This article is about Thames Valley Police, although
we know that it relates also to other counties, certainly Dorset:
Thames Valley Police (TVP) received income of £772,097 between January and
August 2011 from AA Drivetech — equivalent to over £1 million per annum. It is
likely that most of this income relates to fees paid by drivers for speed
awareness courses where a proportion of the fees are diverted to TVP.
It is normally the case that if a police officer agrees to drop an offence upon
payment of some money to a third party (particularly one connected to them),
then it is a criminal offence. A definition of “perversion of the course of
justice” from the Police National Legal Database is:
“This common law offence is committed where a person or persons:—
(a) acts or embarks upon a course of conduct
(b) which has a tendency to, and is intended to pervert,
(c) the course of public justice.”
Listed below are a couple of the ways where conduct is capable of amounting to
an offence (there are several others):
(a) Concealing offences;
(b) Failing to prosecute;
In the cases we are complaining about, some police officers are surely
potentially conspiring with the organisations that run the training courses to
divert drivers from the judicial system in return for payments that fund the
employment of themselves, other police officers or other support staff. Hence
they appear to have a direct financial interest in this matter.
We question whether this is legal (we have seen no evidence that it is), and we
certainly suggest this is ethically dubious. In essence, in return for payments
that at least part-fund the operations of speed camera partnerships, alleged
offenders are diverted from the justice system.
Funding of police speed camera operations in this manner will result in more
attention to generating income than to the promotion of road safety.