Online reporting

Police in Paris are now using popular Internet social networks to locate witnesses to traffic accidents. However this development has been criticised by some as a move towards underhand spying. The police in Paris now offer Twitter and Facebook reporting capabilities that are being used to help solve hit-and-run cases in the city and its surrounding suburbs. Users can access a website and find details of an incident, with location, date, time and circumstances. Critics of the scheme say that it will result

February 22, 2012 Read time: 1 min

Police in Paris are now using popular Internet social networks to locate witnesses to traffic accidents. However this development has been criticised by some as a move towards underhand spying. The police in Paris now offer 3008 Twitter and 3009 Facebook reporting capabilities that are being used to help solve hit-and-run cases in the city and its surrounding suburbs. Users can access a website and find details of an incident, with location, date, time and circumstances. Critics of the scheme say that it will result in many being falsely accused, due to others bearing grudges.

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The European Union Road Federation (ERF) calls for EU Member States to prioritise road maintenance

The European Union Road Federation (ERF) has put out an “urgent” call for “EU Member States to prioritise road maintenance” as neglected surfaces continue to deteriorate and the potholes grow larger and larger. ERF wants the EU to “put alternative financing mechanisms into place” as soon as possible, to tackle what it sees as a growing road safety crisis across the region. At its first ERF biennial Symposium on Road Infrastructure Challenges in June, more than 100 stakeholders heard the ERF demand the “ope

February 27, 2012

Cardboard cops

The authorities in the Czech Republic have been criticised for taking a low cost approach to speed enforcement in some areas. Instead of installing traffic lights at many busy junctions, cardboard cut-outs of female police officers wearing mini-skirts have been employed instead. The cardboard policewomen were installed at busy junctions, with the aim of encouraging drivers to slow down and proceed with caution. The authorities say that drivers automatically slow down when they see a police officer, although