Concern over fall in South Yorkshire traffic police officers
The number of traffic officers in South Yorkshire's gone down by almost 30% since 2010.
Campaigners say more people will be killed on South Yorkshire's roads - if the number of traffic police in the county continues to fall.
New figures show the number of dedicated road police officers here's gone down by almost 30% since 2010.
Nationally there were 1,437 fewer dedicated roads policing officers outside London last year than 6 years ago.
Mike Bristow - from Yorkshire road safety charity Brake - told Hallam the fall could have disastrous consequences:
"If there are less police out there on the roads enforcing the law, then people will be more inclined to speed, will be more inclined to use their mobile phone whilst driving, or even worse be more inclined to drink drive. We need to have as many traffic police out on the roads as possible so that they can enforce the law and make road-users as safe as possible."
"It's showing us that the government don't consider traffic policing to be crucial and, quite simply, they are. They're needed out there day after day - we would urge the government to look at these figures and to stop making cuts. traffic policing has been hit hard enough - if the government continue to hit it even harder, we could be in a situation where we see road deaths and serious injuries climb."
There are 37 fewer traffic police officers in South Yorkshire last year than there were in 2010 - the number went down by 19 in just one year, between 2014 and 2015.
Mike says its shows the government aren't taking traffic policing seriously enough:
"It's certainly, from our point of view, very alarming that traffic policing are taking the hardest cuts - this needs to stop. There are other areas if costs do need to be cut. Let's spread it out evenly and ensure that there are enough officers in each specialist area to do their jobs correctly and effectively."
"We're seeing, year after year, the numbers of people being killed or seriously injured creeping up slightly. We want them to go in the opposite direction. We want less people to be killed and seriously injured on our roads and one of the ways we can help prevent that is by having more traffic police out and about, doing their job and enforcing the law."
A Home Office spokesperson said:
"Police reform is working and crime has fallen by more than a quarter since 2010, according to the independent crime survey.
“The enforcement of road traffic offences is an operational matter for the police. However, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has been clear that there is no link between police resources and crime levels and effective roads policing is dependent on a range of factors, from better driver awareness to increased use of fixed penalty notices.”