MOBILE speed cameras could be trialled in Jersey in the latest attempt to crack down on dangerous driving.
Amid growing concern about the number of accidents in the Island, the Constables’ Committee is to be asked to approve proposals to use the cameras, which would be moved around to target speeding hotspots.
The proposal is being put forward by Inspector Callum O’Connor, the States police’s head of road policing, who said that the force was attending ‘too many accidents’ and that this was preventing officers from dealing with other issues.
During a recent Scrutiny panel hearing, police chief Robin Smith acknowledged that the force was looking into using the cameras.
Insp O’Connor said an initial consultation on their use had taken place with the honorary police and that options would now be put forward to the parish Constables.
‘This is a collaborative policing initiative between the States and honorary police as well as the Infrastructure and Environment Department to crack down on speeding and make our roads safer,’ he said.
‘We do need to make sure that whatever we do choose is mobile, because fixed speed cameras in our small island community simply won’t work.
‘This is a collaborative policing initiative between the States and honorary police as well as the Infrastructure and Environment Department to crack down on speeding and make our roads safer,’ he said.
‘We do need to make sure that whatever we do choose is mobile, because fixed speed cameras in our small island community simply won’t work.
‘It will also give us the ability to manoeuvre them to places we assume [speeding drivers] are causing the most harm to people,’ he added.
‘In the next few weeks we will go back and meet the Comité des Connétables and honorary police and say “here are what we think the best options are for a mobile speed camera”, and then I can imagine us getting one over on a trial basis to see if it works.
‘Once we are satisfied we have the correct device, from there we would then look at how we administer that across the parishes,’ he added.
‘The Comité des Connétables are an integral part of the process, as they deal with this issue at a parish hall level and equally during the court process.
‘How this will move from an idea to a working reality is complex, and we need the buy-in and engagement from all stakeholders.’
In 2022, the States police attended 1,829 road crashes, while 267 people were caught speeding across the Island.
‘That’s a lot of man hours taking us away from engaging with other parts of the community, tackling anti-social behaviour, hotspot areas – all the stuff that the chief [officer] wants us to be doing – because we are attending too many accidents,’ said Insp O’Connor.
‘Too many people in the Island are being affected by road traffic collisions and people being injured on our roads,’ he added.
Insp O’Connor said that there would need to be ‘a conversation with the Comité des Connétables, the police chief and the criminal justice unit’ about how a mobile-speed-camera ticket system might be administered.
‘It will be complex because we are not looking to remove the parish hall system from the honorary police – that is steeped in history. However, we cannot have so many speeding tickets that we grind the criminal justice unit to a halt,’ he said.
St Helier Chef de Police Danny Scaife said speed cameras could be ‘a good experiment’ for the Island but stressed that they would not provide ‘an easy fix’.
‘You have to have the infrastructure and admin behind it,’ he continued.
‘It doesn’t necessarily change speeding – you have still got to process people.’
He said that the force was continuing to carry out routine speed checks to try to ‘keep a lid’ on the issue.
‘For St Helier, we are busy – we have our hotspots and we know where to target.’
