In a new report, Green Party London Assembly member Jenny Jones highlights the link between the decline in traffic police enforcement in London and the growth in the numbers of illegal drivers, and argues that the Metropolitan Police is failing to treat road crime with the seriousness it deserves.
More people die on London’s roads than are murdered in London. Yet several times more resources are devoted to murder investigations than to road death investigations. The lack of priority given to road crime is demonstrated by the current reluctance of the police to prosecute drivers who injure cyclists or pedestrians, in the absence of independent witnesses. Such a dismissive approach is not adopted towards the victims of car theft, burglary, assault and other crimes.
Overall, London has more than doubled the amount spent on road safety since 2000, and as a result casualties have reduced faster than in any other urban centre in Britain. Road safety is a partnership of engineering, education and enforcement. In London millions of pounds have been invested in engineering measures, such as speed cushions, Pelican Crossings and 20mph zones. A lot of money has begun to be spent on education and London now runs the biggest speed awareness course in the country. The only area which has not gained extra resources is enforcement.
An increase of 8,000 in the total number of police officers in London over the last six years has provided the Met Police with ample opportunity to make road safety a priority. But between 1980 and 2001, numbers of traffic police in London were slashed from 1063 to 646, before stabilising at around 690, partly due to external pressure and additional money from Transport for London. Partly as a result of this decline, more than three times the number of individuals were found guilty in court of traffic offences in London in 1984 (230,882) than in 2004 (71,661). The long term cuts in the number of traffic police in London has also allowed a culture to develop where some drivers believe that they are beyond the law. ‘Hit-and-run’ collisions accounted for 6.5% of all collisions in London in 1985 but by 2004 this figure had risen to 15.2%; around eighty people a week are now injured in such incidents.
There have been some improvements in policing practice: the introduction by the Met Police of Automatic Number Plate Recognition to target illegal drivers has been a huge step forward. The success of these police operations is astounding – Met Police officers using ANPR have an arrest rate seven times higher than borough officers, as they not only catch uninsured and unregistered drivers, but also vehicles with guns, knives and drugs. Yet, for every car the police stop using ANPR, there are several more which they know are illegal which they have to let drive by for lack of resources. And despite being a cost effective form of targeted policing, the use of ANPR is still very limited in London and must be increased if it is to make a major impact upon the numbers of illegal drivers.
So what can be done to improve matters further? Road traffic crimes are as criminal as other crimes, and the enforcement of traffic laws should be resourced by the police as an important and mainstream part of their work. For a start, the Metropolitan Police should double the size of its Automatic Number Plate Recognition operations in London, with the aim of year-on-year reductions in the number of uninsured and illegal drivers. Working in partnership with others, the Met should also make it an immediate priority to reduce the number of uninsured drivers to below the national average in all areas of London. Furthermore, the number of traffic police officers on the core establishment of the Met Police should be raised by 100 to improve policing of traffic offences not covered by electronic enforcement. Improvements should include all year round breath testing and action against illegal mobile phone use whilst driving.
London now has one of the safest road networks of any European city, but whilst I am proud of the fact that London’s road are a lot safer than they used to be this is of no interest to someone who has just lost their child or dearest friend in a road accident. Clearly we owe it to them as much as anyone else to ensure that road crime is enforced with the seriousness that it deserves, allowing the number of deaths and injuries to fall further.
•Jenny Jones is a London Assembly appointee on the Metropolitan Police Authority, and has spent over five years as the London Mayor’s road safety ambassador.
• London’s Lawless Roads is available at http://www.greenparty.org.uk/reports/299
