The cops admit selective policing, sorry for length:
"Ralph Smyth asked DP how many FPNs had been issued to motorists.
DP replied that no FPNs had been issued to motorists as part of Op
Alto."
Below are the minutes of the City Police Road Safety Forum which took
place in February of this year. Sorry for the delay in forwarding and
adding some comments, first below then in square brackes in the
minutes
further down..
The point which seems to have rekindled the red light "debate" on
this
egroup has been wrongly reported: City Police did not issue FPNs
(penalties) to drivers during their operation because they were
concentrating on cyclists and NOT because no drivers were observed
breaking the law.
The claim in the police powerpoint that cyclists jumping lights was
one
of the main causes of cyclists being injured is incorrect - see the
stat's on the City Cyclists website.
Further the police seem to be
ignoring most of the offences which take place by focusing only on
some
of the specific offences created in legislation (e.g. obeying traffic
signals but they tend to ignore zebra crossings) and ignoring the
general offences of driving (or cycling) dangerously/without due
care/
inconsiderately.
The cyclists who call for more targetting of drivers breaching ASLs as
a
response to the proposed campaign against cyclists - in some sort of
[censored]-for-tat enforcement war - are really missing the point. These
short campaigns are not going to change hearts and minds of drivers
and
cyclists and will just produce "regression to mean" within a month or
so, i.e. the number of contraventions will gradually return to
previous
levels.
I have some more comments and background which I'll forward later.
Regards
Ralph
=======
City of London Road Safety Forum – 6th February 2008
MINUTES
Panel Members
Superintendent Lorraine Cussen – COLP (LC)
Inspector Dave Aspinall – COLP (DA)
Sergeant Dave Prashner – COLP (DP)
Police Constable Antony Wolfson – COLP (AW)
Alan Rickwood – COLP (AR)
Matthew Collins – COLC, Road Safety Team (MC)
Simon Phillips – COLC, Policy Officer, Dept of Planning and Transport
(SP)
Unknown Cyclist
Said that there were a minority of cyclists that gave the rest a bad
name and that a crack down on them was needed.
He asked whether we could have a summary of the recent Road Safety
Campaign (Op Alto), run in January 2008.
DP gave a brief summary of the operation, including the fact that 231
fixed penalty notices (FPNs) had been issued to cyclists. He also
explained that a post operation survey of the junction of Cheapside
and
Queen Street had shown a significant reduction in the number of
offences, when compared to prior to the operation.
Ralph Smyth asked DP how many FPNs had been issued to motorists.
DP replied that no FPNs had been issued to motorists as part of Op
Alto.