Remote “attended” enforcement of traffic regulations

The paper deals with the enforcement of traffic regulations by officers of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) in the UK, using CCTV traffic cameras and equipment provided by the Highways Agency London Network Management Division (HA/LNMD). The use of unattended cameras as an enforcement tool, specifically to monitor non compliance to red signals and speed offences, has proved to be a cost effective method of policing specific traffic offences. The prime evidence being produced automatically, twenty four hours a day. The Road Traffic Act 1991 simplified the legal process by introducing the discretion to offer conditional fixed penalty notices following the collection, developing and viewing of the 35mm chemical film. Automatic cameras, which are ideally suited to detecting traffic offences which occur around the clock are making a significant contribution to accident reduction. Additionally, the MPS and the HA/LNMD wished to consider the means of monitoring offences which, by definition, would be committed during the working day when most staff are available. i.e. Banned Movements (prohibited by time of day), Yellow Box Junctions (not usually a 24 hour problem) and Bus Lanes. The latter problem is being addressed by the Traffic Director for London, who is sponsoring alternative technology. Existing, tried and tested, technologies were combined and modified where necessary and a section of the HA/LNMD network, in Central London, identified for a pilot project