The traffic police, the Sheriff of Nottingham’s merrie men, are apparently now being evaluated on their productivity. All to do with promotions and silver badges for the glass cabinet in the sitting room. So, from this month, the agentes are awarded one point for each time they help a motorist in distress and two points each time they attend an accident-scene. They also get two points for catching anyone speeding, not wearing a seat-belt or a fluorescent pyjama top at night, four points for lorries, buses and taxis breaking the law, and up to nine points for catching someone ‘over the limit’.
An indignant spokesperson for the corps says ‘Esto solo demuestra que la multa por la multa sirve para recaudar dinero pero no para bajar los accidentes – this shows that fines for fines sake are only useful to collect money but not to help lower the number of accidents’. No doubt most road-users would agree with him.