Speeding cops busted but many tickets waived

Bay of Plenty district road policing manager Inspector Kevin Taylor. Photo / File

Bay of Plenty police have been caught speeding more than 190 times in the past five years.

In figures released to the Bay of Plenty Times, 191 infringement notices were received by police in the district, which includes Tauranga, Rotorua and Whakatane, caught by speed cameras breaking the speed limit from July 01, 2011 to June 30, 2015.

Of these, 113 tickets were waived because they were responding to a "legitimate emergency", while 78, or 41 per cent, of the fines were paid or referred to court. However, Bay of Plenty district road policing manager Inspector Kevin Taylor said staff were held accountable for their driving "like any other motorist".

"When any instances of speeding are found to be unjustified, liability is transferred to the driver," Mr Taylor said.

In the past 12 months this has occurred on 12 out of 39 occasions where infringements were received for speeding police vehicles.

"Police are a unique 24/7 service travelling hundreds of thousands of kilometres each year and by the nature of their work are required to respond with urgency at times.

"This, inevitably, involves driving at speeds above the limit and only when that speed is for a legitimate emergency response is the ticket waived," Mr Taylor said. "All police behaviour, including our manner of driving, is subject to high levels of scrutiny and the district takes the safety of the public and our staff on the roads very seriously."

Waikato and Bay of Plenty Police Association regional director Wayne Aberhart said most cases of speeding involved officers "going a bit too quickly to incidents to get there and assist the public".

Mr Aberhart said any cases of police speeding without a legitimate reason "would be few and far between".

"The consequences are huge for those police officers. If there's no justification, the consequences can be severe," he said.

Speeding police officers were investigated, resulting in its own form of shaming among work peers, Mr Aberhart said. "At the end of the day, if you talked to 99 per cent of police officers about why they joined the police, they would say 'to serve the public and to make a difference'.

"Police just don't go out to drive willy-nilly at speed just because they can.

"We have a responsibility to not only protect life but property too, and those cars are government property. "Those vehicles need to be treated with respect."

Nationally, 4237 speed camera notices were issued with 1938 waived.

National manager of road policing Superintendent Steve Greally said in all cases where officers were ticketed for exceeding the speed limit, this was followed up and an explanation was sought.

If the speed is not found to be justified in the circumstances, the driver responsible was required to pay any infringements incurred, Mr Greally said.

An exemption exists under the Land Transport (Road User Rule) 2004 for the driver of any police vehicle to exceed the speed limit in circumstances where compliance with the speed limit would hinder his or her ability to perform their duty.