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15 December, 2017

Safety camera van – winter update

Latest update from North Yorkshire Police Traffic Bureau

On the 8th December 2017, one of our Safety Camera Officers was deployed around Catterick and Bedale in one of our small externally deployed vans. These vans were introduced into the Traffic Bureau in April 2017 in order to promote public engagement and reduce inappropriate road use in more hard-to-reach areas. Feedback from these communities where our smaller vans and bike are located is very positive.

Like our larger vans and bike, these smaller vans are fully capable of capturing not only speed offences but can also identify anti-social driving behaviour such as seatbelt offences and using a mobile phone.

The vans are fully equipped with ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) technology as well as useful safety features such 360 degree CCTV and audio recording.

We attended five sites across the Richmondshire area and are pleased to say that only three offences were captured, all three of which resulted in the offer of a Speed Awareness Course. The majority of these sites were highlighted to us as a result of Community Concerns being put through our Speed Management Protocol by local residents.

In comparison to previous years we can see a positive reduction in offences due to the presence of our Safety Camera Vans in these communities.

This table shows a direct comparison from a selection of the sites visited that day.

A Traffic Bureau representative stated: “It is great to see these numbers fall year on year especially when we can even compare like for like dates and times. Local communities are overwhelmingly in favour of our smaller vans and the bike in more urban areas where we can locate to known areas of concern.

Feedback from the public is that they would prefer to see our Safety Camera Vans near to schools and hospitals where there is the potential for accidents involving more vulnerable road users and pedestrians. This is something that our smaller community based vans and bike can address.”

Any member of the public can submit a road where they feel speed is a concern. Our Speed Management Protocol process will then ensure that a collisions check is completed, taking into account the last three years.

Covert monitoring equipment is then installed for 24 hours a day over a seven day period. The data is collated and assessed for the appropriate outcome.

A relatively high speeding problem highlighted by the data will be referred to our Safety Camera Team for enforcement or to local Government to implement an engineering outcome such as speed bumps or chicanes. A relatively low or no speeding problem will be referred to see if Community Speed Watch would be suitable.