POLICING FOR SAFETY

This address by the Chief Constable of Warwickshire discusses how the police can contribute to improved traffic safety. He sees enforcement of the law as basically a last resort for road safety. Ideally, if engineering were done correctly, so that roads were safely built and maintained and vehicles were built primarily for safety, and if people were educated to use vehicles safely, enforcement should be unnecessary. Energetic law enforcement will never solve any problems in the long term, unless the public can be persuaded to see the good sense in specific laws. An excellent example of success by persuasion and education is seat belt legislation, whose police enforcement now needs to be only minimal. During recent years, the police in the UK have gradually moved away from an enforcement policy, based only on punishment, towards deterrent-based policing. Although the police contribute to engineering by identifying vehicle defects and to education by supporting road safety campaigns, it is their enforcement role that is best known to the public. High visibility policing can be a good deterrent, very effective in improving driver behaviour. The campaign against drink-driving has had considerable success, though much more progress is needed. New speed detection technology, combined with unit fines, will do much to deter and reduce speeding. Finally, the author advocates an inter-agency approach to road safety. For the covering abstract see IRRD 859514.