What the Tasmanian Liberals will do:

The Tasmanian Liberals will establish a Highway Patrol to service the main highways and roads within the State. All current Highway Patrol vehicles will have special high visibility markings. Other marked police vehicles will be upgraded to ‘suburban high visibility’ markings.

Our Commitment - We will:

• Convert 12 vehicles to high visibility markings for Highway Patrol use in the first year of a Hodgman Liberal Government – i.e. 3 per Traffic Division. Remaining Traffic Division cars will be upgraded in the following year.
• Upgrade all other operational police vehicles to ‘suburban high visibility’ markings progressively over a five year period, as vehicles are replaced.

The Need

In the ongoing battle between Police versus Bad Drivers, the drivers are clearly winning.

They have little fear of detection and behave accordingly.

We need a ‘muscled up’ approach to highway policing that clearly serves notice that Tasmania Police – supported by the Government – are determined to win this battle.

Just over 70% of the operational Tasmania Police fleet are fitted with police lights and/or markings.

However, current vehicle markings vehicle colour does not sufficiently distinguish them from other special use Vehicles used by such agencies as Customs, Transport Inspectors, the State Emergency Service and private security firms.

In addition, police vehicles are not easily recognisable from a reasonable distance or in poor light.

This low level of visibility increases the potential for accidents, and has consequences both for officers and the travelling public.

Labor’s Record

Police Minister Jim Cox has said on record that he thinks current police vehicle markings are adequate. When queried as to why other States have high visibility patrol cars, and not Tasmania, Mr Cox said that it because “they have much longer highways and greater volumes of traffic”. This is a ridiculous position to adopt.

The State Labor Government is failing in the key area of road safety and traffic enforcement. The fatality rate in Tasmania continues to be one of the worst in the nation.

In September 2008 Tasmania had a rate of 9.3 deaths per 100,000 people, well above the national average of 7.4 and Tasmania was significantly behind all other States in reducing its rate of road deaths.

The high rate of traffic offences – especially speeding – shows current strategies to reduce dangerous driver behaviour are not working.

During the last five years, the number of drivers caught speeding continues to increase. Since 2002-03 over 20,000 extra infringement notices have been issued.

In addition, there has been a dramatic increase across the state in the number of disqualified drivers continuing to drive. Statewide there has been a 70 percent increase in 12 months from 1,102 to 1,880 drivers being charged by police.

These figures are concerning because it demonstrates the very real perception by drivers that the likelihood of detection is low which then reinforces the behaviour of repeated offending.

The Experience Elsewhere

Many other States and overseas police forces have moved to adopt fluorescent colour schemes.

The United Kingdom and New Zealand have adopted the vehicle making system called Battenberg check which uses alternating blocks of contrasting colours; blue and yellow.

They have done so because studies have shown that these colours are detected significantly earlier by other drivers because of the contrast there is with colours in nature and almost every type of urban and rural background.

Fluorescent colours are also shown to be more conspicuous than traditional colours in all weather and reduced light conditions.

In the development of a Highway Patrol, it would not be necessary to have extra high performance vehicles because modern vehicles have the necessary performance power.

The most important outcome of adopting this type of vehicle marking system is the greater recognition of the vehicles as police cars – up to 500 metres in normal daylight. This maximises the presence of police and their ability to operate safely and effectively in preventing and detecting crime.

Policy Benefit

The benefits of this policy initiative are to give Tasmanian motorists a greater sense of safety while driving on the State’s roads and highways through a more visible and actual police presence.

This presence will also operate as a much needed deterrent to dangerous or careless driving behaviour.

There should be no additional cost as the same marking material would be used, just different colours and markings.

Highway Patrol cars need to be seen.

Bad drivers need to know they will be caught.

Safe drivers need to be reassured that the Highway Patrol is on duty.

Tasmanians must feel safer on the road.