On Good Friday (15th April) Isle of Wight officers were joined by unmarked vehicles from the mainland Roads Policing Unit (RPU) Proactive team to discretely target criminals using the Island’s road network.
Part of the work involved taking action against road-related crime, but the focus was on other high harm criminality such as identifying vehicles involved in drugs supply, with deployment of in-car ANPR cameras.
Arrest and seizures
Throughout Good Friday, officers carried out the following work:
- 13,257 vehicles were read by the team’s in-car ANPR cameras
- 218 manual vehicle checks were carried out
- Approximately 45 manual person checks were carried out
- Eight vehicles were searched under the Misuse of Drugs Act. Three of these were as a result of markers on the vehicles, indicating they were registered to people of interest to the police. The other five vehicle checks were self-initiated by officers.
- Approximately 30 vehicles were stopped by officers and checked for document offences and roadworthiness
- One man was arrested for drug driving under Section 5a of the Road Traffic Act
- One vehicle was seized for no insurance
- One vehicle was seized for failing to stop for police
- One driver was given a ticket for not wearing a seat belt
- One driver was given a ticket for having a faulty exhaust
- Five drivers were warned around vehicle faults
Charge: Have listened to Islanders’ concerns
Isle of Wight Chief Inspector Alex Charge said,
“We know that Islanders have concerns about the misuse of our road networks on the Isle of Wight.
“We have listened to these concerns, and taken action to target criminals and protect motorists.
“The teams across the Island conduct a lot of hard work to tackle drugs supply, including executing warrants and seizing drugs during address searches and stop checks, but it’s important to note that the roads play a significant part in this type of criminality.
“I am grateful for the efforts of the teams both here on the Island and the additional resource from the mainland in proactively targeting vehicles involved in this.
“This work has also increased our opportunity to clamp down on dangerous driving habits and vehicle-related offences. We regularly conduct campaigns relating to the ‘Fatal Four’ driving behaviours that put motorists at risk of serious and fatal collision – these are drink/drug driving, speeding, driving without a seatbelt and driving whilst using a mobile phone.
“We are committed to working in partnership to improve road safety for all drivers on the Isle of Wight, and I want to reassure Islanders that this work continues alongside our other policing priorities.”
News shared by Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary, in their own words. Ed
Image: westmidlandspolice under CC BY 2.0
