“Cops in cars are essential. We have seen a correlation between plateauing road deaths and the decline in the number of dedicated road traffic officers.”
Cuts to the number of dedicated roads policing officers has been linked to a failure to reduce road deaths in the past decade, a new investigation has found.
According to figures from BBC Panorama, the number of police officers tasked with enforcing road laws has dropped by 15% since 2016.
Figures from 34 forces who responded to a Freedom of Information request showed the total number of dedicated traffic officers fell from 5,014 in 2016 to 4,257 currently.
Meanwhile, the number of people killed on the roads each year remained stable between 2010 and 2019, after going down for three decades.
Around 5 people a day die on Britain’s roads.
Tim Rogers, from the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “People using our roads every day have the right to feel secure and be kept safe. They deserve dedicated, professional, well trained police officers. It is frustrating to witness them being let down by roads policing that has become virtually invisible.”