Fears over lack of traffic police

The number of dedicated traffic police in the West Midlands has fallen significantly over the past decade, new figures reveal today.

The AA is alarmed at the national decline of almost 20 per cent in the number of traffic police across England and Wales – with dramatic drops in the West Midland forces of Staffordshire and West Mercia. Staffordshire had 208 traffic officers in 1998/99 – a figure that has slumped to just 34 for 2007/08.

In West Mercia the fall was from 238 to 128, while in the West Midlands there was a drop from 405 to 352.

While there have been changes to the way the police classify the jobs of traffic officers, the AA say today there are 1,577 fewer police officers patrolling the roads than there were 10 years ago.

AA president Edmund King said: "I have been saying for some time that we need more cops in cars to target crooks in cars.

"If the police target disqualified drivers and the motoring underclass they will be more effective in reducing general crime.

"A speed camera does not pick up the illegal foreign truck driver or boy racer with stolen plates but a traffic cop can.

"We need to reverse this trend and increase traffic cops not only to make our roads safer but to make society safer. We should never forget that it was a police officer on traffic duty who caught the Yorkshire Ripper."

Previous research suggests that there is a strong link between those committing motoring offences and other general crimes.

The AA has expressed concern that some serious criminals are slipping through the net undetected due to this massive decrease in traffic police.

Research has examined the link between traffic offences and criminal offences in Great Britain statistically by linking offence data from DVLA and the Home Office.

A sample of more than 52,000 drivers was selected from DVLA records and matched with the Home Office Offenders Index.

The research found that those who commit general crimes are much more likely to be disqualified drivers.