Police Told To Slow Down To Cut Fuel Bills And Save The Environment

I’m keen for the police to be safely conducting their business, protecting us from criminals and the like.  At times, no doubt they have to exceed speed limits using their extra training they receive to operate with skill behind the wheel to conduct manoeuvres to box in joy riders and so forth.  So it comes as a bit of a surprise those bureaucrats are instructing them to drive slower and not rev their engines.

Police chiefs have issued new driving instructions to driving officers informing them that they should try to reduce fuel bills and protect the environment.  Patrol drivers have been told to cut their vehicle engines off whilst waiting at lights and to keep air conditioning (and no doubt window openings) to a minimum.  This has come from the top, the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Some areas of the country have even told their forces to drive at 50mph instead of 70mph (engines tend to be more efficient at 56mph) and to avoid any aggressive acceleration and braking.  Now, the way I see it is efficient driving should be part of the police driving curriculum at the moment.  However, more important than that, in my mind, is the skill of the police to intercept and safely apprehend offending motorists – whether joy riders or those using unsafe vehicles.

Under new rules, police drivers will be assessed to check that they are following new rules to make sure that their driving is eco-friendly as stated in the new police driving manual.  This also ties in with the fact that for many areas fuel has become a serious problem.  The Met has seen costs rising from £1.5million to £12.2million – an incredible leap!

Luckily, the go-slow guidelines don’t apply to 999 calls or in activities involving direct criminal pursuit.  This should mean that we all remain safe whilst the police (correctly) have to also be aware of the environmental impact of their driving.

So, the next time you are watching ‘Police, Camera, Action!’ you might just see the police cars travelling at a more leisurely pace until pursuit driving is needed.  If this happens to the rest of the population, perhaps we’ll all be a little bit calmer too?