New Northamptonshire policing unit to tackle road crime

Officers in a new unit will focus on tackling road crime and improving safety

A new roads policing team (RPT) in Northamptonshire is aiming to drive down crime and improve safety on the county's roads.

Between 6 February and 6 April, the new team made 88 arrests and seized 188 vehicles, Northamptonshire Police said.

The unit uses 14 repurposed cars fitted with more powerful engines, so they can cope better with high-speed pursuits.

Chief Constable Nick Adderley said the team was crucial to the disruption of serious organised crime groups.

The unit has been funded by the office of the police, fire and crime commissioner and consists of five teams, each containing one sergeant and eight police constables.

It combines officers from within the constabulary with others transferred from other police forces.

The unit replaces regionalised traffic operations, which have been in place for about a decade and "did not work effectively", a spokesperson said.

The force said the new unit benefitted from state-of-the-art vehicles that carry bleed kits and stingers, and the team also had drone and Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) capabilities.

It is clamping down on a "fatal five" offences committed by drivers - not wearing a seatbelt, using a mobile device, being under the influence of drink or drugs, careless driving and excessive speeds.

The force added it also had new resource to educate people about road safety.

About 40 people were killed or seriously injured on the county's roads last year.

'We will come for you'

Det Ch Insp Shelley Nichols, who leads the unit, said: "This team will target criminals that use the Northamptonshire roads network to commit offences, disrupting and prosecuting those responsible.

"Don't bother coming to Northamptonshire because we will come for you," she added.

Chief Constable Nick Adderley said: "The public would expect me to respond when they see the number of people who are killed and seriously injured on roads.

"This is not just about enforcement, but education as well. Across the county we've not had the assets to deal with that as well."

The new roads policing team has been tasked with stopping serious organised crime groups

He added: "The work of the RPT is also crucial to the disruption of serious organised crime groups who blatantly use our open road networks to commit their criminal activity. The RPT will work to detect, disrupt and dismantle these groups."

Mr Adderley said static speed cameras, which were turned off in Northamptonshire in 2011, were "not as effective as they could be or should be", and the police were continuing to use mobile speed vans to "get to those [speeding] hot spot areas".

He said the force was talking to the county's two councils about investment in average speed cameras, saying any questions regarding static speed cameras returning to use was a "local authority issue".