New police motorcycle team captures thousands of speeding offences

In August last year, the force’s Safer Roads Unit started deploying two police motorcyclists equipped with handheld laser and video speed detection devices, to help neighbourhood policing teams promote road safety and reduce serious collisions in roads identified by our communities.

These officers can target locations on motorcycles where it is difficult to deploy traditional speed camera vans, such as near schools and in rural areas.

What originally started as a trial has been so successful that they are now a permanent part of the team.

“If local policing teams raise concerns about speeding in their communities, the Motorcycle Enforcement Team can deploy to help address the problem and provide reassurance to local residents that these concerns are being taken seriously,” the force said.

Paul Freeman, who leads the team, said: “This new initiative has been a huge success. We have been able to respond to community concerns quicker and in places we haven’t been able to visit in the past.

“Bikes are a lot smaller than the speed camera vans, so can be parked almost anywhere. We can’t get the vans near a school for example, but the bikes can go everywhere. The agility and ability of the bikes means they can be parked where we need them most, on roads that we haven’t been able to enforce in the past.

“They are also great for visibility and public engagement. You can’t see the person in the van operating the camera, but the motorcyclists are right there so we can interact with members of the public about the bikes and what we do.

“The officers can also replay the offence on their handheld device so people can see the reason why they were caught. This is key because the main reason we do this is to educate drivers, so they don’t speed again in the future.”

He added: The sheer number of offences that have been captured is proof that speeding is still a serious problem on our roads. Our work is crucial to changing the attitudes of those drivers.”