Police let off speeding penalties

Tens of thousands of officers across the country escaped penalties after their tickets were cancelled by bosses.

Just 354 of the 90,000 police captured on traffic camera were hit with fines or points on their licences, compared to 80 per cent of ordinary motorists.

One in four of those were marked vehicles with blue lights flashing, indicating officers were responding to emergencies.

But nearly every other offence was quashed by senior police who can make tickets "disappear" if an officer puts forward a good reason for speeding – like chasing a suspect or trying to find a witness.

During 2006, 4,154 speed camera activations by West Midlands Police were cancelled because blue lights were seen in the photograph.

A further 2,090 were quashed because the vehicles were being used for "police purposes", 38 were dropped for other reasons and 19 are ongoing.

Staffordshire officers clocked up 899 camera activations which led to 14 tickets being issued. In West Mercia, just 11 tickets were handed out for 1,357 offences.

More than 4,000 Thames Valley police cars were caught on camera speeding or jumping red lights, but not one officer was issued with a fixed penalty ticket.

Dianne Ferreira, from road safety charity Brake, said: "They should be setting up an example and they should have to face the force of the law like everybody else when they break the rules."

Carl Bird, from West Midlands Police, said the force adopted a "robust and transparent" approach when its vehicles were caught on speed cameras.

The law says a speed limit should not be imposed on police vehicles if it would hamper their duties. Mr Bird said: "These would include issues such as attending an emergency call, gaining on a vehicle which they intended to stop and a multitude of operation issues".

There is no requirement on police vehicles to use their blue lights if speeding. Mr Bird added: "Blue lights are used to try to warn other motorists of the police vehicle's presence when traffic conditions require it, but these can hinder operations such as attending burglaries in progress at night where the lights can be seen from a long distance."

Paul Smith, founder of the Safespeed campaign, said: "These figures will add considerably to the public suspicion that it's one rule for them and another for the rest of us."

The Police Federation, representing rank-and-file officers, said: "Sometimes officers have to break speed limits or go through red lights.

"Can you imagine the public backlash if they were slow getting to a serious incident because they sat in a queue of traffic at lights?

"But at the same time it doesn't give officers carte blanche to be a danger to the public."

Today's figures follow an outcry over Shropshire Pc Mark Milton, who was convicted of dangerous driving after reaching speeds of up to 159mph on the M54 in an unmarked patrol car.

London's High Court recently sent the case back to the district judge for further consideration.

Annually there are around 20,221 accidents involving police vehicles, a quarter of which occur during emergency calls or in pursuit rather than routine duties.