Our View: Police presence needed all year round

POLICE have been out in force the past two weeks as part of their Christmas and New Year clampdown on drink driving. There are so many of them on the roads that some drivers are being checked twice in the space of five or ten minutes.

They, and the Communications Ministry, promise us every year at this time that things will be different in the upcoming year. Not so many people will die or be seriously injured, young people will be better educated, traffic cameras and narcotests are on the way etc.

On the weekend of December 18, around 270 people were caught drink driving. Last weekend it was 250, which translates at close to 100 people a day or three people an hour.  And that is in addition to the speeders and other traffic offenders.

On Monday the head of the police traffic department, and the transport minister visited accident victims at the Nicosia hospital, bemoaning how tragic it was to see young people in particular being left permanently disabled.  They said Cyprus was now in ninth worst position in the EU for the number of road victims.

It is true what police say, that society must be educated on how to behave on the roads but that there is a certain amount of personal responsibility that goes along with that. Police cannot do it all alone, they say.

However until this society evolves further towards the notion of personal responsibility, some people need to be hit where it hurts most…in their pockets. It’s a shame but it’s true. If thoughtless drivers don’t know how to behave they will only respond to regulation and punishment.

Police should put an end to the big show of force at Christmas and other holidays. A steady police presence on the roads all year round would accomplish far more.

Everyone knows police are out and about this time of the year but that the rest of the time, bar clampdown campaigns, there’s barely an officer in sight.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.