Public Prosecution Service warns: ‘The Netherlands will not be safer if municipalities install speed cameras themselves’

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) warns of a proliferation of speed cameras if municipalities themselves start fining speed offenders, reports the AD. Cities want to use the proceeds to improve local road safety, but the Public Prosecution Service sees no point in this. “Traffic will not become safer by filling the Netherlands with speed cameras.”

At the beginning of March, the mayors of four major cities sent a letter to the cabinet in which they insisted on being able to install speed cameras themselves. Now the Public Prosecution Service determines where automatic speed checks are held in the Netherlands, but that is not enough for the mayors.

According to them, many accidents in cities happen due to reckless and fast driving. They want to reduce the speed by increasing the chance of being caught, but often encounter a wall of unwillingness from the Public Prosecution Service, according to the complaint. “We can send a letter, but we often get the response that we have to adjust the street first,” Rotterdam councilor Vincent Karremans previously said in the media. According to him, his city has 6,500 streets. “If I want to tackle 10 percent of that, it will take me 65 years. Then we are in 2089, while now we have a problem.”