Police attitude on road safety

I’ve long waited for a senior police officer to say:

“… why don’t we just have a rule that as long as you’re driving safely, police won’t take any enforcement action?”

Sadly though the officer in question is being sarcastic not serious. Central District Commander Mark Lammas (in whose district the quota memo originated) believes that safe driving is secondary to enforcement or issuing tickets.

I’d love us to have a serious debate on whether one should target unsafe driving or merely speed limits. Certainly it is much easier to target speed limits, but I’d rather bring in re-testing of drivers every five years focusing on driving to the conditions and less emphasis on a speed limit regardless of the weather, road conditions, traffic density etc etc.

I also love the delightful bigotry Lammas shows towards both blue and white collar workers. He stereotypes blue collar workers as criminals used to police actions, and white collar workers as spoilt children.