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Ever wondered if your local police force was pro-actively committed to boosting safety for cyclists?
The Road Justice campaign, led by CTC, and sponsored by Slater & Gordon Lawyers, has published a map on roadjustice.org.uk which shows which police forces in England and Wales are committed to improving road safety for cyclists.
Over a third of forces support at least one of the campaign’s recommendations for improved roads policing, those recommendations focus on three areas of roads policing to be addressed and improved: road collision investigations; resources and training; and victim support.
The map uses a traffic light system to show how forces have responded to the Road Justice report. Green means a force agrees with many of the recommendations; amber means a force agrees with at least one of the recommendations; and red means either the force has not yet responded or disagrees with all the recommendations.
Since the report was received by every single English and Welsh police force, the Road Justice campaign coordinator, Rhia Weston, has spoken with many inspectors and collision investigators, some of whom have invited CTC to work with them on enhancing the police’s ability to promote cycle safety and safe driving.
Weston said: "For the most part, the police have been keen and willing to discuss the report, in order to explain the constraints they are under, mostly as a result of resource cuts, and to discuss the changes they’d like to see made to roads policing."
Several forces said they’d welcome additional funding for roads policing and bemoaned the lack of national targets for road crime reduction as the reason why roads policing gets side-lined in budgets. Some forces also agreed that better training is required for non-specialist police officers who handle minor collisions. Almost all forces agreed that officers should guard against the propensity to blame road crash victims and several agreed that more could be done to care better for crash victims.
Devon and Cornwall police, who CTC singled out in the past for completely slashing their roads policing unit in 2011, have announced that they will review their roads policing training and will create a safer roads support unit with 150 staff.
The Road Justice petition is calling for improvements to roads policing in order to make cycling safer. The campaign is seeking a meeting with the Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims, Damian Green, to deliver the petition. To sign the petition, go to www.roadjustice.org.uk/police-petition
