Scotland Yard refuses to install extra speed cameras

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Leading article: Speed cameras are for saving lives, not raising cash

The Metropolitan Police is refusing to increase the number of speed cameras in line with national guidelines because it fears their proliferation will turn otherwise law-abiding citizens against the police.

Scotland Yard's decision has put it at odds with rural constabularies which are supportive of the scheme to triple the number of roadside cameras.

Assistant Commissioner Michael Todd, in charge of territorial policing in London, said: "We do not believe in pursuing speed enforcement for the sake of it. I think it could alienate the public and potential witnesses to crimes.

"I am worried people will take the view that the police are doing this to make money.

"We will continue to carry out speed enforcement but we will not increase the number of cameras just to make money. But if we see someone doing 60mph in an area with a 30mph limit we will prosecute."

Richard Brumstrom, Chief Constable of North Wales and head of the Association of Chief Police Officers' (Acpo) traffic technology committee, has pressed fellow chief constables to draw up plans to triple the number of cameras after the Home Office changed the rules to allow forces to keep money raised from fixed penalties and spend it on road safety.

In Northamptonshire, one of eight areas involved in a pilot scheme enabling the force to keep some of the money raised from fines, more than 100,000 tickets were issued last year, compared with 4,000 in 1999. The force has kept about a third of the £5m paid by motorists in fines.

Speeding fines rose from £40 to £60 last year.

Across Britain, the number of speeding offences has increased from 689,114 in 1995 to more than a million in 1999.

Police chiefs expect the number of speed cameras to double to 9,000 in the next three years, netting a predicted three million speeding drivers a year.

Ministers say "excessive and inappropriate speed" causes 1,200 deaths on the country's roads each year and more than 100,000 injuries.

Cameras have shown to cut the number of accidents. In Staffordshire the number of deaths and serious injuries has been cut by as much as 60 per cent on some routes since cameras were installed.

A spokesman for Acpo said: "This initiative is not a money-spinner for the police, it's about road safety and making motorists more aware of the dangers of excessive speed."

Further division among the 43 forces in England and Wales emerged when Ken Williams, Chief Constable of Norfolk, suggested making speed cameras "bright and visible" to drivers.