Thursday 30th June 2005

Flak for Brunstrom over points scheme

Welsh traffic police awarded points for arrests

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Phones mean points

North Wales police chief Richard Brunstrom is in the headlines again. He was has just launched a scheme that the Association of British Drivers (ABD) said would turn traffic police officers into 'bounty hunters' against motorists.

Brunstrom's traffic officers are now awarded points according to the number of motorists they nab, and the severity of the offence. Officers have a monthly points target of 200 which they can accumulate by arresting people. They get 25 points for catching drink-drivers and five for a speeding motorist, for example. Other offences that attract 'nab-miles' are dangerous driving, using a mobile telephones while driving, and failure to wear a seatbelt.

Brunstrom reckoned that the scheme was a fair way of monitoring individual police officers' performance. But a motoring lobby group said the chief constable should be "ashamed of himself''.

ABD spokesman Tony Vickers said, "It is outrageous to impose quotas on police officers to nab a certain number of drivers for road offences. Mr Brunstrom is turning his traffic police into bounty hunters. The offer of incentives to find fault with drivers will lead to trivial prosecutions and waste money and resources. A sensible officer who would normally issue a verbal warning for a minor incident will now be compelled to prosecute to earn Brownie points.''

The local MP came out against the scheme too. Elfwyn Llwyd, Plaid Cymru MP for Conwy, said, "All the common sense and discretion successfully used by officers is going to go out of the window.''

Even the Police Federation condemned the scheme. A spokesman told the BBC, "We think it's a ludicrous way to run operational policing. What the general public want more than anything else is a good quality service. A good, local community bobby may spend eight hours in his village and that individual officer would be judged unsatisfactory under this criteria."

Another MP, Mark Tami for Alyn and Deeside, weighed into the debate, saying that that if targets were to be introduced they should be applied to community beat patrols instead.

A spokesman for North Wales Police said, "The objectives include casualty reduction, engaging criminality on the road, driving while using mobile phones, dangerous driving, failure to wear seatbelts, etc. However, the performance indicators will also be used to ensure that each officer is performing satisfactorily.

''It is not a league table and the standard that is expected should be easily achieved by officers. Performance will be measured on officers' productivity and they will not receive any bonus for exceeding the required standard.''

The scheme will run as a six-month trial from tomorrow and follows the instatement of a similar project by Thames Valley Police earlier this year.

[Mr Freefall]

What a dickhead... Nuff said

[docevi1]

Um, least the points tallying is correct - 25pts for catching a drink-driver & 5 for a speeder. Might not like the points idea, but least they are putting focus where it is needed the most.

[milfordkong]

This is absolutely insane, how can it be allowed??

[sjp63]

Police state, thats what the boy Tony wants and some dickheads voted for the prat

[Fat Audi 80]

What can I add that hasn't already been said. The bloke is a first class A$$hole.

[timmy30]

So why a target of 200 per month..... what does Mr Bumstorm expect his officers to do? Make up offenses if they only see motorists who are obeying the law?

[Apache]

Remember he admitted recently that he felt scameras didn't work? I think he's trying to get himself booted out amid a blaze of publicity

[willmark]

Anything they can do we can do better....

5 points for destruction of Gatso

50 points for destruction of roadside shrubbery
(the one with plod armed with a lazer gun hiding in it)

100 points for sucessful deployment of explosive device underneath an arrive alive van 5000 more for filming it and being on TV

1000 poimts for the person who invents alazer detector that not only jams the beam but also sends one back (episode 7 revenge of the motorist)

zillions of points to anyone or thing that removes Brunstrum from the planet on a permanent basis

come on guys there must be someone out there who knows where he lives etc just send the boys round

off to find a Gatso got my quota to fill....or a shrubbery....

[targarama]

Maybe some of the BiB can comment on how the scheme is doing in the Thames Valley Police area since it has been in place for a few months now?

Certainly, driving around the Thames Valley I've not noticed any change in the Policing since January.

[oppressed mass]

Brunstrom........



Words fail me (for once)

[Gruffy]

Gruffy

[JonRB]

willmark said:

zillions of points to anyone or thing that removes Brunstrum from the planet on a permanent basis come on guys there must be someone out there who knows where he lives etc just send the boys round

Careful. You know what happened last time someone made similarly light-hearted comments like this.

[BIG COL]

FFS Get a bloody life......What a ttty post, or are you just related to Brunstrum

JonRB said:

willmark said: zillions of points to anyone or thing that removes Brunstrum from the planet on a permanent basis come on guys there must be someone out there who knows where he lives etc just send the boys round Careful. You know what happened last time someone made similarly light-hearted comments like this.

[CTE]

I`ve just read on another gassing topic, that road casualties are up 18% in Brunstrums area! How is awarding his officrs points for targeting motorists going to help? Drivers will spend even more time looking anywhere but where they are going, trying to avoid being clobbered for minor infringemnts.This policy will probably further increase the accident rate. I am also sure plod have got much better things to do with their time.
Police state. We communicate too much these days. At some point there will be rebellion, and I know who`s head will be first on the block!

[BIG COL]

FFS Get a bloody life......What a ttty post, or are you just related to Brunstrum.

JonRB said:

willmark said: zillions of points to anyone or thing that removes Brunstrum from the planet on a permanent basis come on guys there must be someone out there who knows where he lives etc just send the boys round Careful. You know what happened last time someone made similarly light-hearted comments like this.

[JonRB]

BIG COL said:

FFS Get a bloody life......What a ttty post, or are you just related to Brunstrum.

You've been a member for 26 months and yet you don't remember the flak Ted got for the alleged "death threats" (as reported in the National Press) over Mary Williams of BRAKE?

[jig]

If he had any understanding of how to run a police force properly then he'd be able to manage "under-performing" officers whilst trusting the good 'uns to use their discretion and carry out their jobs properly without introducing ridiculous schemes like this.

Who promotes these fools in the first place?

[cdp]

Why aren't they just honest about it and put police officers on commision basis instead of wages?

Then let war commence....

[bunglist]

This sheep shagging copper scum needs to be sacked.

[Andrew D]

Brunstrom, what a retard! I can't believe that someone with such an apparently loose grip on reality survived childhood, let alone became a Chief Constable.

It's like saying to the till guy at a petrol station "Sorry, only three people came in and bought fuel this morning, and the target was 12, so it's your fault and you won't be getting paid the full amount"!

I'm not sure the traffic fuzz have been slacking off either; I don't think the guy with a radar gun (covering the only non-camera-covered route through the middle of Sale I might add) I saw at 8:00am yesturday was slow-timing his shift.

I think this guy must have some kind of compex that compells him to persecute motorists (sorry, that's actually totally obvious, but I can't be bothered deleting it now). Why else would he endanger his career and make himself look like a total a*se on the national stage to such a degree and so often?