Police forces will be required to give roads policing greater attention under new national policing priorities from the Government, bringing benefits to road safety.

 While the Home Office focus is on reducing crime, more roads policing will also benefit road safety

The Home Office published its new Strategic Policing Requirement (SPR) on 20 February and included roads policing for the first time.

The SPR is a high-level government document that sets out the Home Secretary’s view of what the current national threats are, and the national policing capabilities needed to counter those threats.

It now recognises the importance of roads policing in disrupting crime and preventing harm.

This means that police forces will be required to give roads policing greater attention and to cooperate regionally and nationally. Police & crime commissioners will be expected to include roads policing in police and crime plans.

The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) had called for such a move in its report of June 2020 and said the Home Office decision was a major breakthrough after a decade of roads policing being “in retreat”.

Executive director David Davies said: “While the Home Office has understandably focused on reducing crime, more roads policing will also benefit road safety.

“The number of road deaths is more than twice the deaths from homicide and terrorism combined and breaches of road traffic laws are the biggest single cause of road deaths. The public support more enforcement. Roads policing provides double value: tackling those who drive dangerously often disrupts wider criminality. For example, Essex police found that almost half the drug-drive offenders had previous arrest records for serious crimes such as burglary, drug dealing and violent crime.”

PACTS has also urged the Department for Transport and Police & Crime Commissioners to “swiftly develop plans to implement this strategic requirement and make our roads safer”.

IAM RoadSmart also welcomed the decision. It highlighted latest figures showing 27,450 people were killed or seriously injured on UK roads and warned that after recent dips due to Covid-19, we’re now returning to the long-term trend of a decade of stagnation in road death numbers.

Neil Greig, director of policy and research, said: “Immediate action is needed to get the UK back on track as a world leader for road safety and this new policy will play an important part in delivering that.

“The introduction of roads policing in the SPR will ensure police forces resource their roads policing departments and work more effectively with other forces to reduce death and injury on the roads. IAM RoadSmart will be monitoring the impact of this new policy and we urge all our members, and drivers and riders everywhere, to hold their chief constables and police and crime commissioners to account on its implementation.”