West Lothian police training community officers to…

West Lothian police training community officers to crack-down on speeding drivers

Community police officers across West Lothian are being trained to use speed guns to tackle the growing complaints about bad drivers in towns and villages across the county.

Speed checks using hand held radar devices are currently used only by police from the force’s Traffic department.

However Traffic officers in West Lothian have been heavily involved in investigating serious motorway accidents, so Police Scotland has decided to roll-out speed gun training to its community constables to enable them to set up impromptu speed traps in towns and villages where the community identified a problem.

An earlier suggestions that members of the public could also be trained to trap speeders by their registration plates have been dropped however. While some rural community councils had been keen to take part in the scheme others were critical.

A proposal promoted by police last August to train community councillors to set up radar speed traps met with opposition from the Linlithgow and the Fauldhouse local area committees.

Constable Ewan Hannay told this month’s meeting of Linlithgow Local Area Committee that he and fellow community constables were undergoing training to use the hand held radar devices to assist Traffic Police.

A police report to the committee addressing road safety said: “Sadly in Quarter 3 we saw one fatality in West Lothian.

“Extensive enquiries are also still ongoing into previous fatalities from 2021/22 which is unfortunately reducing abilities to engage with the usual speeding initiatives.”

Councillors first heard that community officers would undertake training to use speed guns after funding was secured last August. At the same time there was a proposal to introduce a scheme which had been trialled in Fife where community councillors could act as a “high visibility” deterrent to fast drivers.

Sgt Mike Harte told the Linlithgow councillors at the August meeting that in the Fife trial, members of the public noted down vehicle details but did not engage with drivers.

“The information is passed back to Police Scotland who engage with drivers and advise them that, if Police Scotland had caught them speeding they would have been given fixed penalty notices and points on their licences,” said Sgt Harte.

However at that meeting Councillor Tom Conn said it wasn’t for the public to do the job of the police, adding: “If there’s an issue with speeding in a community then why aren't Police Scotland, the Boys and Girls in Blue, dealing with it.

“I really think it is for Police Scotland to do this rather than for members of the community who could actually face verbal abuse and threats.”

He cited incidents where parents who had been involved in a survey and action to stop parent parking outside Springfield Primary in the town, had faced a barrage of abuse.

Sgt Harte told councillors: “It’s not something for members of the public to stop vehicles. I need to press that. It’s more just high visibility in the community. Signage.”

A spokesperson for Police Scotland told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "Officers engaged with community councils across the region in response to speeding complaints and one proposal was to trial a ‘Community Speedwatch’ scheme, with local community council members being advised on the use of speed detection equipment, to work in partnership to address the issues of speeding within their communities. However, due to the limited interest, this was not taken forward."