The Automation of Speed Checks. New Technology and Traffic Policing

Since 2003 France has had an automated system of speed checks on its roads, mainly with the aim of improving road safety and thus reducing the cost, both human and economic, of road accidents. It is clear that this measure has played a major part in considerably reducing the number of deaths on French roads (fewer than 5,000 in 2007, whereas there were more than 10,000 in the late 1980s). The automation of speed checking perhaps also prefigures a variety of changes in traffic policing activities, and Laurent Carnis analyses these in this article. After recapping the road safety issues to which this automation is a response, the author outlines current or planned developments in terms of the automatic monitoring/penalising of motorists. Drawing on various international comparisons (UK, Australia), he then shows what the next phases in this development might be: generalized automation of speed checks, of observance of traffic lights, of stopping distances etc., further increasing the extent of the surveillance of motorists. Similarly, argues Laurent Carnis, we may also see a “civilianizing” of road checks, with automation making it possible to subcontract all or part of such activity to civilian public servants or to private companies in various forms, which he outlines in detail. Lastly, other areas of road surveillance may also emerge or be intensified, such as enforcement of anti-pollution standards, protection of road infrastructures, policing of motorized crime etc., offering new operational opportunities for the traffic police.