Legal loopholes mean it is rarely a specific offence to park on the pavement in Northern Ireland.
However, it is always an offence to drive on the pavement, so unless cars are falling from the sky an offence has still been committed, certainly where all four wheels are off the road.
I recently had an opportunity to ask a police officer why enforcement on this basis is not attempted. We were standing beside a car dumped at a pedestrian crossing outside a primary school, so I had a great prop for the question.
The officer’s answer was revealing: “That’s never been done before, so we won’t do it.”
In other words, the PSNI does not have the time and resources to prioritise innovative experiments with the law. Perhaps that is fair enough for pavement parking. What about speeding?
Chief Superintendent Sam Donaldson testified to Stormont’s infrastructure committee last week that “insufficient” punishments for driving offences are contributing to Northern Ireland’s grim road fatality figures, now running at five per month.
“In terms of the courts, I have to say I’m frustrated at times,” he said, citing people who are “repeatedly caught for disqualified driving”.
Donaldson, a senior officer responsible for roads policing, told MLAs there should be higher fixed penalty notice fees, although “I know that will not be popular in the community”.
More generally, he asked for “consequences” from the criminal justice system to change driver attitudes and behaviour.
The problem with asking Stormont and the justice system to innovate is that they are also operating at the limit of their resources. Motoring offences already account for an incredible one third of the caseload at the Public Prosecution Service and almost half the caseload in Northern Ireland’s courts.
Criminal law constrains what punishments prosecutors and judges can seek and hand down. Creating new criminal offences through Stormont legislation can be a lengthy and ineffective process.
MLAs do not like passing unpopular laws, as Donaldson implied, although that criticism cuts both ways. The PSNI can also be reluctant to antagonise the public by challenging entitled drivers – the chaos outside many schools being a glaring example.
Much of the official effort on shocking drivers into better behaviour emphasises the risk of killing someone and going to prison, yet people know the likelihood of this for any given breach of the law is vanishingly low.
Realistically, imprisonment for serious or repeated motoring offences will not become frequent enough to undo the bad habits building up since accident statistics began rising four years ago. Brief custodial sentences for less serious offences are available to the courts but are almost never used.
Judicial mercy is understandable. Few people set out to do harm behind the wheel; most would only be traumatised by a system designed to punish and rehabilitate criminal intent. As for protecting the public, that is facilitated by getting bad drivers off the road. It should rarely be necessary to lock them up to do so.
A far more practical and plausible threat to all motorists would be roadside seizure of vehicles by the police.
There are two grounds for this under Northern Ireland law: driving without a licence or insurance; or committing an offence of careless driving “in a manner causing alarm, distress or annoyance”.
Seized vehicles are removed and stored by private contractors, then disposed of or released back to their owners under terms and fees set by the justice minister. A consultation on raising fees in line with inflation closes today. This punishment does not have to be a burden on public resources.
The PSNI makes regular use of the first ground, typically seizing 2,000 vehicles a year for lack of insurance. Operations target uninsured drivers, with seizure of vehicles publicised as a deterrent threat.
Last year, Stormont created a fixed penalty notice for careless driving. That could be matched with a PSNI warning that drivers may also have to walk home and pay to get their car back
The second ground is only used around 10 times a year, mainly for off-road motorbikes, despite its potentially very broad application. Careless driving covers excessive speed, aggressive driving and driving while distracted, including by a mobile phone.
Last year, Stormont created a fixed penalty notice for careless driving, enabling police to deal with lesser offences without going through the courts. That could be matched with a PSNI warning that drivers may also have to walk home and pay to get their car back.
If this happened several thousand times a year, the warning might be credible enough for attitudes to start to change.