Deadly TikTok Trend Highlights Need For Roads Policing Investment

A deadly TikTok trend showing people driving on the wrong side of motorways, allegedly linked to the death of five passengers and two police officers in Cleveland last month, must lead to a total rethink of roads policing, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.

Federation Chair Steve Kent argued that many more resources needed to be put into making roads safer, pointing to the amount of lawlessness on the roads, the trauma caused to the public and roads policing officers, and the fact that 1,600 people are killed on UK roads every year.

Steve said: “We cannot ignore the lawlessness on our roads. The public see illegal behaviour on the roads on a daily basis – anybody reading this who travels on the motorway will know the standard of driving is appalling. It cannot be dealt with by fixed cameras, because people know where they are and they will just drive around them.

“There needs to be a significant rethink and investment into roads policing. We cannot be sending out small numbers of police officers to police our roads in South Yorkshire when we’ve got the M1 and the M18 and we’ve got so much crime that is being committed on the roads.

“We probably need three times the number of officers that we’ve got, and I’m not exaggerating, because one fatal incident takes them off the road for at least a day. The trauma that they face every day – they’re absolutely at the frontline.”

He continued: “The public tell us that they’re sick to death of seeing off-road bikes, they’re sick to death of seeing e-bikes, they’re sick to death of seeing antisocial behaviour on the roads, and policing isn’t doing enough to deal with it because I think priorities are elsewhere.

“It doesn’t help that we are at the behest of the likes of the HMIC, which is obsessed with statistics and bureaucracy. That, in itself, is taking officers away from doing what they need to do and using their discretion to go out and target criminals.”