ACT Police Spokesman Ken Shirley has today welcomed the Government’s “CHiPs” initiative to reintroduce a dedicated highway patrol for New Zealand roads.

Ken Shirley said that to be effective the Government must properly ‘ring fence’ the highway patrol unit within Police to ensure it wasn’t simply absorbed back into the Police when numbers on the beat and resources were tight.

“The Government must also stick to its promise that these are, in fact, 225 new officers and that they are not taken out of already stretched Police ranks.

Ken Shirley said it had been a costly mistake to do away with dedicated traffic officers that had put unfair pressure on Police. “From both the Police and the public’s perspective it’s important that officers policing the roads have a separate identity. ACT has always believed a separate traffic unit was needed,” he said.

“The carnage on our roads is costing billions of dollars and we can never put a price on the thousands of lives being lost. We do need a traffic patrol whose sole focus is bringing down the road toll,” he said.

ENDS

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