Update on the supervision of the granting of dispensation following police activation of safety cameras

Report: 9
Date: 15 November 2007
By: AC Operational Services on behalf of the Commissioner

Summary

This report sets out the findings of a review undertaken by the DPS into its supervision of safety camera activation by police vehicles and how that supervision can be improved.

A. Recommendations

That Members note the arrangements that have been put in place improving the supervision of dispensation requests from officers subject to the activation of safety cameras whilst on duty.

B. Supporting information

1. On 29 May 2007, the Daily Mail published an article entitled ‘Fury as 90,000 police officers caught speeding are let off’. The article accused police of double standards as only 0.5% of police officers caught speeding or jumping red lights were fined or given points, as opposed to 84% of ‘ordinary’ drivers.

2. The article highlighted that 48,222 MPS vehicles activated cameras but 57 officers (‘a mere 0.1%’) ended up with fines or points.

3. A briefing paper from Operational Services on behalf of Commander CO17 (Transport) showed that although more than 48,000 safety camera activations were reported in 2006–2007, this should be viewed in the context of the 75 million miles driven by the MPS fleet and the answering of 2 million emergency calls.

4. The paper referred to the exemptions available to police drivers under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002 and Police Regulations. (This information was last published in Police Notices on 29 November 2006). These are as follows; the observance of speed limits, observing keep left/right signs and complying with some red traffic signals, if such observance etc. would hinder the use of the vehicle for the purpose it was being used for on that occasion.

5. The process for dealing with activations at the Traffic Criminal Justice OCU CO16 is in two parts. The first filters out activations where the police vehicle is obviously on duty (i.e. flashing blue light). If this is not the case, a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) is issued to the police driver. The driver then applies on Form 4737, an internal form applying for cancellation of the notice, via his/her superintendent, for the notice to be cancelled. This is allowed if the reason complies with the exemptions.

6. The Commander, Directorate of Professional Standards, directed the DPS Independent Review Team (IRT) to review the process where officers applied to have a FPN cancelled.

7. The IRT found that in order to have confidence in the exemptions process a number of actions needed to take place.

Every NIP sent to a police driver must generate a final result that is recorded and retained by CO16.

8. This required the computer system to be searched to report all cases where a "first NIP" has been sent to an address that contains the sequence of letters "police". Hired vehicles will be picked up by a similar search of 2nd and 3rd (subsequent) NIPs. Those cases where no response has been received will be isolated and followed-up. The searches will not identify covert vehicles, which are registered to accommodation addresses. However, OCUs which use such vehicles are sensitive about their security and tend to contact us immediately and have well developed systems to confirm police exemptions, confirmed at Superintendent level.

9. This recommendation was implemented on 1 October 2007. Searches will take place on a monthly basis and will report all cases where 60 days has elapsed since the date of offence and where no F4737 has been received.

A field or marker is created on the CO16 computerised system to enable identification of police driver cases.

10. An emergency vehicle marker already exists. This is placed against all cases that involve fire, police or ambulance service vehicles. We have reissued the instruction reminding our operators to tick this box. Cases, which are overlooked and not marked, will be picked up by the searches described at 1. above.

Cases involving police drivers should be filed separately from other cases at CO16, by the BOCU/OCU of the police driver, in order that they can be readily identified and retrieved.

11. This was implemented from 1 October. Some F4737s arrive on bulky files, which are returned to the OCU concerned. F4737 is now photocopied and filed before the file is returned for storing.

Applications to CO16 for exemptions should only be accepted on F4737.

12. Some applications are currently received in email format from superintendents at OCUs that use covert vehicles. Where these "special arrangements" exist, we shall require an electronic version of F4737 to be supplied and copies will be secure-filed separately by the Band C manager concerned.

Develop a review programme for CO15 (Roads Policing) to dip sample applications for exemption that are authorised for NFA:

a) A programme of work selecting BOCUs or OCUs on a periodic basis; and,

b) Targeting BOCUs or OCUs where CO16 have concerns regarding the quantity or quality of applications.

13. Cases can be referred to CO15 (Police Driving Standards Unit) for dip sampling in accordance with a & b above. A protocol for dip sampling commenced on 1 October 2007.

14. The adoption of the IRT recommendations will improve the supervision of applications for dispensation, ensure they are properly authorised by the driver’s superintendent and maintain more accurate records of applications, more able to withstand scrutiny.

Abbreviations and Acronyms:

IRT – Independent Review Team
NIP – Notice of Intended Prosecution

C. Race and equality impact

These recommendations are intended to improve the quality and consistency in decision-making and monitoring process. Therefore, they should not have any adverse affect in respect of race or equality

D. Financial implications

This provision will ensure that issuing authorities will in the future be provided with relevant timely information and that the MPS will thereby avoid being involved in unnecessary prosecutions, and thereby not incur the cost of these prosecutions.

E. Background papers

None

F. Contact details

Report author(s): Stuart Osborne Commander

For more information contact:

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

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