Scamera Van questions answered by the operator

Today I had a very interesting conversation with an operator from a SafeSpeedForLife Speed Camera Van (operated by Northumbria Police) in Newcastle upon Tyne. He answered many questions I had and was very open and honest.

Please note these questions and answers are not verbatim. They are a summary of the conversation.

Q. Do the SafeSpeedForLife vans have to publish their locations?
A. No. They publish their "Concern Areas" on their website as a guide for the public. These can be seen at www.safespeedforlife.co.uk. We have sites which we visit reguarly but these can change from time to time. For example, if there are road works at one of the sites, it's pointless working there as motorists are not likely to be doing any significant speeds.

Q. What is the speed threshold at the SafeSpeedForLife camera van sites?
A. These vary across force areas. Northumbria used to be 38mph in a 30mph limit but this has recently been lowered to 37mph. The thresholds however are not published on the SafeSpeedForLife website.

Q. Who operate the SafeSpeedForLife camera vans?
A. I work for Northumbria Police but some forces use civilians for these as it keeps down the operating costs.

Q. Are the SafeSpeedForLife units, the same units that operate with police vehicles at the road side?
A. No. The vans which operate with police vehicles are ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) vans. These are used to check passing vehicles for road tax and insurance offences, disqualified drivers, known criminals, insurance write offs and soon, vehicles without a valid MOT certificate. They also detect vehicles with illegal or 'designer' number plates, simply as they occasionally report an error when they attempt to read them.

Q. Do all the SafeSpeedForLife camera vans use live video?
A. No. Live video is used when they are using Laser for speed detection. This unit incorporates the laser, a video camera and a video display, capable of detecting speeding motorists at a distance of 1KM. This is a massive £30, 000 per unit!

Q. What camera is mainly used in the SafeSpeedForLife camera vans?
A. Gatso is a recommended camera. This is the same device that is fitted in the Roadside FIP's (Fixed Installation Post). A FIP (with the camera installed) can cost in excess of £40,000 each depending upon the location of the installation.

Q. The equipment is only a RaDAR unit and a camera, so why is it so expensive?
A. Gatso know the police collect a substantial revenue from their equipment so they can and will charge such high prices for their devices. Plus Gatso are a market leader in speed detection and enforcement.

Q. How can you prove a motorists speed on a photograph is accurate, without the secondary markers being present at the site?
A. The prosecution rely on the accuracy of the Gatso as there are no secondary markers at these sites.

Q. Are the SafeSpeedForLife camera operators technically trained and able to answer any technical query regarding their equipment?
A. We are trained simply to use the equipment. Should any technical questions arise in court, a Gatso technician will be called as a witness to answer these questions.

Q. What if a motorist disputes the location where they are photographed?
A. The SafeSpeedForLife camera van operator(s) make notes of the surroundings, the location, road numbers, junction numbers and to further back this up, they use a GPS receiver to obtain the Long/Lat coordinates of their location. If the side door is open, this may be seen lying on the top of the van, connected via a cable to a laptop computer used by the operator.

Did you know? When the GPS system was activated for civillian use, timing errors were inserted into GPS transmissions to limit the accuracy of non-military GPS receivers to about 100 meters. This part of GPS operations, called Selective Availability (SA), was eliminated in May 2000.

Q. Why use a Gatso stills camera over a Laser video?
A. The Laser camera has to be pointed and aimed at a moving vehicle. The Laser is shone and reflected off the vehicle and the speed recorded. The video camera also records other offences at the time such as mobile phone use etc. Using the Gatso, one can "set it and forget it". It uses RaDAR to monitor rear facing traffic, front facing traffic, traffic travelling in both directions and can even similtaniously monitor upto four lanes at a time, increasing the revenue collection potential!

Q. Regarding Truvelo cameras, how do you catch a speeding motorcyclist as these have no front number plates?
A. They get away with it. However, there are some cameras with a secondary rear facing camera which will be triggered by the first vehicle that passes it after a trigger for speeding, thus catching the speeding motorcyclist. If a speeding biker passes a SafeSpeedForLife camera van and triggers the Gatso, the operator has binoculars in the rear of the van which can be used to view the passing motorcyclist through a window looking from the rear of the van, through the front seats and through the windscreen. The number plate will be recorded!

Q. What sort of shifts does the SafeSpeedForLife camera van and operator work?
A. I usually do three locations in a day, two hours at each.

There was something I was wondering after my conversation. If each speed detection device (whether it be Laser or Gatso) costs the police £30, 000 each (bearing in mind, this Talivan had two devices on board), how many speeding motorists do they have to catch just to break even?

There is not only the equipment cost to take into consideration here, there is the officers time and salary, the cost of the vehicle the devices are transported in and operated from, the maintenance and travelling/fuel costs for the vehicle over the weeks or months these devices are in use. When does the force in question hit a point where the equipment has paid for itself?

The Northumbria forces' predicted expenditure for 2004-2005 was a staggering £2, 939, 550. This includes all costs incurred from equipment purchase to education to prosecution. The full breakdown can be found here.

Is there any wonder there are so many motorists caught on camera and furthermore, is it any wonder these vans pop up in the most obscure and sometimes illegal of places in an attempt to catch speeding motorists?

In my opinion, speed doesn't kill. Careless and wreckless driving kills but (for the police) this doesn't carry the financial gain that speed does!