Driving danger off the road

5:55pm Thursday 23rd August 2007

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Keen eyesight and tech-savvy tactics are helping police officers pluck unsafe drivers from the streets.

A dedicated team of six officers patrol Borehamwood roads daily, ensuring drivers have insurance, an MOT and up-to-date tax discs.

The road team has a new trick up its sleeve - or in the panda cars, to be more precise.

The automatic number plate recognition system (ANPR) is a device that identifies passing number plates and refers back to a national database.

The system can find cars that are on the road illegally, or have been connected to a crime.

Out on patrol with Police Constables Steve Field and Dan Philips, the system's value is clear to see.

PC Field said: "The system is fundamental to our work. It has made our job a lot more efficient. Otherwise we would just be stopping people we don't like the look of.

"You would be surprised at some of the people we have to stop. It is not always the youngsters."

Two cameras are fitted in the PC's car - one each at the front and back. As cars pass the police vehicle, moving images are captured on a computer screen in the front of the car. Each number plate is scanned and analysed.

If there is a problem, a siren alerts the officers and off they go. As well as the high-tech gadgets, the more conventional tool of man power is a great aid to the officers.

Every time the siren sounds, they speed after the offending vehicle. But before it is flagged down, a quick call is made to the control room to check the details are correct.

PC Phillips said: "There is nothing worse than a police car tearing down on you. If we can check before, we don't always have to stop people. It saves their time and ours."

On our patrol, the first offender picked up was a woman driving with a provisional licence, not displaying L-plates.

It wasn't the first time she had been caught - another officer had already recorded that information and fed it to the computer.

She was slapped with a £60 fine and her vehicle was confiscated. She will have to pay an additional fee to have it returned.

While driving around town, PC Phillips explained how he got into the unit.

"I was on the intervention team, but the road policing unit was just something that appealed to me.

"We have a great little team and we get on so well. We work really hard together.

"There is the potential out there for unfit or disqualified drivers to kill someone. We might be able to prevent a death on the road."

After stopping a few more drivers for insurance checks, an emergency call to assist an incident in Bushey came through the radio.

Although the unit is dedicated to road policing, if help is needed it is at hand to back up other officers.

On the road again, another offender was found. The recently-qualified driver got out of the car while police explained what was going to happen because she was driving without insurance.

She was given a £200 fine, six penalty points on her licence and her car was towed away.

PC Field had a message to potential law-breakers on the roads: "Don't drive if you can't afford it. A lot of people feel they are being hard done by and that we are being unfair when we stop them. But they would be a lot more hard done by if they had an accident.