Overview
Improving traffic safety in Finland calls for intense action. Automated enforcement (speed cameras) is seen as an effective measure, which is also widely accepted among citizens. However, police resources and current legislation make it very hard to increase the efficiency of automated enforcement.
As a part of LINTU - a long-term research and development programme for road safety - a study financed by the Ministry of Transport and Communications and Finnish Road Administration was carried out to evaluate the amount of police work required in two different legislative systems.
It has been evaluated that to improve the efficiency of automated enforcement, laws on owner responsibility have to be introduced. Owner responsibility can be arranged in two different ways: either by administrative payment or by conditional fine. Administrative payment means a system where low speeds (for instance < 20 km/h) would be decriminalised. Speeds above the threshold would still be regarded as a criminal offence and would be handled by the police. A penalty notice for administrative payment is sent to the owner or the holder of the vehicle regardless of who was actually driving the vehicle at the time of the violation. If the owner or the holder does not agree to pay the administrative payment he/she has the right to appeal to a court. The conditional fine is also sent to the holder of the vehicle who must oppose the fine if he/she does not want to pay. If the fine is protested the police will carry out a preliminary investigation.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the differences between the above two legislative systems. Emphasis was on the amount of police work required to handle the fines in different legislative alternatives.
The study consisted of a literature review and expert interviews.
Funding
Results
Both legislative alternatives would decrease the time spent in handling the fines in the office after monitoring the speeding.
Administrative payment would decrease the amount of police work more than the conditional fine since a preliminary investigation is not performed.
Since the police resources are likely to remain at the current level there have been opinions about municipal speed control. A city, municipality or road authority could handle some - or all - tasks in the automatic speed enforcement process. Administrative payment allows more municipal participation than the conditional fine.
Policy implications
According to this study, further investigation is needed concerning legal matters in municipal speed control. Details of appeal procedures in both legislative systems and the organisational structure of automatic speed control need to be clarified.
Regulation / deregulation
The study showed that both legislative alternatives (administrative payment and conditional fine) would decrease the time spent in handling the fines in the office after monitoring the speeding. Administrative payment will decrease the amount of police work more than the conditional fine since preliminary investigation is not performed. Since the police resources are likely to remain at the current level there have been opinions about municipal speed control. A city, municipality or road authority could handle some - or all - tasks in the automatic speed enforcement process. Administrative payment allows more municipal participation than the conditional fine.
The study showed that both legislative alternatives would decrease the time spent in handling the fines in the office after monitoring the speeding. Administrative payment will decrease the amount of police work more than the conditional fine since preliminary investigation is not performed. Since the police resources are likely to remain at the current level there have been opinions about municipal speed control. A city, municipality or road authority could handle some - or all - tasks in the automatic speed enforcement process. Administrative payment allows more municipal participation than the conditional fine.