Speed tickets at 1000 a day

Police are writing more than 1000 speeding tickets a day - an almost three-fold increase since 1999.

Latest figures do not include speed camera fines.

Critics have slammed the increase as blatant revenue-gathering, but police have defended the rise as necessary to reduce road deaths.

Official figures show the number of tickets issued by police officers increased from 135,000 in 1999 to 387,000 by the end of 2003.

Police bosses say the huge jump in tickets is the result of targeted road safety campaigns.

In 1999, 508 people died on New Zealand roads. By 2003, that number had fallen to 461. Last year, 435 people were killed on the roads.

Opposition MPs, however, say too many police resources are pumped into traffic enforcement to the detriment of other core police work.

Burglary victims in Canterbury face an average 22-hour wait - and in some cases up to three days - before being seen by an officer.

Nationally, police are failing to meet their 10-minute target for priority one incidents 31 per cent of the time.

Act MP Muriel Newman said the speed ticket figures proved precious police resources were being poured into money-making activities.

"It's a sad day for New Zealanders when the police are forced to prioritise the gathering of revenue for the Government over the cracking down on crime," Dr Newman said.

"We have got other times when a police presence is needed but they can't make it to the situation because they're too tied up."

The mass issue of tickets had turned "generally law-abiding New Zealanders into criminals", Dr Newman said.

Police Association Canterbury director Craig Prior said the police image was being tarnished by the sustained road campaigns.

"Because our contact rate has tripled with these speeding tickets, and we are speaking with three times more people now than five years ago, we are always seeing people in a bad situation and, naturally, if that is the only contact someone has with a police officer, then that is going to affect the way people see the police."

Mr Prior said even general duties officers now had "quotas and contact targets" to meet.

"We used to ticket people as we found them, now we are ticketing people who in the past got off with a warning. They aren't hardened criminals."

But Inspector John Kelly, of police national headquarters, said claims of revenue-gathering were "complete nonsense".

"It's frustrating. This has got absolutely nothing to do with revenue-gathering," Mr Kelly said. " ... the road toll ... is what this is all about."

- NZPA