POLICE AND AMATEURS [To the Editor of TIIE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—In your issue of June 19th your motoring expert, writing on risks of the road, suggests that there should be a regular publication of road casualty lists. He also remarks, on the subject of reporting to the police, " I cannot see why the police . . . should welcome amateur assistance, the value of which they have no means of judging."
It seems to me that his suggestion is admirable, but that his remark misses the point. It is quite true that the police are sceptical, and rightly so, about individual complaints. But surely if A reports B for bad driving, giving place, time, number and brief details to the local police, it should be their business to forward the report to the police of the county in which B's car is registered. If the latter receive several complaints about the same car, its local police should be told to look out for it.
I believe that, if this procedure were adopted, a frequent broadcast appeal to motorists to report bad driving whenever possible would have some effect. There must be many careful drivers of long experience, besides myself, who have often refrained from making complaints, knowing that they would be disregarded.
Of course such reporting and filing would mean extra work for the police, but somebody must do something, and fear of such reports might influence the road-hog at least to
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