Traffic Police given monthly targets
Discussion
Anyone else seen this - from today's Sunday Times. Fair makes my blood boil. Reminds me of a quote from somewhere, which goes something like 'If you can't fix the problem then change what you're measuring'
Here's the link to the article.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-676346,00.html
May 11, 2003
Traffic police given monthly fine targets
Tom Robbins
POLICE officers are being set quotas for the number of motorists they fine each month for offences such as speeding and not wearing a seatbelt. The scheme, introduced by Thames Valley police, requires each team of 5-10 traffic officers to work to the sort of targets associated with insurance salesmen.
Each month they are expected to “take three prisoners” (make three arrests), issue 10 fixed-penalty notices for speeding and fine 10 people for not wearing seatbelts. In addition, they must book three motorists for numberplate offences and fine 10 people for offences such as riding a motorbike without a helmet, overloading a vehicle or failing to stop at a red light.
The strategy, introduced over the past 18 months, has drawn criticism from beat officers and crime experts, who claim it could lead to motorists being punished for offences that might have been dealt with by a verbal warning.
“If somebody hasn’t achieved what they need to for the month, by the end of it they will be scratching around booking anything that moves because they feel under pressure to do so,” said one serving Thames Valley officer.
“Often a word of advice would have been all that was necessary, but now an officer thinks ‘If I book them, it will help me with my allocation’. If the targets aren’t met, the sergeant would be hauled over the coals and asked why not.”
News of the quotas comes as David Blunkett, the home secretary, prepares to target the most serious motoring offenders, such as drink-drivers and joyriders who kill, in tough measures to cut the number of road deaths in Britain.
This week Blunkett will announce a new 14-year maximum sentence for those causing death by dangerous driving. Some motorists who kill through drink, drugs or carelessness could serve sentences on a par with murderers.
Thames Valley’s system to crack down on more minor offenders is also designed to cut casualties on the road, but will be seen as an extreme result of the growing police focus on meeting statistical targets.
Last week Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, attacked the over-emphasis on statistical yardsticks, saying they were leading to an “easy case syndrome”. He said motorists and other “essentially honest citizens” were being targeted to boost numbers while tougher cases were ignored.
“This (the Thames Valley action) is a classic case of the phenomenon to which I was drawing attention,” he said last night. “Come the end of the month, the target gives a ludicrous incentive to the police to divert attention from what may be enormously serious crimes and spend their time chasing people doing 10mph over the speed limit.”
The number of motorists given fixed-penalty notices for speeding in the Thames Valley area has risen from 62,827 in 1998 to 154,524 in 2001.
“I used to think as a young PC that driving without a seatbelt was a bit of a trivial offence, but in terms of contributing to serious injuries it’s a massive factor,” said Paul West, the force’s deputy chief constable, who insisted all arrests would be justified.
Here's the link to the article.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-676346,00.html
May 11, 2003
Traffic police given monthly fine targets
Tom Robbins
POLICE officers are being set quotas for the number of motorists they fine each month for offences such as speeding and not wearing a seatbelt. The scheme, introduced by Thames Valley police, requires each team of 5-10 traffic officers to work to the sort of targets associated with insurance salesmen.
Each month they are expected to “take three prisoners” (make three arrests), issue 10 fixed-penalty notices for speeding and fine 10 people for not wearing seatbelts. In addition, they must book three motorists for numberplate offences and fine 10 people for offences such as riding a motorbike without a helmet, overloading a vehicle or failing to stop at a red light.
The strategy, introduced over the past 18 months, has drawn criticism from beat officers and crime experts, who claim it could lead to motorists being punished for offences that might have been dealt with by a verbal warning.
“If somebody hasn’t achieved what they need to for the month, by the end of it they will be scratching around booking anything that moves because they feel under pressure to do so,” said one serving Thames Valley officer.
“Often a word of advice would have been all that was necessary, but now an officer thinks ‘If I book them, it will help me with my allocation’. If the targets aren’t met, the sergeant would be hauled over the coals and asked why not.”
News of the quotas comes as David Blunkett, the home secretary, prepares to target the most serious motoring offenders, such as drink-drivers and joyriders who kill, in tough measures to cut the number of road deaths in Britain.
This week Blunkett will announce a new 14-year maximum sentence for those causing death by dangerous driving. Some motorists who kill through drink, drugs or carelessness could serve sentences on a par with murderers.
Thames Valley’s system to crack down on more minor offenders is also designed to cut casualties on the road, but will be seen as an extreme result of the growing police focus on meeting statistical targets.
Last week Oliver Letwin, the shadow home secretary, attacked the over-emphasis on statistical yardsticks, saying they were leading to an “easy case syndrome”. He said motorists and other “essentially honest citizens” were being targeted to boost numbers while tougher cases were ignored.
“This (the Thames Valley action) is a classic case of the phenomenon to which I was drawing attention,” he said last night. “Come the end of the month, the target gives a ludicrous incentive to the police to divert attention from what may be enormously serious crimes and spend their time chasing people doing 10mph over the speed limit.”
The number of motorists given fixed-penalty notices for speeding in the Thames Valley area has risen from 62,827 in 1998 to 154,524 in 2001.
“I used to think as a young PC that driving without a seatbelt was a bit of a trivial offence, but in terms of contributing to serious injuries it’s a massive factor,” said Paul West, the force’s deputy chief constable, who insisted all arrests would be justified.
And how many burgalars / rapists / shop lifters etc are on their quota's...
Sorry madcop etc but any shred of respect i had for the police left long ago (in fact when i was forced to move house by repeated burgalies oh yeah and then the incident of being hit on the back of the head with an iron bar and the police taking 3 hours to turn up) that and trying to charge me with driving without due care and attention after being driven into by a taxi who was on the wrong side of the rode.
Sorry madcop etc but any shred of respect i had for the police left long ago (in fact when i was forced to move house by repeated burgalies oh yeah and then the incident of being hit on the back of the head with an iron bar and the police taking 3 hours to turn up) that and trying to charge me with driving without due care and attention after being driven into by a taxi who was on the wrong side of the rode.
I have a lot of respect for individual officers,including the ones on PH. I have a mate in the (youll love this) the riot squad....
He's on most nights and sees it all and has to deal with it all.
I do not envy him, but i do respect the guy.
What i dont respect is the police force as a whole...this is where the line gets blurred, for me at any rate.
The stupid pukeball whos' given "his" officers these targets is doing just what the real criminals want: hes eroding public confidence, sympathy, respect support and co-operation.
Is that what the w*nker really wants? all to meet a few asshole "targets" so as he can retire with a smug "ive just pumped the neighbour's dog" look on his face?
Cos from where im standing thats just whats gonna happen.
Heres a wake up call for the dildo who thought of this prick brained idea: Once you lose public support, then you lose the public. Clear enuff?
WAKE UP!!!
>> Edited by deltaf on Sunday 11th May 23:17
He's on most nights and sees it all and has to deal with it all.
I do not envy him, but i do respect the guy.
What i dont respect is the police force as a whole...this is where the line gets blurred, for me at any rate.
The stupid pukeball whos' given "his" officers these targets is doing just what the real criminals want: hes eroding public confidence, sympathy, respect support and co-operation.
Is that what the w*nker really wants? all to meet a few asshole "targets" so as he can retire with a smug "ive just pumped the neighbour's dog" look on his face?
Cos from where im standing thats just whats gonna happen.
Heres a wake up call for the dildo who thought of this prick brained idea: Once you lose public support, then you lose the public. Clear enuff?
WAKE UP!!!
>> Edited by deltaf on Sunday 11th May 23:17
This has been happening for years, not in just Public Services such as the Police, but ever since Labour Govt got to power in all Public Services and Govt Departments. Value for money they seek. The only way they can assure this to anyone who happens to ask, including their auditors is to have a collective league table within the various services. How else can they assess the effectiveness of the Police/Teachers/Nurses/Doctors/Customs/
CSA/Inland Revenue (I will leave the Fire Service out of this 
)?
The main aim of Policing is to Prevent and detect crime The Govt have not yet found a method of calculating and assessing how effectively the Police prevent criminal activity because it is impossible to measure.
So, they can use a big stick to those that serve within specialist Departments in the Police Service to assure that to keep your place within that specialist unit, you must show that you are working to a high level of competence within that role. The stick method is that if you do not achieve your monthly quota, then you are considered to be a lazy ba5tard and two or three months running could see you looking at alternative employment within the service. Not only that but within the last 2 years, the discipline regulations have been altered so that the Chief Officer can dismiss for poor performance.
I have not been on the Traffic Divisiion for over 8 years now but just before I left there was a sudden policy change from a thrust to deal with all accidents within the divisional area and assist with Road Safety measures (including enforcement where it was deemed to be necessary) to a FPT quota per officer. The Traffic Inspector started to require monthly lists of individual officers FPT records from the FPT office and league tables started to appear as a result. No officer wanted to appear to be lacking in ability with the next guy on the team.
The consequences for this were that previously a warning about a specific offence or bad driving which was recorded in the officers note book and was accpted as evidence of the officer working, no longer was evidence that the officer was doing his job. Warnings were not measurable currency for the Police officer because they did not show a positive result.
The net result is that any person seen committing a minor offence is fair game to the Traffic Officer to keep up his monthly figures. If a motorist is unfortunate enough to commit an offence in the sight of the officer and the issue of a FPT keeps him in a job, then the offending driver will receive the ticket regardless of the excuse or reason given.
The most depressing aspect of all this is that the quality of arrests and process are not measured at all. Figures are the most important and therefore the quantity which is measurable and impressive to those in Govt when they get them. Not only are the quantity important in showing the Govt that the Police are working for the public purse they receive, but the knock on effect that increased paperwork, particularly in relation to arrests that has been a hallmark of this Govt. Because of the huge amount of time required to process an arrest and the resulting paperwork, the ability of the individual officer to be on patrol and reduce immeasurable factors such as preventing crime has been lost
Detections for crime are all important. The new national recording system for crime has included all manner of offences such as minor Public Order offences as criminal acts. A warning for a Section 5 Public Order offence (disorderly conduct) has to be recorded as a crime and a detection even if the offender is not arrested. Domestic disputes where the Police are called, regardless of the severity of the circumstances are recorded as crimes and detections. Most calls to the Police that come through central call centres are now automatically allocated crime complaint numbers which have to be investigated by responding officers and the crime status downgraded on attendance if the incident is not in fact a crime.
So you can see that the reason for the quota system is to furnish the Govt, and ultimately the public that is served with the knowledge that the Police are actually out there nicking people. The sad fact is that the Govt don't really give a toss who those people are as long as the figures keep rolling in so they can use them as propaganda to pull the wool over everyones eyes if awkward questions are asked by people at election times.
Some of the above is a bit simplistic but the basis of it is what is actually happening. There are big thrusts to target specific offences such as Street crime/Robbery which the Govt has decided is bad for its reputation, and in many forces, Traffic Officers have been allocated to dealing with these intiatives to help reduce the problem. This creates another problem in that the resources are finite and whilst concentrated patrols to deal with specific intiatives are occuring, gaping holes occur in other equally important (but not politically motivated) areas.
Ask a teacher or a Nurse about their quotas, I expect you will be horrified by the answers you receive!
One thing you can be certain of though when you see a Traffic Officer is that you will be getting value for your money out of him/her as long as he/she remains a Traffic officer
CSA/Inland Revenue (I will leave the Fire Service out of this )? The main aim of Policing is to Prevent and detect crime The Govt have not yet found a method of calculating and assessing how effectively the Police prevent criminal activity because it is impossible to measure.
So, they can use a big stick to those that serve within specialist Departments in the Police Service to assure that to keep your place within that specialist unit, you must show that you are working to a high level of competence within that role. The stick method is that if you do not achieve your monthly quota, then you are considered to be a lazy ba5tard and two or three months running could see you looking at alternative employment within the service. Not only that but within the last 2 years, the discipline regulations have been altered so that the Chief Officer can dismiss for poor performance.
I have not been on the Traffic Divisiion for over 8 years now but just before I left there was a sudden policy change from a thrust to deal with all accidents within the divisional area and assist with Road Safety measures (including enforcement where it was deemed to be necessary) to a FPT quota per officer. The Traffic Inspector started to require monthly lists of individual officers FPT records from the FPT office and league tables started to appear as a result. No officer wanted to appear to be lacking in ability with the next guy on the team.
The consequences for this were that previously a warning about a specific offence or bad driving which was recorded in the officers note book and was accpted as evidence of the officer working, no longer was evidence that the officer was doing his job. Warnings were not measurable currency for the Police officer because they did not show a positive result.
The net result is that any person seen committing a minor offence is fair game to the Traffic Officer to keep up his monthly figures. If a motorist is unfortunate enough to commit an offence in the sight of the officer and the issue of a FPT keeps him in a job, then the offending driver will receive the ticket regardless of the excuse or reason given.
The most depressing aspect of all this is that the quality of arrests and process are not measured at all. Figures are the most important and therefore the quantity which is measurable and impressive to those in Govt when they get them. Not only are the quantity important in showing the Govt that the Police are working for the public purse they receive, but the knock on effect that increased paperwork, particularly in relation to arrests that has been a hallmark of this Govt. Because of the huge amount of time required to process an arrest and the resulting paperwork, the ability of the individual officer to be on patrol and reduce immeasurable factors such as preventing crime has been lost
Detections for crime are all important. The new national recording system for crime has included all manner of offences such as minor Public Order offences as criminal acts. A warning for a Section 5 Public Order offence (disorderly conduct) has to be recorded as a crime and a detection even if the offender is not arrested. Domestic disputes where the Police are called, regardless of the severity of the circumstances are recorded as crimes and detections. Most calls to the Police that come through central call centres are now automatically allocated crime complaint numbers which have to be investigated by responding officers and the crime status downgraded on attendance if the incident is not in fact a crime.
So you can see that the reason for the quota system is to furnish the Govt, and ultimately the public that is served with the knowledge that the Police are actually out there nicking people. The sad fact is that the Govt don't really give a toss who those people are as long as the figures keep rolling in so they can use them as propaganda to pull the wool over everyones eyes if awkward questions are asked by people at election times.
Some of the above is a bit simplistic but the basis of it is what is actually happening. There are big thrusts to target specific offences such as Street crime/Robbery which the Govt has decided is bad for its reputation, and in many forces, Traffic Officers have been allocated to dealing with these intiatives to help reduce the problem. This creates another problem in that the resources are finite and whilst concentrated patrols to deal with specific intiatives are occuring, gaping holes occur in other equally important (but not politically motivated) areas.
Ask a teacher or a Nurse about their quotas, I expect you will be horrified by the answers you receive!
One thing you can be certain of though when you see a Traffic Officer is that you will be getting value for your money out of him/her as long as he/she remains a Traffic officer
dontlift said: And how many burgalars / rapists / shop lifters etc are on their quota's...
They are on the quotas, but are difficult to catch and need a lot of resources to do so. Motorists are in abundance and are easy meat!
Sorry madcop etc but any shred of respect i had for the police left long ago....
You don't have to apologise for an opinion either. I lost all shred of respect for some services and occupations myself many years ago and not just Public Services either!
Madcop I think hit it on the head in his reply below. This government is statistics mad. And the problem is all this quality of life stuff they want to improve is impossible to measure. So, their answer is to find something you can measure and concentrate on fixing that. If you say accidents are caused by speed then you can stop speeders and say you are attacking the problem. Speed, nice easy black and white item to measure. The problem is that you embed fixing the statistics in peoples' jobs and then all the effort goes on fixing the stats.
There was another beauty in the Sunday Times about A&E waiting lists. There was a big push to measure how long people were kept waiting at A&E and most hospitals passed the required level (90% inside 4 hours IIRC). How did they pass? Turns out they drafted in everybody they could lay their hands on for the weekend they were being measured. For that weekend they had significantly more staff than usual in A&E.
But this government and other similar bodies are now too far up their own a^$e to realise that they're never going to improve things this way.
If anyone wants to read more on this a very good book is "The Tyranny of Numbers" - it goes into how statistics are taking over the world and not actually improving anything.
There was another beauty in the Sunday Times about A&E waiting lists. There was a big push to measure how long people were kept waiting at A&E and most hospitals passed the required level (90% inside 4 hours IIRC). How did they pass? Turns out they drafted in everybody they could lay their hands on for the weekend they were being measured. For that weekend they had significantly more staff than usual in A&E.
But this government and other similar bodies are now too far up their own a^$e to realise that they're never going to improve things this way.
If anyone wants to read more on this a very good book is "The Tyranny of Numbers" - it goes into how statistics are taking over the world and not actually improving anything.
Just to add my two penneth re stats
BTW Madcop - full report! Well done.
The Gov has now introduced the Police Professional Standards Unit. They will inspect a Force and potentially (its said) may after initail encouragement move in to "ASSIST" with the running if they are not hitting "tagets".
Yes frightening - bit like schools
The independence of your Police is being erroded. Blunket now has the power to remove Chiefs. (I see ammerica on the horizon)(Vote Tony)
Force league tables are produced and stats are, measured on spidergrams (chart with e central point and five axis stretching out from that centre) Hwo the Force deals with the 5 tragets is then plotted and a line drawn round from each point (looks like a web)
The average Force's chart is then placed over and the Govt can then see if you are underperforming.
Easy for them!
ITMT I ll just keep doing my job and try and deal with crime (but there are some arse drivers out there to who need a jolt.)
Keep smiling - Its a great world if you dont weaken
BTW Madcop - full report! Well done.
The Gov has now introduced the Police Professional Standards Unit. They will inspect a Force and potentially (its said) may after initail encouragement move in to "ASSIST" with the running if they are not hitting "tagets".
Yes frightening - bit like schools
The independence of your Police is being erroded. Blunket now has the power to remove Chiefs. (I see ammerica on the horizon)(Vote Tony
) Force league tables are produced and stats are, measured on spidergrams (chart with e central point and five axis stretching out from that centre) Hwo the Force deals with the 5 tragets is then plotted and a line drawn round from each point (looks like a web)
The average Force's chart is then placed over and the Govt can then see if you are underperforming.
Easy for them!
ITMT I ll just keep doing my job and try and deal with crime (but there are some arse drivers out there to who need a jolt.)
Keep smiling - Its a great world if you dont weaken
In the final analysis it is up to senior policemen to provide some LEADERSHIP. If they are being forced by scumbag politicians to provide, and manage to, meaningless statistics they should get together and collectively rebel. They should also ensure that the communities they serve are informed of the difficulties that are being created for them and their force(s).
Of course that might mean that they don't figure on any future Honours Lists or get appointed to lucrative Quango jobs when they retire!
Of course that might mean that they don't figure on any future Honours Lists or get appointed to lucrative Quango jobs when they retire!
Its no good dumping responsibility and hate on the police. It's the 
ing government.
You can't expect the Police to rebel, if you aren't.
See how many people are ready to start a revolution to overthrow the goverment??? I'd gamble on not many. How do you expect lead officers to do what millions of others aren't prepared to do? If they did, they'd lose their jobs, and there are plenty of others who would LOVE to take their place.
Blame our fantastic government. Thick dicks that they are.
ing government. You can't expect the Police to rebel, if you aren't.
See how many people are ready to start a revolution to overthrow the goverment??? I'd gamble on not many. How do you expect lead officers to do what millions of others aren't prepared to do? If they did, they'd lose their jobs, and there are plenty of others who would LOVE to take their place.
Blame our fantastic government. Thick dicks that they are.
I think as madcop's comment was very good...
I think the problem is with the statasticians... and the complete stupidity of the system... And a secondary problem is the people that then advocate the system as being acceptable...
An example of another stupid system... a well known electrical distributor has a call centre... they target to answer 90% of there calls within 3mins by a qualified assistant... the avarage that the call centre achieves is about 65%... 70% is considered to be excellent... My friend managed to answer 96% of all calls within the 3min limit and he was given loads of bonus... untill they figured out how he did it, He had reprogrammed the system to give prority to all incomming calls under 3min... and any calls over 3 min got transfered to a dead circuit... i.e. they waited for hours... After 3 min there is no penalty for not answering the phone.... Anyway instead of being sacked he was promoted...
All this talk of quotas and targets to meet raises the question Where does public opinion and satisfaction come into all this.
I would think a good barometer of how a force is doing would be the opinion of the community that the force serves.
Although to say the Police 'serve' the public anymore is a bit far fetched.
I would think a good barometer of how a force is doing would be the opinion of the community that the force serves.
Although to say the Police 'serve' the public anymore is a bit far fetched.
While we have politicians who are more concerned with re-election to the gravy train than any form of public service, this will only get worse.
As Madcop says, all areas of public service are fair game for the 'spin the stats' boys, an art teacher friend of ours was telling us this weekend how she no longer teaches kids to do art, she teaches them to pass their art GCSE. She has no time to allow them any form of expression, she receives her instructions and thats that. She teaches them what someone in government has decided they must know, not what she as a teacher decides would be beneficial to them.
And all so that the schools league table result is that bit better, sod the kids.
As Madcop says, all areas of public service are fair game for the 'spin the stats' boys, an art teacher friend of ours was telling us this weekend how she no longer teaches kids to do art, she teaches them to pass their art GCSE. She has no time to allow them any form of expression, she receives her instructions and thats that. She teaches them what someone in government has decided they must know, not what she as a teacher decides would be beneficial to them.
And all so that the schools league table result is that bit better, sod the kids.
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