Road safety charity Brake has warned that continued severe cuts to roads policing will lead to "more drivers thinking they can get away with life-threatening illegal behaviour".

The charity looked at data from 43 forces across the UK and found that the number of traffic police went down 11.6 per cent in five years, more than six times the amount that overall police numbers went down during the same period.

Chairman of the Police Federation's Roads Policing Group Alan Jones said: "I am not surprised at the findings announced in this report, policing the roads should be a priority for government and Chief Constables: this is nothing less than the public expect.

"We all know the consequences of drivers who fail to heed the rules of the road or drive with complete disregard for others. The cost of cutting back far outweighs the benefits of investing in protecting a key front line service."

Road traffic policing has been in constant decline from as many as 7,525 dedicated officers in 1999 to Brake's calculation of 3,485 last year, arguably leading to the increasing annual cost of road casualties which stood at £32 billion in 2011 due to the impact on fire and other emergency services.

ACPO recently released the results of its Christmas breath-testing campaign which showed the reduction in officer numbers forced by cuts led to fewerpeopel  tested over the holiday period despite a recent Brake and Direct Line survey reporting that 53% of drivers think there is less than a one in four chance of being caught if you drink drive.

For more information visit www.brake.org.uk 

Post uploaded 25/01/2012 by richard.hook@pavpub.com