Safer Driver Two

Report: 6
Date: 19 June 2006
By: Commissioner

Summary

This report outlines police collision data, the Safer Driver Two initiative, the use of Incident Data Recorders in police vehicles and how police drivers are managed. It compares the changes between the planning years 04/05 and 05/06 and the six month period before and after the introduction of Safer Driving 2 in October 2005. The report is structured so as to correspond with the commissioning brief.

A. Recommendation

That members are asked to note the report.

B. Supporting information

1. The MPS recorded a reduction of 5.9% in police collisions (polcolls) and driving incidents, 6,356 falling to 5,681, excluding 150 wrong fuellings. Blameworthy collisions and incidents were 45.3% pre SD2 falling to 43% post. However, this still represents an overall increase of 1.5% ‘year on year’.

2. The figures required by and supplied to the Home Office over police collisions do not include: driving incidents, damage founds and collisions on police premises. Using this definition, the MPS has secured a 12% reduction. However, there has been an increase in ‘serious’ injury polcolls of 43% and a decrease in ‘other’ injury polcolls of 19%. Home Office total polcoll figures for the 6 months pre and post the SD2 launch show a 4.7% reduction from 2389 to 2277. Fatal polcolls remained at the same level.

3. Days lost to sickness as a result of polcolls showed a drop of 321 days or 5.5% over the previous financial year. The drop was 12% for the 6 months post the launch of SD2 when compared to the previous 6 months. Injuries as a result of polcolls are the third highest reason for officers being placed sick as shown on MetHR after ‘assaults on police’ and ‘slips trips & falls’.

4. The MPS Safe Driving Policy was first introduced in 2000 and contained measures to reduce police collisions, improve standards and enable managers to have a clear structure for managing police driving. Safer Driver Two was launched in October 2005, its objective is to re-affirm these principles and reduce the polcoll rate by 5% by 2007-2008 measured by collisions per 1000 miles compared to the 2002-2003 rate.

5. The four themes are education, police driving, processes and polcoll investigation. The major changes within these four areas are:

• oversight by a member of a Senior Management Team;
• a dedicated 'Safe Driving' Intranet site;
• a new pursuit policy providing improved management of pursuits;
• clarification of police driving exemptions;
• new processes relating to the reporting of damage found on police vehicles;
• changes to driving policy making more types of vehicles available to police drivers thereby improving organisational flexibility; and
• changes to the polcoll assessment procedure.

6. Evaluation is measured by monitoring polcoll records and identifying trends in numbers of polcolls recorded and the severity of both injury and damage. Previous analysis showed the number of polcolls has risen in proportion to the increase in the size of the service.

Use, application and limitations of Incident Data Recorders (IDRs) in police vehicles

7. IDRs are data recorders capturing speed, braking, forwards and sideways acceleration and rotation of the vehicle following certain trigger events. The data stored by the IDR can be downloaded onto a laptop computer for analysis. They are particularly useful in assisting Collision Investigators, improving the judicial processing of collisions and helping protect the MPS from malicious allegations. They were first fitted to MPS vehicles in 2000 as part of the Safer Driver policy control strategy; approximately 95% of the four wheeled fleet is now equipped. Unit costs are £500, they have a long service life and are recycled.

8. The limitations of IDRs are that they are not fitted to the motorcycle fleet (this is under development) or hired vehicles, they require the attendance of a traffic sergeant to download them. They provide limited use for pro-active supervision of individual driving standards as they are not a journey recorder, such as a tachograph.

How the risks associated with drivers who have points on their licence and ‘to count’ polcolls recorded against them are dealt with?

9. Officers with seven or more points on their licence cannot drive on duty. Officers have a duty to report the endorsement of their licence; a failure to do so could be a breach of the code of professional conduct. Serious lapses in driving standards are automatically referred to the CPS for prosecution, much in the same way as the public are treated. A conviction would also result in a misconduct board.

10. Line managers who have concerns about an officer’s ability to drive can stop the person from driving. The police driver standards unit also assess every polcoll. Where one is classed as ‘to count’ a separate points award between one and ten is shown on the officers MPS driving permit. At the lower end of this scale, the driver has an interview with their safer driving manager and the result is recorded. In more serious cases, an officer may be relieved from driving for a fixed period. They are only reinstated after an assessed drive with a local assessor or MPS driving instructor. If an officer gains seven or more points on their police driving record they are not permitted to apply for certain posts or training. Officers who accumulate ten points are automatically removed from driving for a mandatory 12-month period.

C. Race and equality impact

The contents of this report are not considered to have any direct or indirect equality or diversity implications. The diversity of police drivers involved in polcolls has been recorded since April 2005. Gender will be recorded from April 2006. Again, more detail can be established once the present database issues are resolved which is scheduled for July.

D. Financial implications

There are no financial implications of this report above and beyond the current budgetary provisions.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Commander Hussain, MPS.

For information contact:

MPA general: 020 7202 0202
Media enquiries: 020 7202 0217/18

Appendix 2

Polcolls pre and post SD2

RAC business solutions were contracted by Health and Safety Branch to carry out an ‘Occupational Road Risk Management Systems Audit’ on the MPS.

A summary of the action points is represented below.

Those in italics were already in place and were overlooked in the research for the audit, had already been implemented before the audit report or are already in progress.

The other points will be considered for implementation.

Safety Policy

1. Appoint an individual MPS board director to be responsible for Occupational Road Risk Management.
2. Revise and update existing safety policy and statement to include specific and unambiguous references to occupational road safety, a zero crash expectancy and the operation of a zero crash culture.
3. Devise / revise and introduce the management systems and procedures necessary to achieve policy objectives and communicate outcomes to all vehicle users.
4. Define and allocate the responsibilities and accountabilities of each office holder in the MPS management hierarchy in order to establish the requirements for implementation, policy monitoring and ongoing compliance.
5. Ensure that all local departments, boroughs and OCUs implement occupational road risk management policies.
6. Identify and reinforce ownership at local level through the Safe Driving Manager.
7. Maintain records across all local directorates.
8. Initiate both central and local audit trails to secure implementation, monitoring and compliance.

Driver selection

1. Gather accurate driver licence, claims history, DVLA medical information to fully support the application
2. Evaluate each applicant’s suitability on a holistic, not just on an aspirational / skill / functional basis
3. Revise form 4672 in order to reflect the above points
4. Revise the signature box on Form 4672 so that the applicant grants the MPS authority to cross check particular details with third parties if required, e.g. driving licence with the DVLA
5. Ensure that all driving licence details are available both locally and centrally, and that all such records are searchable both routinely and on demand
6. Establish random sample, cross-referencing audit trails with the DVLA in order to demonstrate Section 17 (2) 1991 RTA compliance

Training

1. Revise the safety culture throughout the Metropolitan Police hierarchy to ensure that occupational road risk matters are treated as de-facto health & safety issues which rank equal to all other facets of MPS operations.
2. Review the structure, deployment and accountability of the existing Safe Driving Representatives to ensure operational integrity and the application of universal measurement / assessment standards, and the reinforcement of MPS policy requirements.
3. Ensure all assessors are familiar with behavioural profiling; provide training where relevant and necessary.
4. Include all driving related issues within each individual’s annual appraisal.
5. Introduce safety focused elements / briefing as a prerequisite of Basic level certification.
6. Reinforce the adequacy of suspension and / or downgrade from driving duty by not permitting operational necessity to override previous management decisions.
7. Introduce occupational road risk management training for line / senior management.

Investigation

1. Maintain the “to count / not to count” protocol but extend the process to include all safety issues and management factors arising from the collision.
2. Reinforce line management ownership at local level.
3. Initiate both central and local audit trails to secure implementation, monitoring and compliance.

Classification

1. Revise database objectives in order to remove ambiguities and provide clarity:
   • Determine what additional data is required to capture all relevant human and management factors.
   • Determine the precise nature of management information required and relevant to meet safety objectives.
   • Enable all databases to produce such management information easily, both on demand and routinely.
   • If single databases are to be maintained, provide a simple and effective way of importing / exporting common data in order to avoid unnecessary repeat keying of identical data.
2. Clarify investigation methodology based on root cause analysis (S.C.A.T. Systematic Causal Analysis Technique), apply as written policy, to all vehicle users irrespective of status and/or function.
3. Extend investigation process beyond immediate causes (what / how it happened) to include why it happened basic causes (individual - personal factors) and to deficiencies in the management process (individual and collective management factors).
4. Utilise the "root cause factors" identified as a learning experience and communicate the learning outcomes to all vehicle users and all management layers in order to prevent repetition.
5. Ensure all internal management layers review / understand / act on the outcomes from all investigations.

Vehicle check

1. Maintain existing vehicle check policy for all Police vehicles.
2. Reinforce line management ownership at local level.
3. Ensure local audit trails to secure implementation, monitoring and compliance.
4. Extend policy to include all private vehicles that may be used in future on Police activities.
5. Reinforce random (spot) checks by line management (perhaps by garage staff) to ensure and report system compliance.

Fatigue

1. Reinforce existing SOP as stated in section 6.7 of the current MPS Police Driver and Vehicle Regulations to all who drive on Police activities and to all who manage those who drive on Police activities.
2. Initiate a research study into shift patterns and the time spent driving and the time allocated to other operational duties during each working period.
3. Reinforce line management ownership at local and central level to take into account fatigue related issues.
4. Initiate both central and local audit trails to secure implementation, monitoring and compliance.

Communications

1. Ensure that Metropolitan Police reports and / or publications are issued to all on an ongoing basis and include:
   • Performance versus goals.
   • Critical or historic problem areas.
   • Safe driving principles and practices.
   • Learning outcomes from collision investigations.
2. Local / territorial reports by Supervisors / Line Managers.
3. Monthly status reports of avoidable (“to count”) / unavoidable (“not to count”) crashes versus goals distributed to all directorates and all management hierarchies.
4. Quarterly summaries distributed to all management.
5. Driver safety to be an agenda item at all management meetings.
6. Driver safety to be an agenda item at all health and safety management meetings.

Discipline

1. Reinforce the adequacy of suspension and / or downgrade from driving duty by not permitting operational necessity to override previous management decisions.
2. Initiate a proactive, mutual problem-solving approach to the management of occupational road risk in order to challenge existing embedded “acceptance” and “blame culture” attitudes across all levels throughout the MPS hierarchy.

Appraisal

1. Redefine appraisal and/or performance policy and implement to include:
   • Licence details and DVLA validation where relevant.
   • Road safety / collision record.
   • Related incident cost analysis.
2. Apply to all users irrespective of function / status / driver classification and to all locations
3. Reinforce line management ownership at local and central level.
4. Initiate both central and local audit trails to secure implementation, monitoring and compliance.

Validation

1. Complete the review.
2. Define / redefine policies systems and procedures where relevant and necessary.
3. Establish ownership at all levels both at strategic and operational level.
4. Initiate timetable for implementation where relevant and necessary.
5. Agree appropriate intervals for reassessment.

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