Central Operations thematic performance

Report: 6
Date: 9 July 2009
By: Assistant Commissioner Central Operations on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report is submitted to update the Committee on Roads and Traffic Policing. It provides details on the MPS drive to deny criminals the use of the road and to reduce road casualties. The MPS is projected to meet the 2010 target provided enforcement levels do not drop.

A. Recommendation

That members note the report.

B. Supporting information

1. In accordance with Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Roads Policing Strategy, jointly agreed with the Home Office and Department for Transport (DfT), the MPS is committed to:

• Denying criminals use of the roads by enforcing the law;
• Reducing road casualties;
• Tackling the threat of terrorism;
• Reducing anti-social use of the roads;
• Enhancing public confidence and reassurance by patrolling the roads.

2. Using the baseline figures of 1994/8 average, the DfT have set Killed and Seriously Injured (KSI) reduction targets of 40% for all KSIs and 50% for child (under 16) KSIs by 31 December 2010. The Mayor of London has set the MPS an additional stretch target of 50% for all KSIs and 60% for Child KSIs.

3. London is one of the world’s busiest cities. The vast majority of Londoners will use the capital’s roads each day as drivers, riders, passengers or pedestrians. Each day over 60 million vehicle miles are travelled over 9,274 miles of London’s roads.

4. The MPS and the Traffic OCU seek to ensure that people can all use London’s roads, go about their daily life and get round the capital safely and without being harmed or intimidated by unlawful and anti-social behaviour on the road. Roads Policing also seeks to deny criminals the use of roads for carrying out crime. Roads Policing is therefore an important and visible element in the police's commitment to protect the public, to help maintain safe communities and civil society, and to support law abiding citizens' confidence in the law.

5. The MPS KSI Strategy is attached at Appendix 1. It sets out how the MPS will reduce road casualties. In the wider Road Safety arena, ‘the three Es’ of enforcement, engineering and education are how KSI reduction can be achieved. It is important to note that partnership activity is a key factor in all of these areas.

6. Research has shown that the 4 biggest killers on the UK’s roads are:

• Not wearing a seat belt
• Speed
• Using a hand held mobile phone whilst driving, and
• Drink / Drugs driving.

7. The first three offences listed above are collectively referred to as ‘THINK Campaign’ tickets as the Department for Transport (DfT) co-ordinate national advertising and enforcement activity under their THINK Campaign.

8. The KSI reduction target is a MPS target with all MPS staff across all of the Business Groups being able to contribute. It is not solely the preserve of the Traffic OCU. The Roads Policing Strategic Committee chaired by Commander Roads Policing monitors traffic legislation enforcement across the whole MPS.

9. The baseline figure for total KSIs is 6,639, with a 2010 target figure of 3320. In 2008 there were a total of 3,387 KSIs. This is a reduction of 49% on the baseline figure. In respect for Child KSIs the baseline figure is 934 with a 2010 target figure of 551. In 2008 there were a total of 310 Child KSIs. This is a reduction of 67% on the baseline figure. Whilst we can reflect positively on these reductions, there is no room for complacency in that Londoners are still being killed and seriously injured on the capital’s roads. Moreover we must not lose sight of the individual, family and community tragedies behind each individual statistic.

10. The relationship with the London Camera Safety Partnership (LSCP) is managed on behalf of the MPS by the Traffic Criminal Justice Unit (CO16) at Marlowe House, Sidcup. The Traffic CJU undertake traffic prosecutions on behalf of the MPS. Research by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) has indicated that where cameras have been located the number of collisions resulting in death or serious injury has been reduced by at least 59%. TfL estimate that this equates to a reduction of 500 fewer KSIs per year. Safety Camera enforcement activity by the MPS continues to be concentrated at classified speed and ATS sites where there is a history of collisions involving fatal and serious injury. During 2008/9 CO16 staff viewed 539,234 camera detected offences, which resulted in the issue of 304,324 Notices of Intended Prosecution.

11. CO16 also work closely with the CPS and court service to administer justice in relation to KSIs. In 2008/09, it dealt with 210 fatal collision cases, 707 serious life-changing collisions and 25,002 personal injury collisions. In addition it dealt with a total of 22,819 traffic reported incidents. As a result of these reported incidents, the Unit laid a total of 27,829 cases to court involving 49,732 summonses. Improved prosecution procedures, including sentencing in absence, have resulted in a situation in which record numbers of serial and serious traffic offenders are being disqualified from driving by courts in London. Since CO16 started keeping detailed records in late 2006/7, the activities of the Unit have resulted in 8759 offenders being disqualified through the courts. There are currently 2332 live disqualifications on the database. The link between disqualified drivers and criminal behaviour has been established; statistical sampling shows that 79% of CO16s disqualified drivers have criminal records. The details on this database provide a valuable intelligence tool to target and arrest local criminals still found to be driving and as a consequence disrupt criminality and ultimately deny criminals the use of the road.

12. In recognition of the enforcement gap in dealing with non-UK drivers found to contravene traffic law, CO16 has established a Foreign Driver Review and Enforcement Group. Membership includes senior representatives from CO16, CO15, the courts service, CPS, the Borders and Immigration Service, HM Courts Fine Recovery Services, TfL and ACPO. The group has initiated ‘Operation Tripper’ which is a live enforcement pilot for foreign driver offences. With five successful prosecutions to date, further initiatives relating to the scope of the operation will be explored and developed over the next financial year.

13. There are also links to increased danger to other road users caused by those individuals who do not insure or maintain their vehicles. Therefore enforcement of traffic legislation is a major factor in combating these risks. Traffic OCU has introduced an encompassing performance category of ‘Dangerous’ which includes the number of construction and use offences dealt with by either prosecution or prohibition (requiring the vehicle to be repaired before continued use on the road), dangerous position / load of vehicles, offences of death by dangerous driving, dangerous and careless driving offences.

14. The top three causation factors for all collisions are ranked:

• drivers failing to look properly
• drivers being careless/reckless in a hurry and
• drivers making a poor turn or manoeuvre.

15. It should be noted that the House of Commons Transport Select Committee use the statistic that 95% of road collisions are attributable to human error.

16. Another MPS area of enforcement is Operation Reclaim, targeting and seizing uninsured vehicles. Territorial Policing (TP) manages this operation for the MPS. Research has shown that motorists without insurance and a valid driving licence are more likely to be involved in collisions than law abiding drivers. Indeed DfT studies show that uninsured drivers are 10 times more likely to have a drink drive conviction and drivers without a valid licence are up to nine times more likely to be involved in a collision. It is for these reasons that the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and other police databases to stop such drivers is essential before they go on to kill or maim the public.

17. In the financial year 2008/9, 32,000 vehicles were seized for having no insurance or where the driver was driving other than in accordance with a driving licence. Of these, 16,000 were seized by Traffic OCU. In MPS terms, this is a 300% increase on the previous year and the MPS now seizes nearly three times more vehicles than any other force. The income after expenditure that is generated from vehicle seizures has been set towards Operation Tyrol (providing officers to enhance safety primarily on the bus network) in the next three years.

18. The headline enforcement target figures set for Traffic OCU for 2008/9 were:

• 30,000 FPNs for speeding, seat belt and mobile phone offences (THINK Campaign);
• 1,600 arrests from drink / drug driving;
• 12,000 no insurance disposals which includes FPNs issued, process books completed, arrests for having no insurance and disqualified driving;
• 1,100 arrests generated by the ANPR in Traffic’s patrol vehicles;

19. Traffic OCU achieved the following:

• issued 37,747 THINK Campaign FPNs;
• arrested 2,150 drink / drug drivers;
• 17,929 no insurance disposals; and
• arrested 1,976 people through ANPR.

20. It should be noted that the rest of the MPS issued an additional 47,094 THINK Campaign tickets.

21. On behalf of the MPS, Traffic OCU staff resources the five ANPR Intercept teams. Central Operations Coordinating and Tasking Office (CO CaTO) manages the operational deployment of the ANPR teams ensuring that its taskings are intelligence led with coordinated support from the Boroughs and other MPS resources such as TSG and Dog Section. CO CaTO and CO15 have improved the ANPR databases. An example of this is the updating and weeding of the Operation Neon database which has made these operations more successful and focused. This also has reduced the risk to the MPS of stopping vehicles which have changed owners or on which the Intelligence held is out of date. Work is in progress to pass ownership of these databases to Met Intelligence Bureau (MIB). In 2008/9 Traffic’s ANPR Intercept teams were deployed on 1080 operations and arrested 3049 offenders.

22. The ‘Results from the public consultation to inform the Policing London Business Plan 2010/11’ report shows that traffic and road related matters are in the top five concerns of Londoners. This is re-enforced from the feedback from Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) in looking at their ward priorities.

23. Traffic OCU supports SNT policing priorities by providing specially trained personnel and equipment. The decision whether to assist with a request for support and assistance from an SNT is considered both at local Traffic Garage level and twice monthly tasking meetings chaired by Superintendent Operations. Those requests, which meet the policing priorities of both Traffic and the national strategic aims, are given primacy. In this way, the Traffic OCU is able to support SNT colleagues by providing appropriate resources such as speed enforcement teams, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) equipment and operators, together with additional resources to combat drug driving and complicated traffic legislation offences. The Traffic OCU is also supporting the Community Speedwatch initiative by providing training and advice to SNTs in the use of speed detection equipment. In addition the local Garage Chief Inspectors ensure that Traffic OCU resources are sent to all boroughs within their geographic area in ‘Borough of the month’ initiatives. CO16 through their LSCP enforcement teams also deploy resources in response to local concerns about speeding.

24. The MPS and Traffic OCU work with partners to reduce casualties amongst vulnerable road users.

25. Recent reports from TfL have highlighted the over representation of Black and Minority Ethnic children in the Child KSI statistics. Traffic OCU is representing the MPS on the Pan London Road Casualty Inequalities Steering Group headed by Jeanette Arnold.

26. On 20 2009 April, a CO15 Partnership Unit day of action was held in conjunction with ANPR teams and Safer Neighbourhood Teams. Traffic OCU Intelligence Unit had identified five sites that were in a deprived ward, close to a school and had a high level of uninsured drivers. The operation was timed to co-incide with school drop off and pick up times. This was designed as an ‘enforcement’ follow up to earlier ‘education’ presentations by the Partnership Unit in schools and colleges. As a result 230 vehicles were stopped with 51 seized for no insurance/licence, a total of 74 FPNs were issued and 15 arrests made. Traffic will continue this tactic to support the work of the Pan London Road Casualty Inequalities Steering Group.

27. Traffic OCU chairs a multi-agency group to reduce the incidence of fatal collisions involving cyclists and LGVs. Membership of this group includes Transport for London (TfL), cycling community representatives, road victim support, the freight industry, Vehicle and Operators Standards Agency (VOSA) and the City of London Police (CoLP). Officers from Traffic OCU and CoLP together with support from TfL and the multi-agency group have held events to raise the awareness of cycle and LGV safety.

28. The Commercial Vehicle Education Unit (CVEU), part of the Traffic OCU Partnership Team, is sponsored by TfL. As well as enforcement activity the CVEU undertakes freight operator company visits to educate and encourage compliance with road traffic laws and health and safety legislation (road related). This is a unique aspect of the CVEU as it is able to use both police powers and delegated Health & Safety Executive Inspector powers. In 2008 the CVEU stopped 2479 vehicles, and conducted 213 company visits. In November 2008, TfL surveyed a sample of companies visited by the CVEU. A typical comment was "Police officers that you can actually talk to, get a sensible answer out of that aren't actually going to make judgments against you. They're there to support you and help you do things right". The CVEU has built on this approach by holding monthly ‘Stammtisch’ events at motorway service stations around the Metropolitan Police District. These are occasions where CVEU officers offer informal advice to lorry drivers about road traffic matters. This concept has now been rolled out across the UK through ACPO.

C. Race and equality impact

The Pan London Road Casualty Inequalities Steering Group headed by Jeanette Arnold is seeking to address the issues around the disproportionate number of minority ethic children killed or seriously injured in collisions. There is a national link showing that the more impoverished areas also have a higher numbers of KSIs. Traffic OCU is working closely with this Steering Group. The MPS monitors ‘collision corridors’ which have a high incidence of crashes. As a result the MPS target patrols and tasks Traffic Officers to these roads. It should be noted that these areas are also high crime areas.

D. Financial implications

1. In May 2009 TfL advised the MPS that they propose to reduce funding for the LSCP from £5.9m to £3m for 2009-10 onwards.

2. As the LSCP unit is budgeted to be self funding, this reduced level of income will only cover the Unit’s costs until September 2009. Discussions are currently on-going with TfL to get the funding re-instated to £5.9m for 2009-10 as, given the late notification, it will not be possible to reduce the Unit’s expenditure to the proposed income level in the current year.

3. Over the next year the Unit will be down sized to reflect the loss of income from TfL as the MPS are not in a position to meet the funding shortfall.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author: Chief Superintendent David Snelling, MPS

For information contact:

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

Appendix 1

MPS KSI Strategy

In accordance with Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Roads Policing Strategy, jointly agreed with the Home Office and Department for Transport (DfT), the MPS is committed to:

• Denying criminals use of the roads by enforcing the law;
• Reducing road casualties;
• Tackling the threat of terrorism;
• Reducing anti-social use of the roads;
• Enhancing public confidence and reassurance by patrolling the roads.

Using the baseline figures of 1994/8 average the DfT have set KSI reduction targets of 40% for all KSIs and 50% for child (under 16) KSIs by 2010. The Mayor of London has set the MPS an additional stretch target of 50% for all KSIs and 60% for child KSIs.

London is one of the world’s busiest cities. The vast majority of Londoners will use the capital’s roads each day as drivers, riders, passengers or pedestrians. Each day over 60 million vehicle miles are travelled over 9,274 miles of London’s roads.

Roads Policing seeks to ensure that people can all use London’s roads, go about their daily life and get round the capital safely and without being harmed or intimidated by unlawful and anti-social behaviour on the road. Roads Policing also seeks to deny criminals the use of roads for carrying out crime.

Road Policing is therefore an important and visible element in the police's commitment to protect the public, to help maintain safe communities and civil society, and to support law abiding citizens' confidence in the law.

Research has shown that the 4 biggest killers on the UK’s roads are:

• Not wearing a seat belt
• Speed
• Using a hand held mobile phone whilst driving and
• Drink / Drugs driving.

There are also links to increased danger to other road users caused by those individuals who do not insure or maintain their vehicles. Therefore enforcement of traffic legislation is a major factor in combating these risks.

In the wider Road Safety arena, ‘the three E s’ of enforcement, engineering and education are how KSI reduction can be achieved. It is important to note that partnership activity is a key factor in all of these areas.

Enforcement

The KSI reduction target is a MPS target with all MPS Staff across all of the Business Groups being able to contribute. It is not solely the preserve of the Traffic OCU. The Roads Policing Strategic Committee chaired by Commander Roads Policing monitors traffic legislation enforcement across the whole MPS.

The relationship with the London Camera Safety Partnership is managed on behalf of the MPS by the Traffic Criminal Justice Unit (CO16) at Marlowe House, Sidcup. The Traffic CJU undertakes traffic prosecutions on behalf of the MPS.

The Traffic OCU has Performance Targets for:

• Not wearing a seat belt
• Speed
• Using a hand held mobile phone whilst driving and
• Drink / Drug driving, and
• ‘Dangerous’ vehicle offences such as dangerous condition / position / condition / load / carriage of dangerous goods and dangerous driving.

The seizure of uninsured vehicles is managed by Territorial Policing on behalf of the MPS under the banner of Operation Reclaim.

The Traffic OCU supports Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) policing priorities by providing specially trained personnel and equipment. The decision whether to assist with a request for support and assistance from an SNT is considered both at local traffic garage level and twice monthly tasking meetings. Those requests, which meet the policing priorities of both traffic and the national strategic aims, are given primacy. In this way, the Traffic OCU is able to support SNT colleagues by providing appropriate resources such as speed enforcement teams, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) equipment and operators, together with additional resources to combat drug driving and complicated traffic legislation offences. The Traffic OCU is also supporting the Community Speedwatch initiative by providing training and advice to SNTs in the use of speed detection equipment.

The MPS fully undertakes a variety of national road safety enforcement initiatives co-ordinated by ACPO National Roads Policing Intelligence Forum (NRPIF). The major Roads Policing operations are the Christmas and Summer Drink Drive campaigns.

Traffic OCU runs a National Intelligence Model (NIM) two weekly tasking process focusing resources on road safety issues. Traffic OCU maintains 5 ANPR Intercept Teams on behalf of the MPS. They are tasked by CaTO to support MPS priorities.

Engineering

The responsibility for providing engineering solutions and improvements to roads rests with Transport for London (TfL) or the local highways authorities.

Traffic OCU manages the Traffic Management Unit (TMU) with specially trained officers who have responsibility on behalf of the MPS for:

• assessment of traffic management schemes
• statutory consultation with TfL and local highway authorities
• speed limit assessment
• responsibility for co-coordinating action at casualty reduction sites
• safety audits with TfL and local highway authorities at fatal collision sites
• site meetings with contractors to ensure safety at roadworks.

Education

The TMU undertakes partnership liaison with SNTs, TfL, local authorities and local authority Road Safety Officers (RSOs). These RSOs have primary responsibility for providing road safety advice in educational establishments. The TMU and TP Borough staff provide additional input to schools when required. Traffic OCU Partnership Unit works with TfL on various initiatives to promote road safety. Examples are:

• Bikesafe – aimed at reducing motorcycle casualties.
• Commercial Vehicle Education Unit who have Health and Safety Executive Inspector powers, to work with the Freight Industry to promote awareness around Work Related Road Safety.
• Oversight of child KSIs.

TP Borough staff also conduct local road safety initiatives in partnership with TfL and local authorities. DfT, TfL and other agencies run publicity campaigns to raise awareness of road safety issues. These are often co-ordinated with ACPO RPIF enforcement operations.

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