Tayside’s senior traffic officer has denied the division is carrying out a “blitz” on drivers this weekend.
However, Police Scotland Tayside Division Chief Superintendent Hamish Macpherson has admitted that traffic officers are to carry out “joint patrols” as part of “increasing our focus on roads policing”.
A Courier source said traffic officers have been ordered to double their resources by splitting up traffic police and instead having them team up with beat officers to patrol the city en masse.
The source claimed the division had received orders from Police Scotland chiefs to “beef up their figures” as Tayside’s rate of recorded traffic offences was among the lowest in Scotland.
The source said: “The traffic cops are having to split up and take ordinary cops out with them to blitz Dundee. It means they can have double the amount of speed camera teams and cars with trained drink-drive breathtesters out there.
“This has come from on high because the Tayside figures are apparently pretty low compared to the rest of the country.”
Chief Superintendent Macpherson denied there was any special operation this weekend.
He said: “As a legacy force, Tayside Police was extremely effective in the education and enforcement of road policing matters and antisocial driving.
“As a Division of Police Scotland, Tayside will build upon that work and we continue to look at ways in which we can improve our service in respect of road policing and, indeed, every area of the police service.
“We are increasing our focus on roads policing that will include joint patrols between road policing officers and local community officers, as well as further intelligence gathering and additional training for probationary officers.”
He added: “This is not a blitz on motorists flaunting regulations and there is no specific operation this weekend.
“It is about a long-term approach to enforcing traffic law and disrupting criminals who use our road networks.
“It is not about statistical targets but it is about targeting those who endanger their own lives and that of other road users by blatantly breaking the law. It is about saving lives.”