Loss of traffic units is 'not good enough' (From Warrington Guardian)

Loss of traffic units is 'not good enough'

A ROAD safety campaign has criticized the decision to disband Warrington police's traffic unit.

Brake said it 'simply is not good enough' to put traffic policing in the hands of ordinary officers.

It says specially trained traffic police need to be kept in a separate unit.

The unit was disbanded in the spring, as Cheshire Police restructured the force and shut down all the traffic units in the county.

The traffic officers were merged into the ordinary patrol teams, and accident investigators were put into CID.

A Brake spokesman said: "This disbanding has been happening across the country for years and we don't have anything like enough dedicated traffic officers.

"It simply isn't good enough to have your average police officers doing the job.

"Traffic officers need to be specially trained in breath testing, drug testing, fault improvement and more."

PC Nick Woodcock, of HQ uniform operations at Cheshire Police, said: "The skills and experience of road policing officers have not been lost. These officers have been re-deployed and road policing is now carried out by all officers within locally based patrol teams and specialist investigation units.

"Each area of the force also has its own road policing 'champion' and these officers are helping to implement our road safety strategy."