Residents of an east London borough were this week given an unusual invitation – the opportunity to turn vigilante against the driving habits of their own neighbours.
Hackney is the latest borough to sign up to London’s scheme to encourage residents to take policing into their own hands.
Led by Transport for London, the Community Roadwatch scheme issues ordinary people with hi-vis vests and radar speed guns, before sending them into the streets of their neighbourhoods to catch reckless drivers. “Your opportunity to use speed detection equipment in your neighbourhood!” said the emails sent to local residents.
Since the scheme was introduced in August last year, 4,177 motorists have been clocked speeding, with 3,632 advisory letters sent. Those caught driving particularly fast are added to police intelligence systems and could face a targeted stop by officers.
London is, however, a latecomer to the initiative, which is already being run in various rural and suburban communities. Currently available in only half the city, TfL aims to roll it out to all 32 London boroughs by the end of 2016.
Those who sign up are trained to use radar speed guns by PCSOs and police volunteers, and are issued with hi-vis vests and publicity materials. Escorted by uniformed PCSOs, they then take to the streets to measure the speed of drivers passing through previously identified areas of concern. In a rule designed to ensure impartiality, participants are banned from using speed detection equipment in the road on which they live. A TfL spokeswoman said this was because they wanted the community to “be objective”.
Motorists recorded breaking the speed limit are issued with warning letters, although those travelling at excessive speed could face a home visit or immediate action from police. Intelligence gathered will also help TfL and the Met to assess traffic and policing strategies.
Equipment is managed by areas’ local safer transport teams and is signed in and out by PCSOs as and when required. That sets it apart from other, similar schemes across England, in which local residents are forced to fork out collectively for the radar guns they use.
One resident of a village in Suffolk, which has run a community speed watch scheme for the past four years, said he and his neighbours had to spend £2,000 to get their hands on a radar gun. They also take part without the support of PCSOs. “It does seem very arsey, and you do feel a bit of a prick, and you do get a lot of abuse,” said the resident, who preferred to remain unnamed over embarrassment at being part of the scheme. “In one case [involving] one of our women, a guy stopped down the road, came running up the road and started throwing abuse at her.”
Spotters operate in teams of three, with one holding the radar gun and two looking out to identify the vehicle’s make and licence plate number, the resident said. Vehicles driving at over 36mph have their details marked down and the police send a letter to the owner. It is understood that any who collect three letters can then be fined. Drivers clocked at over 50mph get a visit from police.
“The bottom line [is] people are still flying through the village. So whether we are having an effect or not is another matter. And I don’t particularly enjoy it. I feel like an absolute idiot, which is why you are not to mention my name,” said the volunteer.
Nevertheless, the resident said, with children out in the early morning travelling to school or doing paper rounds, and drivers barrelling through the village’s 30mph zone at speeds of 55mph or more, it was an important scheme to be a part of. “If you hit a kid at 30, they’ll live; if you hit a kid at 40, there’s a good chance they won’t. And that’s the difference. Also in our village, there’s loads of old people, and they take time to get off the road,” the resident said.
The scheme operates in villages across Suffolk, the resident added. “I think you metropolitan types [in London] are just behind the curve.”
London’s Community Roadwatch scheme began in Bexley and Croydon in August 2015. Since then, Bromley, Lewisham, Greenwich, Southwark, Brent, Barnet, Haringey, Hillingdon, Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and the City of London have joined the scheme ahead of its full roll-out.
Steve Burton, TfL’s director of on-street operations, said: “Community Roadwatch is a great example of our local safer transport teams working to improve road safety in local neighbourhoods.”
Polling on such schemes, conducted by Populus on behalf of the AA last year, found that drivers were evenly split on whether they were an acceptable way to address speeding, with 42% in favour and 40% against it. However, more than three-fifths said they felt uncomfortable with the idea of volunteers aiming radar guns at them while they were driving, and nearly half felt it was “just an excuse for local busybodies to interfere with neighbours’ behaviour”.
