Police prang costs double

The amount spent on fixing vehicles involved in police crashes has doubled in five years.

Details obtained under the Official Information Act show that police spent $2.53 million of taxpayers' money on repairs in the 2007-2008 financial year, compared with up $1.23m in 2003-2004.

The figures cover the cost of repairing police cars damaged in the course of duty and of other vehicles when police were at fault.

A spokesman said updating the police fleet in 2005 meant there were more new cars, which were cheaper to fix than write off.

He said the increase had to be balanced against the 3311 police vehicles, the 11,000 staff authorised to drive them and the 92 million kilometres they drove in a year.

The Official Information Act response reveals that six officers were granted diversion for careless driving last year and another three in January.

Only in the case of careless driving charges are police officers allowed to seek diversion, which leaves them with unblemished criminal records.