Community Speed Watch: keeping Dorset’s roads safe
As part of Volunteers Week, earlier this month, I joined Littlemoor Community Speed Watch as they conducted checks in known speeding hot spots. I was delighted to be able to get out and see one of Dorset's many Community Speed Watch teams in action and would like to take this opportunity to share with you the success of the team over the last year.
Community Speed Watch is a national initiative where proactive members of local communities join with the support and supervision of their local police to record details of speeding vehicles using approved detection devices. As of December 2022, Dorset had over 700 volunteers in 86 Community Speed Watch teams who do vital work towards keeping us all safe on Dorset’s roads.
The team in Dorset work on a three-letter system that sees drivers sent a letter if they are recorded going over the speeding threshold. The first letter is sent as a simple acknowledgement letting the driver know they were seen speeding, the second is a more strongly worded warning and the third is hand delivered by a uniformed officer – giving the opportunity for the speeding motorist to be spoken with in person by the police and be given advice.
In 2022, Dorset’s Community Speed Watch teams held 1,422 sessions which equates to roughly 4,266 hours given up by volunteers. Through these hours the teams recorded 12,125 incidents where drivers exceeded the speeding threshold and warning letters were sent to 9,783 people. Only 34 of these were instances where the driver was hand delivered their third and final warning giving reassurance that the letters do work to reduce speeding. In fact, only 2.4% of the vehicles monitored by Community Speed Watch in 2022 were recorded as speeding. This is down from a peak of 4.4% in 2013.
Road safety is a hugely important issue and any death on Dorset’s roads is a tragedy. When you decide to get in a car and speed you are putting your own and others' lives at risk. I want to send my thanks to every member of our Community Speed Watch teams in Dorset for the vital work they are doing to help combat dangerous driving on our roads. I also want to thank them for another reason – the great majority of Dorset people are lovely but a few actually abuse these volunteers by shouting at them, gesticulating rudely or worse. I want to thank them for putting up with the poor behaviour of the few to help the many – road safety is for everyone, and they contribute to reducing the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads.
The Community Speed Watch scheme is just one part of the multi-faceted work happening to promote road safety in Dorset. In Dorset, we have Op Dragoon that targets high-risk road users who are most likely to kill on our roads, such as prolific offenders who pose a risk on the road through offences such as drink/drug driving and speeding.
The force also runs frequent drink and drug drive campaigns such as the Lift Legend scheme which saw free soft drinks given to designated drivers and periods of intensification around times of heightened risk such as Summer and Christmas.
I hope this newsletter has given you some insight into the work going on to keep us all safe on Dorset’s roads. I will continue to support the many dedicated officers, staff and these volunteers who work hard to reduce the number of people killed and seriously injured on our roads.
David Sidwick
Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner