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Police urged to step-up speed camera enforcement
28 October 2020
Road Safety Support’s Raising the Game report, highlights the need for, and strategy to up the game of speed camera enforcement by UK police forces.
The report states that “there were 1,793 reported road deaths in 2017, similar to the level seen since 2012. There were 39% fewer fatalities in 2017 compared with 2007.”
According to the Department for Transport (DfT)’s 2019 annual report for road casualties in Great Britain, there were 1,721 reported road deaths and 25,945 serious injuries in 2019.
Road Safety Support says that the use of speed cameras is too restricted to ‘collision cluster sites’ and that they need to be used to deter speeding offenders over a wider area. Within their report, the not-for-profit company makes it clear that they are not pushing for increased sanctions, but simply for achieving greater results from existing parameters.
Road Safety Support offered the following recommendations within the Raising the Game report:
- Introduce a long-term, stepped or layered enforcement strategy.
- Adopt a wide area approach to enforcement.
- Operate a flexible approach to mobile enforcement that is random over the wider area and not selected by rigid criteria.
- Plan to introduce covert enforcement over the wider area to increase the general deterrence effect and the enhanced perception of enforcement – ‘unpredictable visibility’.
- Include a proactive marketing strategy to support enforcement interventions.
- Increase stakeholder support from the public, civic leaders and colleagues by proactive internal and external marketing, which links into other areas of policing.
- Police Forces may want to consider adopting local and national enforcement plans with yearly targets for compliance levels, including on speeding, in line with the EC 2004 Recommendation of Traffic Law Enforcement.55
- Investigate a blended solution for camera technology that will benefit other areas of road policing that will make our roads safer.
- Encourage Partnerships to work together to implement the strategies at the same time so as to gain maximum general deterrence and PR.
Detective chief superintendent, Andy Cox, of Lincolnshire Police and national lead for fatal collision investigation reporting to the National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) said, “Speeding remains the biggest risk to road safety and should be the number one focus and priority for traffic enforcement.
“I would urge all forces to download this report, if they haven't already done so, and follow the recommendations in it in relation to enforcement and communications.
“I urge people to drive within the speed limit, stay safe and keep a clean licence. I thank most lawful road users who are doing so.”
Trevor Hall, managing director of Road Safety Support said, “Police forces and safer roads partnerships have very effective technology at their fingertips that we know reduces casualties; we have the evidence.
“We just need to adopt a new strategy to use it more efficiently and, through regular, proactive communications, help the public to understand that if they speed or commit other offences on the roads, there is every chance that they will be caught.”
Police forces in Northumbria, Essex, Wales and North Yorkshire have already begun making changes to their speed camera enforcement strategies based on the recommendations offered in the Raising the Game report.
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