Emails reveal South Australian police push to hit their traffic fine benchmarks

Police are being pressured to “hammer” drivers by strictly enforcing road laws rather than giving cautions. Source: News Limited

 

POLICE are being pressured to “hammer” drivers by strictly enforcing road laws rather than giving cautions if the number they have spoken to within a “reporting period” is too low, documents reveal. 

Emails seen by The Advertiser reveal that a sergeant from the Sturt police station told staff in February this year that “I’m expecting the SSgt (senior sergeant) to have some words.

“We fell below our expected returns for traffic contacts for the last reporting period. We’ll hammer those poor people who choose to drive when we’re night shift.”

In May, a further email from a different Sturt sergeant showed police were still concerned with their figures.
The second email acknowledged three of the station’s teams for their arrest numbers, which were substantially higher than the other teams.

The sergeant then goes on to say: “What I would be aware about is our high caution rate.

“I understand it is the officers discrepancy (sic), but for any of the ‘fatal five’ (road safety issues) ... strict enforcement should occur.

“Currently, Sturt LSA (local service area) is running at over 30 per cent cautioning.”

A police spokesman said the road safety strategy emphasised the requirement for all police to enforce laws which influenced driver behaviour and adopt a lower tolerance of poor driving behaviours.

“The establishment of benchmarks in relation to road safety policing, for local service areas, branches and other relevant areas assists in achieving these objectives and in reducing the number of fatal and serious injury crashes,” the spokesman said.

Deputy Opposition Leader Vickie Chapman said the Police Minister must confirm whether the benchmarks that police were being required to meet were actually quotas.

“If this is the case and officers are being required to meet quotas for traffic infringements, I am sure South Australians will be rightfully annoyed and disappointed with the Weatherill Labor Government,” she said.
“Police officers want to be out doing their job and protecting the community. They don’t want to be spending time filling quotas.

“The Police Minister needs to confirm once and for all whether his government is imposing quotas on South Australian police officers.”

The police spokesman said road safety “benchmarks” comprise road safety related “contacts” made by police officers and the level of breath testing conducted. “The benchmark process recognises that direct intervention by a police officer, whenever poor driving behaviour is observed, is the best means of modifying such behaviour.”

news.com.au 27 Aug 2014

Police have been on a 'quota' system for quite some time.

What the 'lay person' may not understand is that the police 'force' in its current incarnation in Australia is factually a business, and functions as such.

This fact is deliberately hidden from the masses, and far from a 'conspiracy theory.

An absolute disgrace.