Police driver standards falling

Police Federation calls for black boxes in cop cars

By PH Staff / Friday, 13 May 2005 / Loading comments

Cop cars to get black boxes within a year?

The Police Federation today revealed what road safety campaign Safe Speed described as "further damning evidence of the decline in police driver training standards".

It followed the Federation's call for black boxes to be installed in police cars over the next year. Police Federation Chairman Jan Berry said, “The consequences of sending out police drivers on pursuits when they have not been given the proper training and equipment to do so safely are incredibly serious. A car becomes a weapon when it is put into the hands of someone who has not been given the skills and ability they need.

“At the moment it is the officers involved in fatal collisions, not the managers responsible for failing to equip them with the right tools, that are being held to account. The introduction of mandatory black boxes would increase confidence in officers and the public, and would be vital in reducing the number of inappropriate and malicious claims against officers."

The Federation found that the quality and quantity of training given to police drivers varied hugely across the country. A standard course in driver training can vary from 13 days to five weeks, while advanced drivers get from 19 days training to five weeks' training. However, the most frequently mentioned length of course for basic driver training is just one day.

Campaign founder Paul Smith said, "The importance of the police driver training programme to overall UK road safety is being dangerously underestimated. The best practice advice from the police driver training programme was one of the golden factors that gave us in the UK the safest roads in the world."

"We have exported our police driver training expertise to well over 100 other countries - it's no coincidence that the country with the best police driver training also earned the safest roads in the world. The skills pool has been eroded and dispersed and it will take many years to get back to where we ought to be."