Angelique Foster, Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner, has addressed regional safety professionals at a meeting to discuss the work to prevent road deaths across the East Midlands and Eastern Regions.
The East Midlands and East of England Road Safety Summit drew together professionals in policing, health, road safety and education to provide insight into the innovative work underway to tackle dangerous and illegal driving across the region.
Road Safety is a key priority in the Commissioner's Police and Crime Plan.
Outstanding progress has been made in Derbyshire since her election in 2021, with substantial investment in new technology, training and resources to increase the capabilities of the force's Roads Policing Unit.
Outlining her success to regional colleagues, the Commissioner highlighted her investment of £250k for the Road Policing Unit to increase technology and training. This includes an increase in the number of police vehicles fitted with Automatic Numberplate Recognition (ANPR) technology.
The Commissioner covered the proactive operations she has supported including Operation Sparta to target the fatal four offences (speeding, using a mobile phone, not wearing a seatbelt and drink/drug driving). She explained that as part of her tough approach her budget has funded additional speed enforcement delivered at 40 sites every month.
Her work to make Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) available to parish and community groups across rural Derbyshire has proved a success. Delegates were told how in Dronfield, monitored speeds had reduced from an average of 38mph to between 30-34mph following SID installation. This would not have been possible without the Commissioner's work with Derbyshire County Council and her financial support to launch the schemes.
To date, the Commissioner has invested £150k in SIDs through her Road Safety Grant with 65 installations agreed.
Her future plans include driving further improvements to road safety in Derbyshire and reduce death on our roads further by getting our local partners to sign up to the Vision Zero Network - a global movement to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries based on the belief that no death is inevitable, and each serious collision is preventable. Vision Zero places joint responsibility on the people who design and operate the transport network and those who use them for maintaining a safe system. It has now been successfully adopted throughout Europe.
Following the event, Police and Crime Commissioner Angelique Foster said: "Road Safety remains a serious issue for the people who live and work in Derbyshire. That is why I have implemented tougher enforcement and education. I have provided funding for a raft of safety projects, specialist resources and equipment to help road policing officers bring more offenders to justice.
"I was pleased to share our road safety success with regional colleagues. This included my ongoing work to enable the public to take positive action against illegal drivers through the expansion of Community Speedwatch and by contributing their dashcam footage to our new on-line portal.
"Many collisions are preventable and by learning from each other, we will tackle risk more effectively in the future. It is good to see that all my Police and Crime Commissioner colleagues in the region are committed to working together to improve safety on our wider roads network. I plan to increase our partnership work in the near future to drive real change. I will also be talking to all our partners here in Derbyshire about signing up to Vision Zero.'
During her presentation, the Commissioner also discussed her support for the introduction of Operation Capture - the system enabling residents to upload dashcam footage of dangerous driving incidents to secure vital evidence to bring offenders to justice. This includes supporting the creation of a new civilian post to manage the scheme.
Working closely with the Derbyshire and Derby Road Safety Partnership (DDRSP) and other key stakeholders, she also outlined her contribution towards the training of more than 250 motorcyclists through BikeSafe. This is a unique police-led motorcycle initiative. The scheme works directly with riders to raise awareness of the value of achieving accredited post-test training. The Derbyshire project received a National BikeSafe award for ‘outstanding service' last year.
Picture Shows (L-R): Jonathan Evison (Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner), Rani Mahal (Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner), Angelique Foster (Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner), Marc Jones (Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner), Stephen Mold (Northamptonshire Police and Crime Commissioner), Ian Delgarno (Bedfordshire Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner)