Cops ‘hide’ among Speedwatch volunteers in crackdown on motorists

Motorists tempted to pass Warwickshire Community Speedwatch volunteers have been warned of surprises that could be hiding behind high visibility jackets. Inspector Jem Mountford this week revealed a tactic used by Warwickshire Police in a bid to crack down on persistent offenders – hiding police officers among camera operators.

The Speedwatch scheme is run by volunteers to help slow traffic in areas of concern. Details of speeding vehicles are taken with the police in writing to the registered keeper, but no official action can be taken unless a police officer catches the driver in the act.

This knowledge can sometimes encourage unwanted behaviour, which Inspector Mountford, a former traffic policeman who now works in South Warwickshire’s Safer Neighborhoods Team (SNT), said police officers were working to find a solution to.

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“If the central reporting system identifies a location that comes up again and again, very often it will be sent to my team and I will direct them to do some enforcement work,” he told the review and oversight committee of Warwick District Council.

“We are supported by a massive network of community safety teams who do their own speed awareness stuff, members of the public who are trained to use the kit.

“This is not enforceable, but it allows us to send letters. If we have an area of ​​particular concern, one tactic is to place a police officer in the middle of those members of the public. All of a sudden it becomes enforceable, and people who might have been too exuberant a lot of times will get pulled over and get a ticket.”

It was part of his response to a question by Councilor Josh Payne (Lib Dem, Cubbington & Leek Wootton) about why speeding was not included as a priority of the South Warwickshire NTS, which covers the boroughs of Warwick and Stratford-on-Avon, and why its annual report did not refer to speeding data.

“Certainly in my ward and no doubt in other parts of the borough, speed is one of the top three concerns that residents and parishes have,” Cllr Payne said.

“If it’s not in the top three, it’s always in the top five.”

Inspector Mountford said such issues were generally the remit of the Road Safety Partnership but there had been some overlap, highlighting how complaints are dealt with by Warwickshire Police’s centralized system, helping to gather evidence to target areas of problems.

However, he also said that the evidence does not always support the claims.

“You’re absolutely right, I appreciate it comes up from time to time, speed is one of the main issues,” Inspector Mountford said.

“What I would say from many years of experience is that very often the perception of speed is slightly different from reality. We do a lot of polling, and it’s rare that perception matches what’s actually happening.

“It’s a strange thing, but the sound of vehicles can make people think they’re going really fast when they’re not. There is quite a structure there to deal with.

“As with everything we do, due to limited resources we have to be data-driven. That’s why we do road surveys if we get a repeat location, it’s to see just that, if perception is reality.

“If it is, we have a number of things we’ve put in place to counter that – it could be camera vans or traffic police officers because they can go to more locations than camera vans.

“In the last few years we have invested in an unmarked police motorcycle (motorcycle) which has a full camera system on it. This was really successful, especially against bikers.

“I appreciate that a lot of that perception is about noise. That’s another thing that comes up a lot, motorcycles and loud exhausts, where we do the best we can, again based on the data.”

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