Read the letter in full

The Government has reprimanded chief constables for relying too heavily on speed cameras and failing to allocate enough traffic officers to keep roads safe.

The number of traffic police in England and Wales has fallen from 7,525 in 1999 to 6,511 last year, a reduction of 13 per cent, according to figures obtained by the Conservatives.

By contrast, the number of speed camera penalties quadrupled to 1.9 million between 1999 and 2004, the latest year for which figures are available.

Motoring groups argue that speed cameras are no substitute for a strong police presence because they cannot detect offences such as drink-driving, dangerous overtaking and driving while disqualified. The number of breath tests carried out fell from 765,000 in 1999 to 578,000 in 2004.

The reduction in the number of traffic police has been the subject of recent angry exchanges between ministers and chief constables, who make the final decision about how to deploy their resources.

Stephen Ladyman, the Road Safety Minister, has accused chief constables of ignoring a Home Office National Policing Plan, which makes roads policing a priority.

Speaking at a traffic policing conference last month, he said: “One set of chief constables have read the National Policing Plan and read the bit about priority for roads policing and others have read it and ignored that bit.”

Mr Ladyman and Vernon Coaker, the Home Office Minister, have written a joint letter to chief constables saying: “Whilst technology has enhanced capacity for the police to perform their role more efficiently and effectively, it cannot enforce all offences and cannot replace direct intervention by the police. There is a need for an active police presence on the roads.”

The Association of Chief Police Constables has responded by claiming that the Government is to blame for the decline in traffic officers because it has failed to include traffic offences in the targets by which forces are judged.

Med Hughes, head of roads policing at the ACPO and Chief Constable of South Yorkshire, said that the Government had failed to make a financial commitment to support its words on road safety.

“We have had additional money for robbery initiatives, burglary, antisocial behaviour, domestic violence, but never for road casualty reduction.”

Mr Hughes said that Home Office targets required police to devote resources to petty crime rather than catching dangerous drivers.

“We have been calling for over two years for drink-driving and driving while disqualified to be given the same status in our policing statistics as the theft of a Kit Kat from a corner shop.”

In their letter Mr Ladyman and Mr Coaker say: “We are considering how the importance [of these offences] can be adequately reflected in future performance frameworks.”

Mr Hughes said that a greater police presence would help to reduce road deaths, which had fallen only slightly since speed cameras began to appear in significant numbers in the mid1990s.

But he denied that cameras were to blame for the decline in traffic police numbers. “The fall is down to other pressures of policing, not cameras. Without those cameras we still wouldn’t have the traffic officers but we wouldn’t be enforcing the speed limit either.”

Owen Paterson, Shadow Roads Minister, said: “Speed cameras cannot detect inappropriate speed for the conditions. They can only enforce an arbitrary limit. We need human beings on the road to judge what’s dangerous and what’s not.”

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