Numbers of Trafpol on the road ?
Discussion
I guess this question is for the BiB...
I drove about 500 miles this weekend, sadly most of which was in a rented Transit van and not the trusty Swedish shed, and only saw one marked police vehicle the whole time. Either I'm going blind,(which I'm willing to accept) or the Trafpol are going the way of the Dodo. How many vehicles do police forces put on the roads at any one time ?
I drove about 500 miles this weekend, sadly most of which was in a rented Transit van and not the trusty Swedish shed, and only saw one marked police vehicle the whole time. Either I'm going blind,(which I'm willing to accept) or the Trafpol are going the way of the Dodo. How many vehicles do police forces put on the roads at any one time ?
I think that the answer is...not many.
Certainly speaking for our 'Force'.....Motorway Policing is no longer a priority.
We used to have 2 dedicated cars for our relatively small bit of the M1 and now in the space of 3 yrs its gone down to 1 car..which also covers quite a few sq miles of non Motorway area as well.
I drove to the Lakes last week then across to Newcastle and back down to London and didnt see one Trafpol car........personally i think thats very sad for us all.
Certainly speaking for our 'Force'.....Motorway Policing is no longer a priority.
We used to have 2 dedicated cars for our relatively small bit of the M1 and now in the space of 3 yrs its gone down to 1 car..which also covers quite a few sq miles of non Motorway area as well.
I drove to the Lakes last week then across to Newcastle and back down to London and didnt see one Trafpol car........personally i think thats very sad for us all.
The government want the absolute minimum number of Trafpol on the roads, this is very obvious because of the falling numbers and the fact that some Forces had renamed the Trafpol dept to the roads policing unit...and in some cases the unit has gone altogether..swallowed up as they say!
which is why incidents like this
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=10&t=55242
are becoming commonplace
www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=10&t=55242
are becoming commonplace
tonyrec said:
The government want the absolute minimum number of Trafpol on the roads, this is very obvious because of the falling numbers and the fact that some Forces had renamed the Trafpol dept to the roads policing unit...and in some cases the unit has gone altogether..swallowed up as they say!
Does this not put a serious dent in the response time to incidents?
Mr E said:
The government want the absolute minimum number of Trafpol on the roads, this is very obvious because of the falling numbers and the fact that some Forces had renamed the Trafpol dept to the roads policing unit...and in some cases the unit has gone altogether..swallowed up as they say!
Does this not put a serious dent in the response time to incidents?
No it doesnt because most of the time when we are reacting to calls,the Local divisional Police are already on route and often get there before us within the charter times.
tonyrec said:
tonyrec said:
The government want the absolute minimum number of Trafpol on the roads, this is very obvious because of the falling numbers and the fact that some Forces had renamed the Trafpol dept to the roads policing unit...and in some cases the unit has gone altogether..swallowed up as they say!
Does this not put a serious dent in the response time to incidents?
No it doesnt because most of the time when we are reacting to calls,the Local divisional Police are already on route and often get there before us within the charter times.
In our largely rural county the Roads Policing Unit was long since renamed to Operational Response Unit, ie attend everything. One double crewed unit is expected to cover a major town and all the surrounding rural area. 3 cars/shift on full manning.
Cars mainly get called into the city leaving elsewhere with fairly thin cover on the ground.
Real traffic ossifers are an increasingly rare breed now. Giving all respect due to everyone on here and elsewhere.
Sorry, apologies for sounding so down in the dumps about it but thats the facts I'm afraid.
I haven't seen a trafpol car *at all* for the last couple of weeks. I do a fair portion of my driving around towns (Bedford, Kempston, MK etc), but haven't seen a plod on the road in a good while. Shame really - in that same time, I've been cut up a few times, had people pull out on me a couple of times, forcing me to do an emergency stop on a roundabout, seen two or three blatantly drunk/stoned people driving (wobbling about in the lane...drift into right lane - sudden correction, speed wavering etc).
All instances the camers won't catch, but a plod in a car will.
All instances the camers won't catch, but a plod in a car will.
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