Emerging challenges in on-road enforcement

Speaker: Nick Croft
Senior Adviser, Road Safety Support

Police forces across the country and National Highways all facing significant new challenges  in enforcement relating to the introduction of new technology including:

• Speed cameras
• Digital speedometers in police vehicles
• The increasing amount of footage supplied to police forces from dash cams/social media
• Defences being offered to prosecutions by defendants.

Nick talks through these challenges, outlining the details of recent cases, and look at what can be done to support forces.

About Nick Croft

On leaving full-time education Nick served an apprenticeship becoming a qualified mechanical engineer. In 1982 he joined Warwickshire Police. During his career he specialised in police training, obtaining a Masters Degree in Education (M.Ed) and Roads Policing. He gained extensive experience of operational policing with emphasis on Roads Policing, Public Order, Firearms Operations, Police Training and Hostage Negotiation. When Head of Operations he became Chair of the Warwickshire Safety Camera Partnership. He later became Commander of the Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG) focussing the regional unit’s performance on tackling criminality on the motorways, reducing deaths/serious injuries and improving public safety. During this time he became the secretary to the ACPO Roads Policing Operations Forum.

Nick worked very closely with the Highways Agency (now National Highways) and was instrumental in the development of an extensive regional Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system. He was responsible for developing the policing model and protocols for the UK’s first toll motorway M6 Toll. He also played a key role working closely with Directors from the Highways Agency designing and developing the M42 Managed Motorway.

Nick was the strategic police lead working with Highways England to implement the outcomes of the joint Highways Agency/ACPO Roles and Responsibilities Project. Nick had a significant input into the project which resulted in the introduction of Highways Agency Traffic Officers across the West Midlands and subsequently the strategic roads network across England. Nick had responsibility for developing the new motorway response service to be offered by Highways England, designing innovative joint working protocols and policy between the police and Highways England. He also oversaw the implementation of the UK’s first joint Police/Highways Agency Control Centre located at Quinton in the UK.

When Nick was Assistant Chief Constable in South Wales Police, he had strategic responsibility for several portfolios including Learning and Development Services, Human Resources, Corporate Intelligence, Information Technology & Management, Corporate Communications, Specialist Operations and Professional Standards.

He was Chair of the All Wales Roads Policing Joint Advisory Group, developing Roads Policing Strategy for Wales. He oversaw the introduction of the Welsh Traffic Officer Service and the installation of Average Time Distance Cameras on the A465 Heads of the Valley Road. He was Deputy Chair of the all Wales Casualty Reduction Partnership and the ACPO Wales lead for Wind Farm Policing.

Nick was the National Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) lead for:

• ACPO ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems), developing technology to improve the functionality, efficiency and effectiveness of police vehicles and combating technology based criminality.
• ACPO Police Vehicle Specification and Procurement Group, developing a standardised specification for all categories of police vehicles in order to achieve cost savings during procurement and further efficiency savings related to the installation of police specific equipment.
• ACPO RPET (Roads Policing Enforcement Technology) Group, which manages the Home Office Type Approval process for equipment used for enforcement on UK roads.

On retirement from the Police Service Nick joined Road Safety Support as a Senior Advisor. He is a Fellow of Association for Road Risk Management and has served as Chair of the ARRM Council of Management.