Annual Report 2023- 2024 - Page 8

As well as those who put others at risk on the road network, this also includes anyone who uses our roads for criminal means, such as drug dealing and other organised crime, all of which puts the public at risk and damages communities.

Road Traffic Collisions continue to trend downwards with a year end to 2023 showing reductions in fatal, serious and slight injury collisions compared to 2022.

The message is clear, if you’re a criminal using the roads, or you recklessly put yourself or others at risk, whether on our motorways, town, or country roads, you’ll be stopped and feel the full force of the law.

New road policing unit and road crime team

In 2023, a dedicated Roads Policing Unit and a Road Crime Team were launched, both of which have proved highly successful in targeting dangerous drivers and the criminals who use Lancashire’s roads to undertake serious crime.

Lancashire Constabulary’s roads policing department underwent a major re-model, which resulted in the creation of the two new teams. The Roads Crime Team was set up solely to tackle offences such as drug-couriering, money laundering, burglary, human trafficking and other serious offences where the road network may be used.

This is aligned to Serious Organised Crime tasking to better target serious organised criminals using our road networks. To date, this team has been successfully tasked and seized over £1m in cash and significant quantities of drugs, making our roads a hostile environment for criminals who risk jail time as well as losing their ill- gotten gains.

The second of the new teams created is the Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which is dedicated to patrolling Lancashire’s roads and dealing with ‘fatal five’ offences such as speeding and drink or drug-driving, as well as attending scenes of serious and fatal collisions.

Thanks to the Government’s uplift programme, the Constabulary now has dedicated officers in two teams, both with a clear focus on targeting dangerous drivers, which is already yielding results with seized cash, cars and drugs, and arrests for serious offences such as drink and drug driving.

Since the implementation of the unit in June 2023 the team have:

• Made 390 arrests
• Recovered 171 stolen vehicles
• Searched 1244 people under powers and grounds under PACE legislation
• Searched 759 vehicles under powers and grounds under PACE legislation
• Inputted 589 intelligence entries on people and vehicles
• Stopped 467 vehicles using with pre-emptive tactics
• Seized £768,967 cash from offenders
• Seized £7.4m worth of drugs Made 3,687 safety camera van deployments
• Delivered 42,109 diversionary courses

Op Snap

Whilst we are putting more officers on the streets, we know that our officers can’t be everywhere and see everything. Op Snap sees members of the public helping in the fight against dangerous driving, with an online portal for the public to upload digital footage of suspected offences.

• 4,022 digital submissions from the public reviewed under OpSnap
• Taken action in response to 57% of OpSnap submissions from the public, leading to the completion of over 600 training courses, issuing of 300 fixed penalty notices and prosecution of 200 individuals

Drink and Drug Driving

Those who recklessly drive under the influence of drugs, whether illicit or prescribed, taken without heading the cautions in the guidelines, put their loved ones and other road users at avoidable risk and need to be aware officers will be out across Lancashire, looking for them. The same applies to alcohol.

Together with Lancashire Constabulary and Lancashire’s Combatting Drugs Partnerships, in December 2023, the Commissioner launched a new campaign focusing on the dangers of drug driving, encouraging offenders to ‘get help or get caught’.

The launch coincided with the Constabulary’s annual drug and drink driving enforcement campaign in the run up to the festive period, seeing roadside drug tests and breathalysers being carried out daily across the county.

In a bid to educate drivers about the dangers of drug driving, a multi media campaign was launched in Lancashire across billboards, beer mats, posters, radio ads and social media to warn about the effects of drug driving and to signpost people for help through Talk to Frank and urging people to contact Crimestoppers if they suspect anyone is driving impaired.

Op Vertebrae

In July 2023, the Commissioner joined officers on Operation Vertebrae, focusing on targeting dangerous drivers around the M6 corridor.

He saw first-hand the vehicle stops and action taken on a number of commercial and public vehicles, for offences including speeding, drink and drug driving, illegal weight and dangerous loads that put other road users at risk.

This type of intelligence led policing builds on the commitment of our safer roads teams all year round. It makes our road network safer and ensures those who drive dangerously and put themselves and others at risk understand that we will stop them.

Op Virage

In March 2023, the Office secured £93,000 from the Department for Transport for a Lancashire Road Policing Pilot.

Funding will support Op Virage, Lancashire’s drink / drug driving campaign and further equipment to support enforcement.

Here in Lancashire, we take a zero-tolerance approach to those driving impaired, it’s a huge issue on the nation’s roads and causes chaos and tragedy.

To ensure we are proactively targeting those drivers where intelligence shows they are a risk to themselves and others, Op Virage is aimed at utilising this information to best target those posing a threat from driving impaired.

Identified through public and police reports, and then risk assessed, these are then tasked out and help use resources in the most efficient way.

This includes utilising technology to ensure intelligence is quickly put into police systems, whilst out and about in communities, updating other officers.

Lancashire Road Safety Partnership

The Lancashire Road Safety Partnership is the coordinating body for Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool which works collaboratively to deliver a safe systems approach in Lancashire to reduce deaths and injuries and make our roads safer. It also supports the effective coordination, and delivery of safer roads activity across Lancashire.

The Terms of Reference for the Partnership have been reviewed and updated during 2023/24, with the creation of a Lancashire Road Safety Delivery Group.

The Partnership held four meetings, chaired by Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Andy Pratt MBE.