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Originally Posted by ian@huth
Who pays for policing then? Police Authorities raise revenue to fund the operation of their police forces by levying a precept on Council Tax Collection Authorities which is added to local people's Council Tax bills. Police Authorities include nine Councillors from relevant Local Authorities, three local Magistrates and five independent co-opted members. To me that means that the local authorities control police funding to an extent and can influence policing matters in their areas.
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Where are the statistics to back up that claim? Speeding is a far more common offence than rape and burglary and therefore will result in far more convictions making it appear to be more vigorously enforced. The percentage of drivers prosecuted for speeding is a very, very small percentage of those that commit the offence. Lets face it, we have all been guilty of speeding at one time or another, probably every day that we are on the road. So the success rate for catching speeders will be a very much smaller percentage than those for catching burglers or rapists. Also to be taken into account is the fact that catching a person speeding is far easier than catching a burgler or rapist. You can catch thousands of speeding motorists with a gatso camera with little strain on police time which they can better spend on the more serious crimes.
The biggest drain on police time is actually paperwork. Policing would be much more effective if that was reduced.
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Ian,
Speeding happens every day, but (one would assume) rarely destroys a life. In very rare cases people may be injured; in a tiny minority of cases someone is killed. In those instances a life can be destroyed; but it is not necessarily the case that speed was the main factor. People are killed by cars travelling below the speed limit too.
Rape is a crime that invariably destroys at least one life. Burglary is a less devastating offence, but probably more so than speeding.
The fact that it is easier to catch a speeding motorist should not deem it justifiable to spend more time on that area of crime than those where it is harder to secure a conviction. People don't join the Police because the work is easy.
Here is a question: Has a life ever been saved by a GATSO? it's impossible to prove. But the fact that people drive past them at speed means that their presence will do nothing to save a life. They don't guarantee that a driver will slow down; they only guarantee that if he does speed then the relevant authority will earn some revenue.