30 November 2022

Vision Zero is the KCC’s five-year Road Safety Strategy to deliver safer roads, towns and villages in Kent. It identifies Kent Police’s continuing responsibility to reduce driver behaviours that put themselves and others at risk such as distraction, impairment, inappropriate speed and other similarly socially unacceptable behaviour.  Kent Police coordinate enforcement and education activity using data provided by the Road Safety Analyst and information provided in the Road Safety Forums, chaired by the Head of Roads Policing and attended by all Districts.  In addition, the Roads Policing Unit also coordinate activities in accordance with the NPCC national operations focussing on the Fatal 4 offences, namely speeding, substance misuse, seatbelt offences and mobile phone use.

The current position is there a 38% reduction in road deaths during the reporting period of August to October 2022, compared to the same reporting period in 2021, which equates to 7 less fatalities.

The Serious Collision Investigation Unit (SCIU) attended 25 road deaths in this period in 2021 and 17 in the same reporting period in 2022.

The fatalities in this recent period consist of:

• 2 drivers
• 1 Motorcyclists
• 4 Passengers
• 2 Pedal Cyclists
• 8 Pedestrians

 

The most common theme is vulnerable road users, in particular pedestrians.

 

Kent Police is committed to supporting Vision Zero, the Partnership Road Safety Strategy that seeks to eliminate road deaths.  The Vision Zero approach is incorporated into the daily business of the following teams: Roads Policing Unit, Roads Safety Unit, Serious Collision Investigations Unit, Safety Camera Team, Special Constabulary Roads Policing Unit and Community Speedwatch.   Vision Zero branding has been added to Force Safety camera vans and external communications.

Local Policing Teams and Community Safety Units are contributing to Vision Zero through participation in NPCC campaigns and localised taskings following serious collisions. Officers from the Road Safety Unit work alongside LPT and CSU officers in locations that have been identified as collision hotspots.

Kent Police continue to chair a weekly partnership meeting which focusses on opportunities under the following headings: Education, Engagement, Enforcement and Reaction.  The membership to this meeting has grown allowing more activities to be coordinated across all partnership resources, concentrating on locations where road deaths and serious injury collisions have occurred. Key topics of discussion include upcoming events, national campaigns, partner communications, response plans and community concerns.  Members include KCC, KMSCP, Medway Council, National Highways, KFRS, Community Speedwatch and Kent Police.

The Kent Roads Policing Unit continues to implement the simple and flexible 7-day response plan, following any road death. Throughout the reporting period there have been 11 plans commenced.  Results from these plans include.

• A KCC led education plan aimed at raising the awareness of HGV drivers to pedestrians and cyclists on certain routes.
• The creation of two new mobile speed camera van sites.
• Increased levels of speed enforcement checks.
• Increased education and engagement with young motorcyclists.
• Roads Policing Officers tasked with patrolling routes used by vulnerable pedestrians and cyclists during hours of darkness.
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Coordination and Governance

• Weekly Vision Zero partnership meeting chaired by Kent Police.
• Bi-monthly KSI meeting chaired by Kent Police.
• Quarterly Roads Safety Forum involving all CSUs across the County.
• Quarterly Safer Roads for Kent Strategic Meeting with KCC Head of Transport and Tac Ops Superintendent, chaired by the PCC.

 

During the reporting period August to October 2022 some examples of education and engagement are:

• BikeSafe which is a national programme that raises motorcyclists’ awareness of road safety and includes demonstrations of responding to collisions involving a motorcyclist.  4 workshops have been delivered by Kent Police during the reporting period with a total of 39 attendees.
• Attendance at various events to capture target audiences such as:

• British Super Bikes event at Brands Hatch
• Attendance at various bike meets during the summer months.

 

Some examples of enforcement during this period are:

A multi-agency roads policing operation led by Kent Police.  These operations are planned to take place once a quarter on each Division and involve Local Authorities and partnership organisations.  The latest operation yielded the following significant result:

• 3 x arrests for driving whilst impaired
• 1 x arrest for offence of taking a vehicle without consent
• 3 x uninsured vehicles were seized
• 20 x Traffic Offence Reports (including seatbelts, mobile phones and excess speed)
• 1 x summons for overweight and dangerous and unsuitable use of a vehicle.
• 1 x Hackney carriage Licence immediately removed.

 

On a daily basis the Force continue to focus on the offences that have the most impact on road deaths, commonly known as the ‘Fatal 4’ (speed, not wearing seatbelts, drink / drug impaired driving and use of mobile phones).  Whilst the September onwards data is not yet available the following enforcements have been recorded.

	Speed TOR		Mobile Phone TOR		Seatbelt TOR		Drink Drive Arrest		Drug Drive Arrest
July	7634	142		271		137		56
August	6744	173		175		126		52
September	6003	165		156		129		67
Oct	U/K	U/K		U/K		U/K		U/K
TOTAL	20,381	480		602		392		175

 

The Roads Policing Unit have supported other proactive tactical operations teams as well as ongoing deployment to Op Brock during Port disruptions and contribution to Operation London Bridge (the Queen’s funeral). They also actively participate in the NPCC National Road Safety Campaigns and during the last campaign, Drink and Drug Drive enforcement, Kent officers stopped 120 vehicles and conducted 90 breath tests and 29 drug wipes.  Officers from the Roads Safety Unit are now trained to use Tru-Cam equipment which provide additional speed enforcement across Kent where it is not possible for a mobile safety camera van.  Further training for Roads Policing Unit officers and Special Constabulary is planned for 2023.

 

 

Kent & Medway Safety Camera Partnership

This consists of Kent Police, KCC, Medway Council and National Highways. There are 4 mobile camera vans in operation, which attend KMSCP sites, Community Speedwatch locations and sites of community concern. There are 75 fixed speed camera sites in Kent, an increase of 2 since the last reporting period.  There are also 4 Red Traffic Light enforcement camera sites in Kent. The mobile camera operators are trained in enforcement of not only speed offences but also other road safety offences such as seatbelts, mobile phone usage and drivers not being in full control of their vehicle.

Special Constabulary Roads Policing Unit

Kent Police are extremely fortunate to have a dedicated Special Constabulary Roads Policing Unit (SCRPU), which is aligned to the Roads Policing Unit and the Road Safety Unit to promote road safety and support the delivery of Vision Zero. The SCRPU fully support the National NPCC road safety campaigns and are trained to the same standard as regular Roads Policing Unit officers and now includes Police motorcyclists.  They also now have a qualified Police Driver Trainer who assists regular Driver Training colleagues in ensuring that the Force display the highest standards of driving and road safety across the organisation.

Policing Response to Just Stop Oil (JSO)

Kent Police saw protest activity on the M25 from Just Stop Oil between 07/11/2022 to 10/11/2022. A high visibility patrolling regime was undertaken by officers to detect and deter activity and Protest Removal Teams (PRT) were readily available to intervene should protestors be able to climb gantries. This enabled swift intervention thereby reducing the disruption to the public of Kent. Over the 4 days officers from RPU, Tactical Teams, Public Order Serials, PRT, Investigators and a command structure were dedicated to the operation equating to about 160 officer shifts.  Kent Police made 10 arrests in total for Conspiracy to Commit Public Nuisance including 5 from a proactive stop check with offenders in possession of climbing gear, banners and harnesses.  All offenders were charged and remanded to Magistrates Court. The Metropolitan Police are coordinating the casefile build for all the national protests and Kent Police will keep the threat and risk assessment under review, based on intelligence, and plan resources accordingly. Contingency plans and resources remain in place for any unforeseen events.