Opinion: Keep up the good work - just watch your speed

Keep up the good work - just watch your speed. PHOTO/FILE

We all make mistakes, we're all human - even police officers.

It has been reported this week that in the nine months to September 30 last year police officers were fined more than $160,000 for almost 800 speeding offences.

Because we're all human, we can never expect that number to be zero but to me 776 is too many.

If the fine is received while they are on their way to a callout which justifies speed, they are waived - and that is fair enough. Police could not clarify whether 541 tickets that were waived in 2016 were included in the total fine amount.

Police officers should be held to a higher standard when it comes to keeping the laws they enforce - and that applies to more than just speeding.

They should realise that when they sign up for the force and be reminded of that during their training.

You shouldn't be fining or charging people for breaking the law if you do the same thing yourself.

I realise police spend a lot of their time on duty behind the wheel and I know how easy it is to creep up over the speed limit but that doesn't excuse it all.

As police officers they need to be even more vigilant of their speed - especially if they are enforcing the lower speed tolerance put in place around public holidays.

Our police should be leading by example - and many of the officers I know do just that, but it seems not all of them do.

The figures also show that police officers in the Western Bay are, on the whole, well behaved when it comes to speeding.

Only two Western Bay police officers were caught speeding in work vehicles in that period, compared with nine in 2015 and 13 the year before.

That, to me seems like a reasonable number.

Speeding aside, I have the utmost respect for our police and the tough job they do - and I know most of them have the best of intentions.

To the men and women in blue, keep up the good work - just watch your speed.