I wrote to Nottingham police and asked them if they treated motorists and real criminals equally. They replied saying "The vast majority of the public never actually has any contact with the police at all and those that do, we endeavour to treat fairly and consistently.” However, in response to a subsequent Freedom of Information request, Nottingham police then told me that in 2010, 4396 real criminals (burglars, shoplifters, drugs dealers, those committing acts of violence, etc.) were let off with police cautions whilst only six motorists received cautions. All others committing motoring offences (however minor) were prosecuted.

This treatment seems neither fair nor consistent - unless the consistency lies in treating real criminals less harshly than motorists. If such figures are representative of other police forces (and there is no reason to think otherwise), it appears that the police are indeed singling out motorists for rough justice. This seems unfair since drivers seldom if ever set out to deliberately break traffic laws whereas crimes such as burglary are almost always premeditated.