Cops Crash Too

Now that I've heard the reason why most of our police vehicles are old wrecks it makes sense to me now, they just can't trust them in new vehicles. And now I'll smile when I hear of the holier than thou attitude towards motorists from some police forces and their officers.
"Police have caused more than £2.3 million worth of damage to their own police cars - while reversing, new figures have revealed." Most were minor parking accidents as officers backed into bollards, parked poorly or bumped into buildings. But the cost of repairs comes out of taxes because insurance premiums and excesses are so high that the forces do not claim for the damage. The bill of £2,348,757 could have paid for 100 newly-qualified police constables, who earn £23,454 a year. The accidents left 105 officers claiming to be injured - most suffering shock and whiplash. The figures were released by 31 forces across England and Wales under the Freedom of Information Act. They were asked how many accidents their vehicles had suffered while reversing in the past three years and how much the damage cost. Of the forces that provided figures, a total of 7,348 reversing accidents were recorded between 2004 and 2006. However, the true total is likely to be much higher because the Metropolitan Police - Britain's biggest force with 23,600 vehicles - was among those which did not respond. Of the forces that did provide data, Greater Manchester suffered the greatest number, with 873 incidents costing £257,000 and injuring six officers. Hertfordshire Police said the "vast majority" of its incidents "happened at slow speed, when officers were trying to park a car or carry out a three-point turn. Many happened on police station premises, not on public roads". Three of its officers suffered whiplash injuries and another two shock. "You can understand a policeman who is responding to an emergency making an error like this,"a Conservative MP said. "But it seems like an awful lot of money to waste on avoidable minor collisions in police car parks. "The forces obviously need to lay out their car parks better and make sure all their vehicles have parking sensors because £2.3 million would pay for a lot of policemen on the beat."