads (8.3%).

“With falling numbers of roads policing officers and a lack of enforcement I wouldn’t be surprised if that was linked to the number of road deaths and serious injuries on our roads,” said one experienced Essex Police officer, who asked not to be named.

“I personally think it’s not a coincidence. At the end of the day there’s no point sending out a message about wearing seatbelts, reducing speed and cutting down the number of drink drivers, if police officers aren’t actually out there enforcing it.”

According to a survey carried out by the RAC motoring organisation in 2015, the number of traffic officers in Essex fell by 71% from 2010 to 2014, the second biggest drop in the country.

The force responded that while the number of dedicated roads policing officers had dropped from 140 to 80, the 80 remaining officers were being supported by 111 officers and staff in other specialist roads policing functions.

The force is also reducing the number of roads policing bases in the county from 4 to 2. Currently, there are bases at Langdon, Chigwell, Chelmsford and Stanway but the Langdon and Chelmsford bases are closing.

The officer added: “I think it’s certainly going to reduce the amount of time that officers will have to spend on patrol and also their response times to crashes are going to take longer.”

What can be done to reduce road deaths and injuries? “I think more visible policing, more enforcement, traffic officers being out there, being seen by the public and being seen in areas where we’re actually getting the crashes,” the officer said.

Mark Smith, Chairman of Essex Police Federation, said: “Essex Police Federation have serious concerns about the lack of policing the roads of Essex are receiving since cuts were made to our Roads Policing Unit.

“Over the last year alone we have seen 49 road related deaths and more than 700 serious injuries on Essex roads. I do not think the cuts are the only factor here – but I do believe they are a significant factor.

“When the cuts were made to the RPU, the public were told it would not affect the policing of our roads because the smaller unit would concentrate on their specialist role. I know this has not happened and officers have not been allowed to concentrate on policing our roads.

“The force is again looking at reorganising the Roads Policing Unit, due again to the cuts, and I have concerns this will only add to the problem.”

An Essex Police spokesman said: “We are not aware of any evidence proving a causal link between the number and location of roads policing bases and the number of those killed or seriously injured on Essex roads.

“The recent increase in KSIs, with eight more fatalities in the 12 months to February 2016 than the previous 12 months, is concerning and we need to continue to police intelligently and encourage behaviour change in drivers.

“However, a decade ago (commonly cited as being a time of significant growth in police numbers) over 1,000 people a year were killed or seriously injured in Essex (1,174 KSIs in 2006 compared to 730 in 2015, a 37.8% reduction).

“A great deal of work continues to be undertaken by Essex Police and our partners in the Safer Essex Roads Partnership to reduce casualties. We carry out intelligence-led road safety operations on a daily basis and last year we arrested 315 motorists as a result, as well as dealing with more than 5,500 people for not wearing seatbelts and almost 4,000 for using mobile phones.

“We also seized 870 vehicles for not being roadworthy and gave out 2,500 warnings to rectify vehicle defects.”