Police pimping out advertising space on their vans

[SmoothRB]

Spotted a police van at the bus station today with the logos of a couple of housing developers on the side and saying something like "blah blah Joe Bloggs Homes & local police making your community safer blah blah".

Is it me or does this seem a little 'off'?

Should the police not be state funded only so as not to induce conflicts of interest?

Or is this the new 'entrepreneurial policing' in line with ANPR, speed cameras etc...slaping fines on everyone....it's all revenue raising right?!

[Mr_annie_vxr]

SmoothRB said:

Spotted a police van at the bus station today with the logos of a couple of housing developers on the side and saying something like "blah blah Joe Bloggs Homes & local police making your community safer blah blah".

Is it me or does this seem a little 'off'?

Should the police not be state funded only so as not to induce conflicts of interest?

Or is this the new 'entrepreneurial policing' in line with ANPR, speed cameras etc...slaping fines on everyone....it's all revenue raising right?!

I would suggest that the van may be part of an operation in relation to homes security or similar?

If it concerns you I would suggest looking up on the force website or contacting the media team who would be able to give you the actual reasoning behind it.

Not sure what conflict there could be. I'd have thought anything to reduce the drain on the tax payer in this climate would be popular?

Police get very little money back from fines. Most fines produce little 'revenue' in the grand scheme of things. My forces budget is 285,000,000 or so. Total UK 'revenue' from fines from speed cameras was about 120,000,000 or so. There are 40 odd forces in the UK.

I wish they would raise more revenue through fines. Then I could pay less tax.