SCS*
Speed Check Services
This is part of a Public Company and consequently cannot be part of a Police-led Scheme

A Free Volunteer Service of RATS* to Safely, Discretely and Accurately Collect Speeding Data
for Town and Parish Councils
to justify their requesting enforcement from the Police or for engineering solutions to curb speeding from the County

OPERATES AS PART OF
COMMUNITY ROADWATCH(UK) C.I.C.
CRW Volunteer Forms: as .doc | as .pdf

SCS is not (cannot be) a part of any Police Scheme
nor is it a substitute for one nor is it in conflict with any of its functions.

STARTED BY RESIDENTS IN FEBRUARY 2015 TO GATHER SPEEDING DATA
Incorporated as a Community Interest Company 25 March 16 to make that service freely available to all

Reports and the CRW Covenant are Copyright and may not be used /adapted/distributed without prior CRW approval
but the contents can be summarised and used freely with credit to Community Roadwatch as the source

CRW Uses 2 types of Calibration-checked Doppler Radar devices as shown below to obtain all its ACCURATE speed readings and ethically, always used 2 operators who act as witnesses for each other and to the readings taken

The radar device (Left) above is the same as that approved by the Police for use by Dorset Speedwatch Volunteers
The Bushnell radar device (Right) is the same as that approved by the Police for use by N Yorkshire Speedwatch Volunteers
where all their Speedwatch kit is funded by the PCC from Speed Awareness (SAW) Course rebates that are paid
directly to Constabularies by training contractors and NOT to the Govt like speed Camera/Court fines.

THE TRUCAM - A REVOLUTION IN COMMUNITY SPEED ENFORCEMENT
(It's Camera van LASER technology in a hand-held device that does not need vehicles to be stopped)

FACT TO REMEMBER FROM ITV SPEED WARS IN 2016 (No longer avaialble)
IN UK THE TOTAL OF ALL SERIOUS ACCIDENTS AND DEATHS IN OUR 30 ZONES ALONE
EXCEEDS THE TOTAL OF SUCH EVENTS IN ALL OTHER SPEED ZONES COMBINED

So, next we hope to see Cambs Constabulary- like HERE - join the 21st Century and support the use of a TruCam IN THE COMMUNITY that in one month using SAW course rebates, would pay for itself (£10,000 in 2023) and in 3 months would pay for a dedicated PCSO to use it at our 30 mph hotspots and in 6 months also pay for a PSV to process its returns. This is a no brainer for a PCC+Constabulary that wants to seriously address speeding in the community where Laser Gun equipped Police Officers or camera vans rarely go or cannot be safely located.

DAY (From 0600) AND NIGHT (To 2200)

Why Community Roadwatch?

Police SPEEDWATCH is a great concept and, when applied practically to address residents' serious speeding concerns - by being allowed to catch and report the speeders who give rise to the greatest concern - it can be a very effective force for good with the Police sending Advisement Letters to Registered Owners (RO) of speeding vehicles in a bid to deter the drivers of these vehicles from speeding again especially when the Team is not there.

However, experience over 4 years and 2000 sessions (along with driver feedback) demonstrated that if a driver is not made aware of his/her speeding by letter (rather than merely being deterred) no long-term good is done at all.
So 'the letter' (getting to the right person) is the deterrent and is key to the success of Speedwatch.

Unfortunately, not all drivers are 'made aware', so all Speedwatch's efforts are not 100% productive because, whilst letters might now be sent to the ROs of ALL speeding vehicles, such standard letters are not guaranteed to reach the appropriate executives of commercial companies (or their drivers) because, these days, many commercial vehicles are leased. In this case, the leased vehicle RO is not the CEO of the liveried Company and there is no guarantee that the lease company will pass on the Police 'Advisement' letters to the actual company or drivers who are the ones that really need the 'Advice'. So, sending Advisement letters to the ROs of lease companies is quite often a total waste of time and public funds as it does not achieve the education objective especially as these Letters require no acknowledgement so there is no way of knowing if they have achieved their purpose and are worth the effort and cost. If these letters requested feedback they would be more worthwhile from an information perspective but that would require a greater Police effort to monitor - and the Police today just don't have that level of interest or resource.

Additionally, in large-fleet, especially national, Companies, the CEO is rarely the RO - that's usually delegated to an administrator who might not pass on the Police letter to the appropriate manager for various reasons. So once again sending Police Advisement letters to these ROs could be a complete waste of time and public funds.

So, a practical, cost-effective alternative - to ensure Advice about their liveried vehicles speeding actually reached the appropriate Commercial Company Manager - was evolved and used by this Sector between 2010 and April 2014 when the Constabulary discontinued it. The 'CEO method' involved the volunteer painstakingly trawling the internet to get the name and address of the appropriate Manager/Director either from the Firm's own website or Companies' House and then mailmerging the vehicle and speeding details (Reg No, Make, Model, Colour + Date, Time, Place, Speed) into a standard letter and sending to a Police contact for an Inspector to approve, sign and send. No acknowledgement was required from recipients for these letters either and, whilst we did see an improvement in behaviour from some drivers, we never had any feedback passed on by the Police, if indeed there was any (probably because no return address was provided).

So today, a speeding commercial vehicle owner of a leased vehicle or of large-fleets of vehicles, could never get to see a Police Speedwatch letter to find out their company's name is being dragged through the mud.

That's where CRW takes over because it enables letters to be sent to all CEOs / appropriate managers of liveried commercial vehicles. Also CRW letters – following ISO9001 positive feedback principles - request both an acknowledgement of receipt and details of the action taken - without infringing the DPA or GDPR safeguards - to prevent a recurrence so we can gauge our effectiveness and measure our success. No other scheme can do that.

With over 1500 letters sent to 800+ Companies since July 15, we are currently running at an 87% positive feedback rate from responsible Company Executives with just 2 MDs irresponsibly and selfishly challenging our right - as residents - to address the persistent speeding of their distinctive Company vans in residential areas at speeds of up to 50 mph in a 30 zone and mainly in their own village.

CRW get results from its letters very quickly, some overnight, and that reinforces our belief that our 'civil' informal way is both appreciated (because we are not associated with the Police) and effective.

UNREGISTERED VEHICLES

Also, if the Police cannot find an owner for a valid registration (VRM) on its Police National Computer it records it as 'Unregistered'. Even though these 'unregistered' or 'SORN'd off the Road' vehicles could be considered the most dangerous on our roads because they could also be untaxed, uninsured and with no MoT, the Police do not have the resources to check them out themselves and, unfortunately, also do not even have time to return these VRMs to Speedwatch teams for them to check if the vehicles have Tax and MoT at the DVLA's website and take appropriate action with postive results.
This is especially important to pursue because of recent reports in the press that, since the Tax Disc was dropped, Vehicle Tax avoidance has become rife.

That's where CRW tries its best to keep death and obvious death-traps off our local roads by noting Reg Nos and fully checking for Tax/MoT of the most serious of speeding and nuisance/noisy vehicles - including cars - after each session and reporting them to the appropriate agency/authority (DVLA for no Tax and the Police using its new web portal if SORN’d or having an expired MoT).

All this as part of Community Roadwatch that does much much more beyond that envisaged or permitted in Speedwatch

HOW DOES CRW DEAL WITH SPEEDING LIVERIED COMMERCIAL VEHICLES?

During CRW/SCS sessions, the Logos of Companies - whose Vehicles are detected speeding in excess of the Speed Limit - are noted, along with the Vehicle Registration Numbers, and after researching the name and email address, the the appropriate director/manager will receive a letter from the Coord to request observance of the speed limit, by their drivers, in future, in ALL our towns/villages.

NAME AND SHAME POLICY
(BY POPULAR DEMAND)

Whilst CRW is legally entitled to publish its factual reports that include the name of all Companies whose vehicles have been detected speeding, so many Companies are taking positive action to address the concerns expressed in our letters that for the time being - as a gesture of good will from a start-up company- we are opting NOT to 'name and shame' but will first attempt to convince reluctant Company Directors, using every responsible means at our disposal, that sticking to the speed limit is good for them as well as the villages they live in or that that host them.

Not to be confused with SCS Ltd that helps to address Speeding quite differently