Japan Police to Create Panel on Traffic Enforcement

Tokyo, July 18 (Jiji Press)--Japan's National Police Agency said Thursday it will set up a panel of experts to discuss whether police are properly cracking down on traffic offenses. The new panel, to be set up on Aug. 1, will consist of 10 members, including academics and automobile critics. After debating on Japanese police's speed enforcement in comparison with overseas regulations and examining the speed limits that have been revised across Japan since 2009, the panel will aim to compile a report by the end of this year. The agency decided to create the panel after members of the National Public Safety Commission threw doubt on the adequacy of traffic enforcement at meetings in February and March. Some commission members questioned the selection of places for traffic enforcement. "Because local residents know where police officers are waiting, those who get caught are mostly traffic offenders coming from outside the home prefecture," one said. Another said, "We don't find police officers in locations where serious accidents could occur." Meanwhile, there was a member who raised concern about the focus of traffic enforcement. "I have doubts about the police's emphasis on speed monitoring at a time when many accidents are attributed to drivers not looking ahead carefully," the member said. Elsewhere in the commission's discussion, one member pointed out, "Police may have become fixated on catching offenders" rather than ensuring road safety. According to the National Police Agency, officers cannot necessarily select places where accidents occur frequently because they need to secure safe space for parking the vehicles of offenders. Using a limited number of places with such space in rotation may give an impression that officers are always in the same locations, agency officials said.