Police tells camera operators to ‘raise their game’ and catch MORE drivers

A police force already grabbing £6million-a-year in speeding fines urged ‘complacent’ officers to ‘up their game’ and ‘bring in more’, leaked emails revealed today.

Cheshire Police allegedly warned staff operating camera vans they were ‘too lenient’ and should be looking to up their targets and snare another 2,400 speeding drivers a month  – worth £240,000 in £100-an-offence fines.

One email sent by a boss, seen by The Sun, said: ‘Bottom line: You need to bring in more. I appreciate you can’t make people speed, but these are roughly 50 per cent of your minimum 400 target.’

Another worker in Cheshire, home to many of Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool’s millionaire footballers, was asked: ‘What can you suggest/do that will enable you to achieve more offences? Am I tasking you with sites that do no produce? Have you, as operators, become complacent?’

It is alleged that bosses said camera teams should pick areas where they are most likely to catch speeding drivers, who would be it with £100 fines.

A source told the newspaper: ‘It’s long confirmed what most drivers have always feared – that speed cameras are out to get people, rather than just make roads safer.’ 

While the Alliance of British Drivers called it a scandal and the behaviour of bosses ‘thoroughly disgraceful’.

The force have denied that they are using the cameras as a cash cow. 

Supt Jo Marshall-Bell said: ‘Safety camera vans are not deployed to generate income, nor are they set targets.’

MailOnline has asked Cheshire Police to comment. 

Speed camera sites are being used to make money rather than prevent accidents, an official report revealed last year. 

The police watchdog says some locations are chosen because they are ‘good hunting grounds’ for fines.

Safety camera partnerships – local bodies which operate speed traps – have even protected their revenues by stopping police officers using driver education as an alternative strategy.

Motorists have long suspected they are cash cows – 2.3million speeding fines were handed out in 2018, potentially raking in around £230million.

Campaigners said the findings were unacceptable because cameras should be about ‘saving lives and nothing more’. 

The report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services called for greater transparency over the use of cameras and their revenues.

It said: ‘Apparent unwillingness to support education over enforcement had led to suspicion among officers, including some at chief officer level, that the focus of activity was intended to increase revenue for the safety partnership.

‘They gave examples of some camera sites that they believed didn’t have a history of collisions or other identified vulnerabilities. Elsewhere, we were told that the reason enforcement took place at certain locations was that they were ‘good hunting grounds’, rather than because they had a history of collisions.’ 

The number of speeding tickets issued in England and Wales has soared from 1.6million in 2011 to 2.3million in 2018.

There are no centrally-held figures on the amount raised nationally by speed cameras but the punishment is a minimum £100 fine and three points on a licence.

Drivers however may be able to avoid the penalty and points by attending a speed awareness course, at a cost of between £80 and £100. These fees are intended to cover the cost of providing the course.

But the HMICFRS report said the rules were open to ‘misinterpretation’ and ‘there is the potential in some cases for revenue to be generated’. 

The RAC’s head of policy, Nicholas Lyes, said: ‘Decisions on where to deploy speed cameras must always be led by a genuine desire to improve road safety’. 

The Mail’s End the Mobile Madness campaign has highlighted the shocking scale of deaths caused by drivers distracted while using their phone. But the report shows fines for that offence plummeted by 76 per cent from 2011 to 2017, from around 162,400 tickets to around 38,600.

The number of breathalyser and roadside drug tests has also fallen.