"the police could be deployed in other areas"
Doubtful, they know an easy touch when they see one. A points system is apparently being introduced that will show the police performance. Different crimes will attract differing amounts of points.
quote from 'uklawyers legal newswires':
"If the Police were perfect and every rapist each year was arrested at the rate of 1,000 per month only one thousand officers would be able to claim 10 points towards their monthly target. (In fact the number of rapists arrested is low - in 2001 about 25% of rape allegations lead to a prosecution and out of over 9,000 rapes reported only 572 resulted in a successful conviction.) The other 129,000 or so police officers will be desperate to make two arrests of 5 point offences to reach the same score or 5 arrests of 2 point offences. Or they can claim a detection of any offence to gain 10 points.
The inevitable result will not be that more rapists will be
arrested but that more minor offences will be detected, sought
out, grabbed at by every police officer in the land."
So every motorist will be fair game, even for a blown tail-light. Weight checks on trailers and caravans will increase in the hope of catching the unwary and cyclists will no doubt have their tyres checked in dawn raids.
Yes this will probably upset people and is probably horrendously OT but it does follow on from Shiraz' comments as quoted.
And before you ask the question: No I do not much like most of the police, especially around here with their bullying tactics, except for Traffic Div' who do all the hard work and put up with some horrific scenes with a pragmatism that is legendary.