More than 100 police vehicles were caught speeding without justification from January to March.

The number of police vehicles caught speeding without an excuse jumped by more than 30 per cent in the first three months of this year.

Police figures published on Thursday show 118 upheld speeding tickets were issued to police vehicles from January to March this year.

That is up from the 81 upheld tickets issued from October to December, and the 97 infringements recorded in the first three months of 2016.

In total last year, there were 270 upheld speeding tickets issued to police vehicles.

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If offences were to continue at the rate they have for the past three months, the 2017 total would reach more than 470.

In total, there were 216 speeding tickets issued to police vehicles from January to March, but 98 of them were waived.

Tickets are waived when officers have a legitimate need to respond urgently.

Police have been emphasising the speed safety message in recent years, and have hinted at moving towards a zero-tolerance approach.

Police officers are required to pay any speeding fines, which range from $30 for travelling 1-10kmh over the limit to $630 for being more than 50kmh over.

There were 15 police vehicles detected travelling more than 50kmh above the speed limit in the past three months.

The data does not specify which, if any, of those breaches resulted in speeding tickets.

The speeding offences from January to March resulted in a total of $46,200 in fines.

Acting national manager of road policing Inspector Bruce O'Brien said the figures were disappointing, as police had a responsibility to model good driving behaviour.

"Police are just as accountable for their driving as any member of the public, and we are disappointed when there are unjustified instances of staff speeding."

All speeding incidents are followed up with officers and an explanation sought. In the case of serious breaches, officers may be subjected to retraining, suspension or downgrading of their driver status.

"Police has a workforce of around 12,000 staff and 3000 vehicles, which travel on average about 90 million kilometres per year.

"While it is unclear why there may have been a short-term increase in infringements, we would ideally like these numbers to be zero.

"This is why we continue to work with our staff to ensure they understand their obligations to model safe driving behaviour."