Police highlight work on tackling Derbyshire speed hotspots reported by public

Our road safety teams have shared details of their ongoing work to reduce speeding on our county’s roads, in response to community feedback.

We’re highlighting the work done by our Casualty Reduction Enforcement Support Team (CREST) and Roads Policing unit (RPU) as part of Operation Derbyshire – which sees us showcasing the good work that is being done on crimes that you told us were of concern to you.

For a number of years CREST have been working to cover areas of concern with safety cameras, based on reports that come in from locals via the ‘Report it’ button on the CREST website.

Sarah Robbins, CREST Enforcement Supervisor, said:

“I am really passionate about the work we do within the CREST team and the opportunities we have to engage and educate the public about the dangers of excess speed.

“I became Enforcement Supervisor six years ago and implemented the reporting facility on our website, so that we could proactively target locations where speeding was a problem in an attempt to change driver behaviour and prevent unnecessary collisions.

“As a result, there are now mobile camera sites operated by officers in just under 900 locations countywide, in a bid to ensure that our roads are safer.

“Last year the team spent almost 2000 hours enforcing at countywide sites which included roads in Littleover, Chesterfield and the Peak District and were really well received by local residents, with many coming along to thank officers in the van.”

This work has been further supplemented by RPU officers who launched the speed site project last May, as part of our continued effort to reduce collisions and improve road safety.

As part of the project officers regularly go out to high collision sites and those identified by the public through the CREST website, to monitor speed and provide roadside education to drivers.

Chief Inspector Dave Nicholls, who leads Derbyshire’s RPU said:

“Between May and December 2020 my officers visited 135 locations across the county and interacted with over 2000 motorists, educating them and where necessary issuing speeding tickets.

“During this time, we have seen promising results with 61% of the sites we have visited now showing good speed compliance.

“I know the public sometimes have a negative view of the police work that goes on around speeding, but it is a simple fact that speed kills and sadly we often receive reports of speeding near to schools putting the lives of young children in danger.

“It is also important to note that the work in this area is spearheaded by our communities who want to keep their families, friends and vulnerable residents of their local area safe.

“We will continue our efforts during 2021 and already in January have visited 37 sites, interacted with over 140 drivers and issued 36 speeding tickets.”

Operation Derbyshire runs until the end of May. It will see officers and staff sharing with our communities the excellent work that is going on to tackle certain crime types in the county and support victims.

 

We recognise that many crimes have a devastating effect on the victim and those close to them, but they may not always be in the spotlight - these crimes, which you told us are important to you via the police and crime commissioner’s public consultation, will be the focus for this operation.

The operation will highlight what we are doing to reduce speeding; tackle wildlife, heritage and rural crime and target community crimes like anti-social behaviour.

Operation Derbyshire will also highlight the work that we and our partners do to support victims and bring offenders to justice.

You can keep up-to-date with our work on social media by following #OpDerbyshire.