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A senior traffic officer from the MET has issued his force a target to fine ten cyclists per month, according to The Times.
Inspector Colin Davies of the MET’s South East Area Traffic Garage apparently sent an email to officers stating: “All, can you please cascade this onto your troops. Officers have four months to do 40 cycle tickets (each). Ten per month, 2.5 a week. Most officers are nearing or have even achieved their other targets. This will give them a renewed focus for a while.”
Chief Superintendent Glyn Jones has since clarified that the order has been slightly misinterpreted and that the ten ticket target covers a range of offences, including some unable to be commited by cyclists.
Officers within the force, many of whom cycle, have said the request amounts to discrimination and have asked how issuing the £50 tickets will save lives.
The CTC’s policy director, Roger Geffen, has suggested that many officers aren’t fully aware of the correct laws and recommendations for cyclists. He said: “They may well nick cyclists for things which are not offences. If it leads to that sort of perverse enforcement then that would be very worrying.”
As part of ‘Operation Safeway’, a large amount of the MET police’s traffic resources are currently focused on tackling bad behaviour from motorists and cyclists at key junctions in London. However, there are already suggestions that officers are plucking a higher ratio of cyclists from traffic.
A ‘die-in’ is planned for tomorrow evening at Transport for London’s Southwark offices in protest of the lower spending per head on dedicated infrastructure that cycling receives, despite increasing numbers using the roads.
To read the full story, see The Times.
