What's the point, if you don't speed you won't get caught
Whether or not this attack by the Horncastle man was motivated by revenge for a previous detection, or a surfeit of alcohol, doesn't really address the very legitimate question of policing by these remote means.
There is undoubtedly a need for such deterrents, but it seems that these cameras are being used to police on the cheap - and to generate revenue - every bit as much as monitoring the speed of vehicles in controlled areas.
The former two points, in my view, are wrong-headed as the gulf between the police and public is likely to be widened to the extent that the essential compact between the two risks being diluted to an unacceptable level by the over reliance on such technology.
It’s also concerning to find many road users paying more attention to their speedometers rather than the road conditions they’re driving into and, in such cases, the end result of such tendencies must render the dependence for speed control by these the ludicrously named ‘safety cameras’ to be anything but safe.
The police need to be out on the ground detecting offences and dealing with people as they find them and less emphasis should be placed on the ruthlessly efficient but impersonal and unforgiving camera unit used solely as a means to help prosecute offenders.
There are few of us who can adhere to the letter of every regulation or law every time we set off on a journey and to find our every move monitored in this fashion, and be ambivalent about it, simply paves the way for increased state control in how we go about our day to day business.