Opinion: Is it time to bring back the traffic cops?

Police checkpoint and Booze Bus. Photo / Duncan Brown

OPINION:

We're going to be doing a fair bit of driving over the next few days, and how many cops do you think we'll see on patrol? I'll say not many - if any.

Which is kind of what the Ministry of Transport's Bryan Sherritt was saying when he spoke earlier this morning about the road toll going up, when it should be going down.

The latest Road To Zero monitoring report says there were 320 road deaths last year and 2323 serious injuries. This is up from 318 deaths and 2175 serious injuries the year before.

This gives the impression, doesn't it, that the Road To Zero thing is well on track to becoming KiwiBuild on wheels?

And "diabolical" is how Sherritt from the MOT is describing the situation. That's a direct quote. He's saying it's diabolical. Which I don't think too many people will disagree with.

And he's putting it down to three main things: Lack of infrastructure - in particular, a lack of things like median barriers which we all know would make a world of difference. Too many clapped-out cars being on the road - they're just not safe. But the one that's really made me sit up and listen - is a lack of enforcement by Police

They're just not out there as much as they should be, pinging people for doing stupid things behind the wheel or behind the handlebars.

Here's what Sherritt says: "It's lack of police effort in terms of the regular enforcement around road infringements."

He's refusing to go as far as saying the police aren't doing their job properly, but I think it's pretty clear isn't it - the cops aren't out patrolling the roads as much as they should be and it's one of the three main reasons why the road toll isn't going down.

I don't think I've ever heard an official from the MOT or Waka Kotahi - or any of those outfits - say the cops aren't doing the enforcement they should be doing.

But lack of enforcement is one of the top three reasons being given for the road toll not going down. This says to me that something needs to change if there is any hope of the Road to Zero getting anywhere near zero.

I've referred to the Ministry of Transport already as the MOT which, if you're of a certain age, you will remember being the name we used for the outfit that was dedicated to policing the roads. Officially, it was known as the Traffic Safety Service but we all knew it as the MOT.

They had truckloads of cops on motorbikes and also used to drive around in black and white patrol cars. They were merged with the Police in 1992 and I think the old traffic cops had a bit of a hard time of it at the start.

I think some of the police crew thought the traffic cops were a bit second-rate, but that's all history, and today we have the one police force, responsible for everything. Chasing crims, writing tickets - the whole shebang.

But listening to Sherritt talking on Newstalk ZB this morning, I couldn't help wondering whether bringing back a dedicated road or traffic police force might be the answer. Or part of it, anyway.

Because I don't think anyone will argue that our Police are stretched at the moment. And part of that is because they are involved in so many things that perhaps, in years gone by, they wouldn't have been involved in.

Mental health call-outs, for example. They've gone through the roof and, of course, they're going to prioritise that over sitting on the side of a highway somewhere looking out for people driving like idiots.

So this is not a beat-up on Police. But I certainly think something needs to change, and we must have more cops out patrolling the roads if we think we're going to do anything about the appalling road toll stats in this country.

I'll be honest with you. I turn into the perfect driver whenever there's a cop car behind me, or if I see one on the side of the road. That has far more influence on what I do behind the wheel than any Road to Zero TV ad. They're a total waste of money as far as I'm concerned.

And I reckon that, when it comes to how we behave on the roads, nothing is as effective as the threat of the big stick. I know we'd all like to think that with the right encouragement with TV ads, we can make a difference.

But it won't. What makes a difference, is knowing there's a pretty good chance you're going to get stung if you drive fast, cross the yellow line or do anything stupid on the road.

And the only way that's going to happen, is to have more cops patrolling the roads. It's been acknowledged today that a lack of police on our roads and highways is part of the problem, so let's fix it.

And that can be done either by insisting that the police up their game and make sure road safety work isn't a nice-to-have, or bringing back the old MOT so that we have cops who turn up to work every day - and their only job is to get out there and wave the big stick and make our roads safer.