The effects of increased police enforcement along a route in London

There have been many studies of the link between the level of policing in an area and the behaviour of local drivers, but those that have been conducted in the United Kingdom were either small scale or were conducted many years ago. Consequently, a practical trial was carried out in London in May 2008 to investigate the effects of increasing the level of traffic policing in a busy urban area under modern conditions. Operation Radar ran for four weeks and increased the visible presence of police on a six mile stretch of the A23 in South London. Two teams of six officers and one sergeant were deployed in two shifts per weekday on the six mile route, using both static and mobile policing methods in a mixture of vehicles. This paper summarises the effects achieved, both in terms of the number of offences detected by the police and the effects on driver behaviour observed by a series of roadside surveys. These surveys measured vehicle speeds and drivers' use of mobile phones and seatbelts. Vehicle speeds reduced systematically during the operation along the route and in surrounding areas, and some effects remained at least two weeks after the operation had finished. The survey data do not, however, show any positive effect of enforcement on the use of mobile phones or seatbelts.