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By Tim Hall - Daily Mail Friday February 20 2004
One of Britain's top police chiefs admitted yesterday that speed camera have turned the public against the police
South Yorkshire police constable Mike Hedges blamed the cameras for wrecking the force's relationship with drivers.
And he said the biggest mistake is the 'cash for speed tickets' scheme, which allows camera operators to claim back money from the government.
Mr Hedges, 56, believes it will now be impossible to convince the public that cameras are anything other than a cash cow for the government, raking in funds for cash-strapped forces.
He spoke out angrily as he announced his retirement after 11 years with the south Yorkshire force.
He said: 'I believe we have lost a tremendous amount of goodwill from the public.
'I think the biggest mistake we have made is getting some money back. I am most uncomfortable with the focus on the taxation view which goes with it.
'There is a place for cameras, but I think we have lost the argument on that. I think the police service has really suffered some really serious confidence problems and support form the public, as a result.'
Mr Hedges backed speed cameras when they first became widespread.
But he said the ability of modern cameras to churn out hundreds of tickets in the space of a few hours has changed the public mood for the worse.
His sentiments reflect a growing belief even within the police that speed cameras are increasingly being used to raise revenue rather than to cut speed.
Recently, one of Mr Hedges' own officers, mobile speed trap oper4ator PC Stephen Thomas, was responsible for issuing more than 300 tickets, generating almost £20,000 in fines, from one five-hour shift.
In 2002, Essex's 104 speed cameras generated about £7million, of which the police force was allowed to keep £2.3million.
There are now 4,500 speed traps in the uk, which this year are expected to issue £60 fines to three million drivers. It will raise a total of £180million - three times as much as three years ago. Until two years ago, all of the money raised by speed cameras went to the treasury.
However, the 'cash for cameras' scheme allowed police forces to keep a proportion of the fines - around a third. Althought the government has pledged that the money is to be spent on improving road safety, the funds are not ring-fenced.
Critics say cash-strapped forces now see installing more cameras as an ideal way to boost general income.
Earlier this month, the country's most senior policeman Sir John Stevens, criticised forces across the country for hitting the motorists purely to generate cash.
Sir John, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: 'I don't approve of the use of speed cameras as money making devices.
'The proper use for them is as a measure to lower the accident rate.
'I am not after people on the school run exceeding the limit by five or six miles an hour.
'I want my traffic policing to target the dangerous drivers the raodhogs and the menaces driving unlicensed and uninsured.'
A week earlier the police chief responsible for introducing speed cameras to the uk called for their growth to be stalled.
Peter Joslin, who argued the case for cameras in the early Nineties, said: 'I was always conscious that it should not become a fund raising exercise as opposed to a law-and-order exercise.'
He revealed that all three of his children now have speeding convictions.
'They are in their 30s and every one has been done for speeding in the last 12 months - which is amazing to me because I know the way they drive,' said Mr Joslin.
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