Police "seem to be doing very little" about road safety in Hertfordshire, according to a county councillor, after 24 deaths were reported on its roads last year.

Cllr John Hale (Lib Dem, Colney Heath and Marshalswick) took Herts Constabulary to task after listening to a policing update during the county council's public health and community safety committee.

After Cllr Matt Fisher (Green, St Albans Central) gave members a summary of the most recent police and crime panel meeting, Cllr Hale criticised the "lack of priority" given to road safety.

He also took issue with the emphasis on community-led road safety initiatives instead of police "actually enforcing the law".

Cllr Hale said: "I am concerned… at the lack of priority the police give to road safety.

"Okay, they do put it in there, it's number six in their summary… and yet, your report also points out that it's one of the highest concerns identified through the Herts Connected survey.

"We had 24 casualties – fatalities – on Hertfordshire roads in 2025. The police in the past have said, 'You're more likely to be killed on the roads than murdered in Hertfordshire'.

"Yet… around the role community speed watch… your summary of the question is that, 'The police think it's up to the community to do speed watch and have community-led initiatives to support education and awareness and compliance'.

"There seems to be very little emphasis by the police on actually enforcing the law.

"So, perhaps in future meetings you can push them as to what they're actually going to do to enforce the law on speeding, HGVs where they shouldn't, etcetera, because at the moment they seem to be doing very little."

Cllr Fisher responded: "Yes, I can come back with that. That actually was a point of discussion I raised. Essentially, they are keen to work with volunteer groups, which is one thing.

"The other part of that is down to bandwidth, in terms of whether you want to be dealing with crimes in action or indeed speeding. That's questionable when resources are low. It's exactly the same with PCSOs being out at school fetes, etc versus the optics of actually solving crime, anti-social behaviour and things like that."

Cllr Hale said: "I think a lot of the residents in my area would consider poor driver behaviour as anti-social behaviour, and I will repeat what I said. Twenty-four people died on the roads in Hertfordshire. That, I think, is something we should be addressing."

His comments were echoed by other councillors. Cllr Ben Crystall (Green, Hertford All Saints) said: "I welcome the reductions in recorded crime and the improvements in road safety, but I absolutely share John's comments about speeding and the safety of roads. We should be aiming for a zero-death county, and that's really important.

Cllr Crystall asked if police could look at streamlining local drive safe schemes to make it easier for communities to set them up, and said places would "see a huge change" if more two-camera, speed-measuring systems were introduced.

Cllr Richard Roberts (Conservative, Kings Langley) also spoke about speeding, and said: "Presumably, we're expecting some significant, dramatic changes in accident rates as a result of the blanket imposition of 20mph everywhere? That must be the aspiration, so let's see how that works out over the next 12 to 24 months.

"I would also suggest that PCSOs – and I know you've raised this previously – should be the vehicle for doing speed checks in the communities. I'm a great advocate that every community should have visible policing, and PCSOs are a really good way of police delivering that into communities."

Cllr Roberts also issued a thanks to the police and crime commissioner (PCC), fellow Conservative Jonathan Ash-Edwards, saying: "He really seems to have got hold of the police force by the throat and given a good old shake, actually. We seem to be making some very, very good progress in areas that matter to the public."

In his summary of the police and crime panel, Cllr Fisher said his report represented "a positive direction of travel for policing in Hertfordshire" with improvements in performance, public protection, partnership working and accountability.

He said: "Some of the headline achievements include that crime recording accuracy has now exceeded 92%, and the previous HMICFRS [policing watchdog] cause for concern has been lifted.

"Crime-solving rates have improved significantly, rising to around 20% and placing Hertfordshire ninth nationally compared with 37th the previous year. So, a massive change there.

"Emergency response performance continues to improve, 96% of 999 calls are answered within 10 seconds, and average answer times are just three seconds. Neighbourhood policing has been strengthened through the recruitment of 54 additional neighbourhood officers, supporting greater visibility and community engagement.

"There's also been significant progress in safeguarding vulnerable residents. Hertfordshire has risen from one of the lowest-performing forces nationally to fifth with the use of Clare's Law, while substantial investment continues in tackling serious violence, supporting victims and delivering early intervention programmes for young people.

"One area of discussion at the police and crime panel was the use of Palantir data analytics. The commissioner advised that the platform has helped officers analyse complex data sets, identify patterns of offending and improve risk assessments, contributing significant improvement in Clare's Law performance.

"Members also emphasised the importance of ensuring the use of such technology continues to be subject to appropriate governance, transparency and public scrutiny.

"Operation Hotspot continues to produce encouraging results, delivering over 50,000 hours of targeted patrols, more than 700 arrests, and over 100 knives removed from our streets, and contributing to a 14.5% reduction in anti-social behaviour in hotspot locations. However, sustaining the success beyond current government funding remains an important challenge."