Last week St John Constable Chris Taylor lodged a proposition calling for the introduction of the devices to assist the honorary force in combatting the growing trend of ‘boy racers’ in the Island.
His proposals would also see tougher penalties introduced for those who breach the speed limit by more than 30mph.
The police have launched Operation Canvas in response to the increased number of speeding incidents since the lockdown, aiming to clamp down on Islanders who are making illegal modifications to their cars, such as tampering with their registration plates to make them difficult to read or making their exhausts noisier.
Joao Camara, St Peter’s chef de police, said that mobile speed cameras could play a part in combatting excessive speeding in areas of the Island where standard speed checks can’t take place.
‘The problem with certain roads in Jersey, especially green lanes, is they are actually very, very thin and to do a proper standard speed check you need to have an area where we can remove the vehicle from the road,’ he said.
‘If you’re going to be talking to someone for 10 to 15 minutes, to get their details and so on, we don’t really want to have a backlog of vehicles behind on the road.
‘So for the smaller roads that we can’t actually do standard speed checks on I think the mobile devices would be a good idea. People would know there was a presence there of the speed device.
‘Speed cameras at the moment in Jersey are illegal and we would need to have law changes to have the same devices here as we have in the UK.’
With respect to Mr Taylor’s proposal to introduce tougher penalties for those exceeding the speed limit by 30mph, Mr Camara said that those who exceed the limit by 20mph already face going to court, where tough penalties can be imposed, instead of a parish hall inquiry.
