Vulnerable Roads Policing Officers Need More Funding

MORE investment needs to be put into roads policing, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said, as it emerged that one in four roads policing officers had been subjected to an attack using a vehicle in the past year.

Chair Steve Kent said that there weren’t enough officers to be a deterrent and that had led to an increase in criminality on the roads. These were issues that needed to be addressed at September’s Roads Policing Conference, he added.

Steve said: “It’s a really challenging time for roads policing. I’ve been vocal with my support for them in the past, in that we just don’t have enough roads policing officers out there.

“At the minute it seems to be all hands on the pump in terms of dealing with the response function and that’s probably going to continue for a while. But we do need that continued investment in terms of roads policing just to put some more numbers back on the streets, because we very rarely see them on the motorways.

“I believe the standards of driving and the criminality on the roads has become more of a problem because that deterrent isn’t out there to deal with them. Likewise that exposes the officers who are out there, sometimes on their own, miles from colleagues. They’re the only traffic car in a certain area. If they’re stopping a car, they’re going to be in a vulnerable position and that’s going to be reflected in the assault figures going up.”

Steve said he would be closely monitoring the PFEW Roads Policing Conference, which will be held virtually on 29 September.

He said: “We’ve got a representative within our branch who’s quite senior in the roads policing world, who’ll be at the conference.

“Going forward, the emphasis needs to change, and when we’re getting our numbers back into policing we’ve got to see some investment going to roads policing, because it’s absolutely vital and we cannot allow our criminality to use potentially high-powered cars with impunity on the roads.

“We need to get that deterrent back in place. I understand our force has got things in place for the medium term which are very welcome, but we need to see that investment across the board.”