POLICING needs to \u2018stay the course\u2019 when it comes to getting legislative change for police drivers, Essex Police Federation is urging.<\/p>\n
A recent HMICFRS public poll showed there is backing for a change in the law which would allow police drivers more protection from prosecution when they are driving in pursuit or in response.<\/p>\n
At the moment, officers are subject to the same legal tests as members of the public and their extra training and experience cannot be used in mitigation should they be involved in careless or dangerous driving cases.<\/p>\n
Changing the law also has widespread cross-party political support.<\/p>\n
Essex Police Federation Chairman Steve Taylor says he understands the frustrations around the pace of any change but says now is not the time to start criticising the Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve seen change come at a snail\u2019s pace in the area of driver legislation and protections for police drivers. But for the first time in a while, we are starting to see some progress now. In good faith, we\u2019ve been negotiating with the powers that be on this issue, and to turn around now and upset that position through our own making, namely start doing something a bit more rebellious, I think is short-sighted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The long campaigned for change has picked up several MP advocates and Steve says the tactics now must be to keep pushing it up the political agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve invested almost eight years [into the campaign] now. Let\u2019s try and just get this over the finishing line and then take a view and look to build on what we walk away with.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think advocating any other form of action at this stage would be a little foolhardy. Particularly as we\u2019re moving in the right direction, albeit at a snail\u2019s pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not surprised to see the Government have agreed to do things and then not put a timeframe in place to accomplish it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, we have to continue to try and hold them to account to these promises that they make. We must try and keep it on the radar and ensure we get the change we need, to the benefit of our members.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the Government renege on what they\u2019ve promised if at any point we start to see back steps being taken as opposed to small steps forward, then we can review where we are. But Let\u2019s hold the course. If there\u2019s a material change then we can quite legitimately change our position and perhaps we\u2019ll advocate something a bit stronger,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are where we are now, and we should see it through until we get this on the statute book and get the protection that our drivers need.\u201d<\/p>\n
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POLICING needs to \u2018stay the course\u2019 when it comes to getting legislative change for police drivers, Essex Police Federation is urging. A recent HMICFRS public poll showed there is backing\u2026 read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9491,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49464"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51056,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49464\/revisions\/51056"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/essexfedfocus.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}