The Association of Police Officers (ACPO) has set up a team of prosecution lawyers named Road Safety Support, to help it cope with the huge volume of speeding fines being contested over legal technicalities.Meredydd Hughes, ACPO's head of road policing, claimed that the Road Safety Support unit had been set up to "demonstrate that spurious cases get a slap. This team will defend the integrity of enforcement equipment and help us win high-profile cases".In reality, the number of "high-profile" cases that ACPO will have the time and money to defend in court will be minimal. Instead, their greatest purpose will be to set an example in the hope that this will reduce the number of contested fines.Meredydd Hughes' aggressive stance on this matter demonstrates little regard for the strength of public feeling against speed cameras and the traffic authorities. Claiming that the purpose of the Road Safety Support team is to say "come and get us if you think you are hard enough – we have won every case we've supported", says very little about how the scheme is intended to improve road safety.However effective the Road Safety Support team are in setting a tougher image for the authorities, the number of drivers challenging their speeding fines is unlikely to drop noticeably for the foreseeable future, leaving the police force struggling to cope.
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