Except for the fact that every speeding ticket issued automatically gets classed as a detection, due the nature of speeding being a strict liability offence. Police forces use detections as a KPI, so police officers will always be tempted to pursue the simplest / quickest detections possible, in order to help them meet the quotas required by their superiors.
Your faith in the Police is admirable, but not something I share.
Firstly, target driven policing is not the norm nor is it successful. Secondly, the majority of officers can't enforce speeding due to lack of calibrated devices.
So, you're now looking at Roads Policing and/or speed vans as the major unit for the detection of traffic offences, with the focus here being on speeding.
You're saying that said forces use speeding offences as a KPI? That's wrong. In fact, due to the failings in target driven polices there is a policy of no quotas.
There may be individual supervisors who do push it for their own egotistical reasons, but it is not a force policy and nor is it the key component for most.
But... if there is a problem with speeding in an area, it is right for the police to peruse speeders to achieve speeders to work with locals to deal with an issue.
There's been a recent example of Childwall Valley Road where speeding have been enforced systematically but that's not because of KPI or targets.
It's because an old gentleman and his dog were killed by a speeding BMW with the residents complaining - it was nothing to do with targets and quotas.
Roads policing have a much wider remit that speeders and a large proportion of their time will be helping to prevent crime using motor vehicles.
