Name/Title
Sussex Police driving permit c1975 - 1980Entry/Object ID
1251Description
Small green and white coloured card driving permit for police vehicles, issued to PC J.W. Lloyd warrant number AL 685. Also marked "T9 1/75". Inside are handwritten details for the officer and his driving entitlement, along with printed details of various categories of vehicles.Use
To give a police officer internal authority to drive certain police vehicles as detailed withinContext
Throughout the 20th century the police became more dependant upon motor vehicles and less so on foot patrol or beat officers.This process was accelerated in the 1960s with the adoption of so called "Panda" cars for local officers to patrol with. Increased motorisation led to not only more officers being able to drive police vehicles but also a greater range of vehicles often needing different degrees of training and authorisation to drive them. Police driving permits give authorisation for the holder to drive different categories, dependant upon the level of driver training the officer has received and has been qualified to.
This particular permit dates from the mid to late 1970s, the actual printing date being 1975, and includes pre metric classes of vehicles. It allows the holder to drive "2 and 2a" categories, that is non traffic cars, vans under 16cwt, and general purpose (response) cars.
In the late 1980s in Sussex it was recognised that a process needed to be introduced to allow new officers to drive police vehicles without the need to first go on a 2-3 week driving course. The Conditional Driving Authority, or CDA was brought in to give officers authority to drive some categories of vehicle after only a test drive. This included small engined marked police vehicles, although these were not to be driven using sirens and blue lights and no traffic regulations were permitted to be contravened. Only on completion of a "standard" car course can officers contravene such regulations and stop vehicles using a motor vehicle.