THE States police are working with a behavioural-science company to change public attitudes to speeding in what the head of the force described as an ‘exciting’ development in the struggle against ‘a scourge on our parishes’.
Police chief Robin Smith said the ‘Operation Canvas’ campaign to tackle speeding and anti-social driving, which was relaunched in June, had resulted in letters being sent to the owners of 35 vehicles warning that ‘we know who you are’, while 14 had received what he called ‘words of advice’ from officers, and a further five had been called to parish hall inquiries.
Responding to questions on the topic of speeding at the latest Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel hearing, Mr Smith said that although the police were also looking at mobile speed-check cameras, the issue was not ultimately one of technology but of the public psyche.
‘If an ANPR [automatic number plate recognition] camera was put on the avenue with a huge memory to keep taking photographs, my suggestion is that that memory would probably be full within the first couple of hours, because there’s too much speeding going on,’ he said, adding that this would generate a very demanding level of ‘back office’ work.
Mr Smith revealed that earlier this week the police had their first meeting with a behavioural-science company which had previously worked with the government on unrelated projects. Mr Smith said the approach reflected the fact that they had to deal not just with enforcement but with finding new ways to persuade the public that speeding was unacceptable.
Referring to the use of behavioural science, he said: ‘I’m not aware of anyone else trying to do that, but the very first meeting we had was [on Tuesday] and this company are very keen to explore that kind of activity because it’s different. We will, of course, continue with enforcement.’
Mr Smith urged the public to take advantage of the portal on the States police website – jersey.police.uk – to report instances of bad driving.
Discussing how some groups of young drivers disregarded speed limits in some parts of the Island, he added: ‘This is not just a group of people who rock up on an evening. This is organised; this is very well organised. We know that, but so is SOJP and the honorary police because we do this hand in glove with them.’
Mr Smith also paid tribute to the work of Inspector Callum O’Connor and to the co-operation of a range of partners including the government’s Infrastructure and Housing departments.
‘I am as excited as I have been about the prospect – not necessarily about dealing with the day-to-day enforcement but about finding long-term solutions, and that’s what we need to do,’ he said.
