Heavy vehicle enforcement in South Australia

Economic growth is enhanced by safe and efficient road transport infrastructure. Australian major cities where most consumer demands occur are situated vast distances apart, relying heavily on road freight transport. South Australia relies on road freight to satisfy most of its commodity, product and consumer needs.

The road transport sector in SA currently employs approximately 30,000 people. A doubling of the freight task is predicted within SA by 2020. Of that volume about 80% is predicted to be by road freight. Within SA there is approximately 100,000 km’s of road network within a landmass of 984,377 square kilometres. For the year ending 31 March 2001 approximately 46 million tonnes of freight was conveyed by roadi. This is growing annually.

Vast distances and remote areas provide challenges for community policing, especially the rigors of traffic law enforcement. Many rural highways traverse arid areas with long distances between either roadhouses or towns.

All uniform police officers share some responsibility for enforcement of traffic related legislation and regulations within SA. Police resources are allocated to geographic districts called Local Service Areas (LSA?s) where the local police commander is responsible for the provision of all policing services, crime reduction strategies and road safety. Police services delivered include criminal investigations, general policing services and traffic enforcement. Local police are supplemented corporately from specialist areas on a needs basis by the provision of human and physical resources with a variety of knowledge, skills and equipment to assist with both proactive and reactive policing strategies.