The suspicion speed cameras are used as much as a means of raising cash as they are safety has always been there. The official line and those who defend them have always maintained it's about the latter. But Bedfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner
Olly Martins
would appear to have broken rank and is openly appealing to use the county's speed cameras - specifically those on the
'smart' section of M1
- to raise as much as £1m a year to plug the hole left by government cuts to police spending.
Speaking in front of the Home Affairs Committee on Tuesday and repeated in an interview earlier today on Radio 4's Today programme, Martins suggested setting the M1 cameras to a 'zero tolerance' 70mph limit at all times - not just when temporary limits are in place - could bridge a spending gap for the force. "Strict enforcement of the speed limit could raise £1m and to me that's better than losing 25 more police officers," he's reported as saying in a story on the BBC, a line repeated in this morning's interview on Today. "I'm being faced with some really quite unpalatable choices and it's a choice between this or reducing the size of the police force I'm responsible for," he told John Humphrys.
Does he mean it though? Elected to the role of Police and Crime Commissioner in 2012 as a Labour candidate, Martins was suspended from the party in August 2014 following disciplinary action related to the death of Leon Briggs in police custody. It's safe to say he remains opposed to the Conservative government's police funding policy though and, as such, his statements could be viewed as a - successful - method of playing politics and attracting publicity to his campaign for additional funding for the Bedfordshire force. Arguably a dangerous game and his line in the Today interview that the only people with anything to fear are those breaking the 70mph limit in Bedfordshire won't inspire confidence it's purely a scare tactic intended to raise awareness for his campaign.