The number of dedicated roads police officers in Essex has dropped by nearly three quarters, according to new figures.
The report released in repose to a question in Parliament showed across Wales and England the number of dedicated staff went down by 23 per cent from 5,635 in 2010 to 4,356 in March last year.
Some of the county's biggest losses included Essex, which saw a 71 per cent drop in traffic officer numbers, Nottinghamshire with a drop of 68 per cent and Wiltshire by 47 per cent.
Pete Williams, RAC's head of external affairs, said: "These figures make a mockery of motoring law. If there are not enough police on the road, we can introduce all the new rules we want, but those breaking them just will not get caught.
"While cameras are good at catching speeders and drivers who go through red lights, offences that relate to general poor behaviour at the wheel still rely on a police officer to enforce them.
"The majority of motorists in England and Wales claim to obey the law of the road and would therefore like to think the minority of drivers that flout the rules stand more chance of getting caught and properly punished than they seem to at the moment.
"Our research shows that millions of motorists are frustrated with the cut in traffic police numbers and believe the chances of drivers being pulled up for breaking the law are now minimal."
But Essex Police defended the decision saying those officers now patrolling the roads are now dedicated solely to that role rather than being taken away for other duties.
Chief Supt Andy Prophet said: "Essex Police has a total of 191 officers and staff working in dedicated roads policing roles. These vary from traditional roads policing patrols, to specialist accident investigation and longer term casualty reduction and driver awareness training.
"Last summer the force carefully reviewed the demand for roads policing and in September 2014 re-established dedicated roads policing teams across the county.
"This review reduced the number of roads policing patrol officers from 140 to 80. However, prior to the review, the 140 officers were not dedicated to roads policing and spent half their time on other policing duties.
"Now the 80 officers are now dedicated to policing the roads work and continue to be supported by another 111 officers and staff in other specialist road policing functions.
"Roads in Essex are safer now than they have ever been. However, we continue to strive to drive down the number of people who are injured or killed on our roads."
Figures from Essex police have shown that the number of incidents in which someone was killed or seriously injured incident has fallen steadily since 2006 when there were 1174. Last year there were 677.
