Upholding the Law

Sir,

I must object to those recently published letters which in my mind constitute hysterical outbursts against the Police with particular relation to speeding.

I should in the first instance establish a background for my bias. Two years ago I resigned from the Police force after six years service mainly on beat and panda duties.

I have been for many years an enthusiastic motorist and a motor racing fanatic as well as a regular reader of your magazine.

I admit, shamedly, to endorsements on my driving licence for minor motoring offences including one for speeding. But unlike some of your other correspondents I bear no malice against those officers who charged me.

Policemen cannot decide which statutes they wish to enforce and which they do not. They must simply report the circumstances to the courts of all those instances which in their opinions constitutes a breach of the law (motoring or otherwise). The blame for idiotic regulations must lie with government and widely varying penalties, for apparently similar offences with the courts, neither of which are controlled by the Police.

Your magazine has in the past usually managed to present a fairly balanced view of matters through its correspondence columns and it leads me to wonder at your seeming indifference to the maintenance of (motoring) law and order.

In short your previous correspondents can blame their endorsements/disqualifications at the door of: (1) those who make the laws (government); (2) those who break the laws (themselves); (3) those who hand out penalties (courts); not the Police

Carnoustie, Angus. – Raymond Pickering