Published: 17th August 2006 | Author: Daily Mail

While millions who break the speed limit are caught, the cameras do not snare drunk drivers, car thieves and uninsured motorists.
The motoring magazine Auto Express compared the number of fixed speed cameras with police road traffic cars in counties and police authorities. They discovered that there are 4,127 cameras to 1,904 cars in the whole of Britain, a ratio of 2.2 cameras for every traffic patrol vehicle.
The highest proportion is in Staffordshire where 260 fixed cameras outnumber the 35 police cars by more than seven to one.

London's 828 cameras and 140 cars means almost six devices to every vehicle in the capital, and in West Yorkshire the 262 cameras to 56 cars is a ratio of 4.7 to one.
However, some areas have more cars than cameras and Durham, along with several
authorities in Scotland, has no cameras at all. Hampshire, Humberside, Norfolk and North Wales are among those with more cars than cameras, according to Auto Express.
Kevin Delaney, of the RAC foundation said: 'These figures show the regions where policing with actual officers isn't on the agenda.

'The trouble with this is while traffic cops can deal with a wide range of motoring offences, from drink driving to spotting unroadworthy vehicles, speed cameras are a one-trick pony.
'You could drive past one on the wrong side of the road chatting on your mobile and unless you are speeding you'll go unnoticed.' Auto Express used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the figures. The magazine says the statistics show the actual number of cars used for road policing duties rather than total vehicles per force.
Staffordshire Police, which has the highest ratio of cameras to cars, has no specific traffic division, said the report.

The force said the cameras meant police in cars could tackle other crimes, and one police traffic car today does the job of three in the past thanks to the Gatsos.
A spokesman said: 'The police who specialised in traffic were put back towards more mainline duties and now handle a whole variety of crimes, rather than those relating to motoring or attending road accidents.'
Other car crimes were spotted by the cameras recording number plates which are then crosschecked against the national computer to see if the car is stolen or not.
A spokesman for West Yorkshire police said it was wrong to assume a poor level of policing simply because a force had more cameras than cars.
'Comparing the number of fixed speed cameras within a specific force, with the number of traffic cars, does not equate to a measure of how a force carries out traffic policing,' she said.
'Speed cameras are an extra tool in our armoury in making the roads safer for the people who live and visit West Yorkshire.'

A spokesman for the Metropolitan police, the second worst offender according to the survey, agreed.
She said while London may have a large number of speed cameras compared to traffic cars, the number of traffic officers had remained constant, at around 600, for the past five years.
'Speed cameras appear to have had little impact on officer numbers,' she added