Roads/highways policing

INTERVIEW: Essex Police’s Commercial Vehicle Unit (CVU) is staffed by officers who have completed specialist training to qualify as transport managers and HGV drivers, enabling the team to engage more effectively with the industry – which has helped to significantly reduce the number of killed and seriously injured collisions involving lorries, as CVU Sergeant Dearsley told Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons.

INNOVATION: New technology is being used to help police and local authorities improve road safety, with AI-enabled cameras identifying bad driving on roads in Devon and Cornwall, and extensive harsh-breaking data helping local authorities to predict potential collision blackspots, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

FEATURE: Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about Operation Voice, a pilot initiative launched within the force which overlaid road traffic data onto data for violence against women and girls to identify and apply “relentless pressure” to high-harm perpetrators.

FEATURE: A new report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland has urged Police Scotland to allocate more posts to roads policing, improve training, and increase enforcement in an effort to cut down on the number of fatal and serious injury road accidents as well as deter poor and dangerous driving by the public, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: New research exploring the challenge of distracted driving and police officers’ role in educating drivers about the dangers of mobile phone use highlights a lack of understanding about the impact of handsfree phone use, and missed opportunities to educate drivers; research authors Professor Gemma Briggs of the Open University, Dr Leanne Savigar-Shaw of the University of Staffordshire, and Keele University’s Dr Helen Wells explain the key findings from the research, and what can be done to address them.

ANALYSIS: New research undertaken in Cleveland Police into police pursuits has highlighted how forces could target their stretched resources more effectively, and potentially improve training on local and rural roads, as well as indicating opportunities for police to work with manufacturers and other partners to make better use of technology in preventing pursuits, as Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons reports.

ANALYSIS: Young male drivers are four times more likely than older drivers to be killed or seriously injured on the roads in the UK, and road traffic crashes are the leading cause of death among 17-24-year-olds; Police Foundation Researcher Ruth Halkon explains why her organisation has joined forces with several others to push for the next government to adopt a public health approach to road death reduction, including graduated licences and improved driver education.

INNOVATION: In the latest in a series of articles exploring the opportunities and challenges presented to police by the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI), Chief Philip Lukens explores the potential for improving officer safety, wellbeing and performance though the use of AI systems to detect fatigue in police drivers.

OPINION: After several years of declining road deaths in pursuit of Vision Zero, road fatalities in Australia in 2023 reached levels not seen in nearly a decade; Senior Lecturer Dr Milad Haghani of UNSW Sydney believes that more focused and tailored safety campaigns together with closer monitoring of the community road safety climate can help to get Australia back on track.

FEATURE: Drug-drivers convicted in the South Tees area (policed by officers in Cleveland) will become the first in the UK to be offered an educational course to reduce reoffending – similar to the drink-drive rehabilitation scheme – under a pilot programme which, if successful, could be rolled out nationwide, as Policing Insight’s Thomas James reports.

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FEATURE: A new approach to traffic policing is applying the evidence-based principles of the Cambridge Crime Harm Index to target serious traffic collision hot spots in Cumbria; Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons spoke to Sgt Jack Stabler of Cumbria Constabulary about the thinking behind the new Road Harm Index, and the benefits the initiative could bring for police, partners and the public.

INTERVIEW: The focus of New Zealand Police’s road policing approach has been widened to include impairment prevention relating to drug-driving and fatigue; Supt Steve Greally, Director of the National Road Policing Centre, spoke to Policing Insight’s Sarah Gibbons about the need for a holistic approach, the plans for roadside drug testing, and the impact on officers of dealing with the fatalities and serious injuries caused by poor driver decisions.

ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE: This one day event, supported by Policing Insight as media partner, will be a mixture of briefing by keynote speakers and audience participation to obtain ideas and views on next step activity for the National Tutelage Service in 2023 and beyond. It is an exciting opportunity for some innovative thought and discussion to build on what is universally acknowledged as a highly effective roads policing intervention. Register to attend 19th April 2023 at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in Oxford.

OPINION: While the Covid lockdown prompted a significant drop in traffic and road casualties, the post-pandemic figures reveal a sharp increase in both; Charlie Norman, Managing Director of DriveTech, believes now is the time for a reset on road safety, and for the recommendations in the Police Foundation’s recent roads policing report – including road safety to be a Strategic Policing Requirement, and the creation of roads policing secretariat – to be put into practice.

INTERVIEW: UKROEd is responsible for the management of the National Driver Offender Retraining Scheme (NDORS); Chief Executive Ruth Purdie, formerly a police officer for 30 years, spoke to Policing Insight about what the scheme has delivered since its first online courses were offered in 2020, and what role driver re-education can play in helping to sustain a long-term reduction in death and serious injury on our roads.

OPINION: In Australia, a growing number of Facebook pages dedicated to identifying the locations of police traffic operations are enabling drug users to avoid detection during roadside drug-testing initiatives; but Research Assistant Laura Mills, Professor James Freeman and Dr Verity Truelove of the University of the Sunshine Coast believe that regardless of Facebook, there is a fundamental need to increase motorists’ perceptions of being caught for drug driving.

OPINION: Despite many more people dying on the roads than from terrorism or knife crime, roads policing resources have been significantly cut back over the past decade; now the Police Foundation has called for roads policing to be made a Strategic Policing Requirement, and a new Road Safety Commissioner appointed, in an effort to reverse the de-prioritisation of roads policing, as Police Foundation Director Rick Muir explains.

opinion: Promoting a single equality cause as overtly as this week's pictures of the LGBT rainbow emblem on police liveried vehicles could inadvertently discriminate against other protected groups, argues Evan Morris, Vice Chairman of the National Association of Police Fire and Crime Panels

FEATURE: While lockdown led to a reduction in many crimes, speeding motorists abusing the empty roads led to an increased demand for driver retraining schemes; crisis communication consultant Amanda Coleman spoke to Ruth Purdie, Chief Executive Officer of UK Road Offender Education (UKROEd), about working with forces during the pandemic, the move to online retraining courses, and how the service will be delivered moving forwards.

OPINION: With funding for policing and the wider public sector likely to be under significant pressure in the post-Covid economic landscape, resources for roads policing may be severely stretched; Charlie Norman, Managing Director of DriveTech, believes improved partnerships with the private sector could be crucial to maintaining safety on the roads.

OPINION: Following the recent HM Inspectorate report into roads policing, and the current Department for Transport review of the issue, roads policing in the UK is back under the spotlight; DriveTech Managing Director Charlie Norman welcomes the renewed focus on a crucial policing issue, and shares his company’s response to the review consultation.