How important is community support to the success of the National Road Safety Strategy?

Sir Robert Peel is regarded as the father of modern policing. He developed a set of principles to guide the emerging Metropolitan Police in the London of the 1800s. Included in his set of principles was the observation that ‘The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions’. This concept remains current across modern policing organisations and, if you visit the homepage of the New Westminster Police Service you will see the principle prominently displayed as part of their mission statement. Peel’s observation about the need for public support raises the question as to whether the same principle applies to road safety efforts i.e. whether public support is required to achieve the road safety targets such as those proposed in the National Road Safety Strategy [2]. In this paper, it is argued that the support of the public is crucial to achieving these targets particularly given community attitudes towards issues such as speeding.