The local community is watching you
The UK’s police forces have been working with local communities to keep a watchful camera eye on speeders tearing up quiet village streets and suburban roads.
The Community Speed Watch programme has successfully enabled volunteers to raise awareness of the dangers of speeding and poor driving.
Many use hand-held cameras and speed-guns connected to warning signs to let drivers know they are breaking the law. Sometimes car details are noted and handed to the police which successfully prosecute the offending drivers.
But one Speed Watch volunteer has been so good at his job that police have asked him to not catch as many drivers, according to media reports. The 69-year-old volunteer, David McCandless, says he has recorded 40,000 speeding motorists with a hand-held speed gun over the past four years.
McCandless’s team of 50 volunteers in the county of Cambridgeshire were catching 1,600 motorists every month.
Police have dutifully been issuing warning letters to the drivers but now enough is enough, <%$Linker:2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 oLinkExternal according to media reports The telegraph: Vigilante Speedwatch volunteer sacked for catching too many drivers false http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11416070/Vigilante-Speedwatch-volunteer-sacked-for-catching-too-many-drivers.html false false %>.
McCandless claims police told him to report no more than 500 motorists a month, mainly because they could process only 2,000 cases across the entire UK.
McCandless says his team is “a victim of our own success” and they will have to go easy from now on.
"Because we were turning in these high numbers [of offenders] and they were so accurate they [police] became suspicious that something was going on. I basically got sacked for doing a good job and being too accurate.”
Cambridgeshire Police said McCandless’s position became "unsustainable" because he was "unable to share our vision of education". At the heart of Speed Watch is the goal to educate people about the dangers of speeding, police said.
The Community Speed Watch programme has successfully enabled volunteers to raise awareness of the dangers of speeding and poor driving.
Many use hand-held cameras and speed-guns connected to warning signs to let drivers know they are breaking the law. Sometimes car details are noted and handed to the police which successfully prosecute the offending drivers.
But one Speed Watch volunteer has been so good at his job that police have asked him to not catch as many drivers, according to media reports. The 69-year-old volunteer, David McCandless, says he has recorded 40,000 speeding motorists with a hand-held speed gun over the past four years.
McCandless’s team of 50 volunteers in the county of Cambridgeshire were catching 1,600 motorists every month.
Police have dutifully been issuing warning letters to the drivers but now enough is enough, <%$Linker:
McCandless claims police told him to report no more than 500 motorists a month, mainly because they could process only 2,000 cases across the entire UK.
McCandless says his team is “a victim of our own success” and they will have to go easy from now on.
"Because we were turning in these high numbers [of offenders] and they were so accurate they [police] became suspicious that something was going on. I basically got sacked for doing a good job and being too accurate.”
Cambridgeshire Police said McCandless’s position became "unsustainable" because he was "unable to share our vision of education". At the heart of Speed Watch is the goal to educate people about the dangers of speeding, police said.
