FOCUSING ON MOBILE CCTV FOR ROADS POLICING By Ron Coleman, Marketing Director, Traffic Safety Systems (TSS)

The dramatic increase in the number of cars on the world's roads - now thought to number at least 600 million - has led to increasing congestion and a frantic race to build and commission thousands of kilometres of new highways and trunk roads to keep pace with soaring demand. Given the sheer volume of traffic the need for effective roads policing to minimise accidents, and ensure road networks flow smoothly, has never been greater.

Driven to Distraction

As a supplier of in-vehicle CCTV roads policing solutions I find myself shaking my head in disbelief at the dangerous and foolhardy behaviour exhibited by drivers, on an all too frequent basis, which has been caught on camera. When it comes to road safety it is not just the disruption that accidents cause to the smooth flow of traffic - which can be problematic enough on main arterial routes - that gives real cause for concern. More worryingly, it is the fact that incidents involving automobiles have become a real public health issue to the extent that for some regions the rate of fatalities surpasses that of many serious illnesses. In fact a report from the World Health Organisation (WHO), on the back of soaring car ownership, suggests that  road traffic accidents could outstrip strokes and HIV as the main cause of preventable deaths worldwide by 2020. 

The reality is that for some drivers, cocooned, inside their cars, it is all too easy to become detached from the world outside and forget the potential for serious injury - or worse - which can result from an out of control vehicle. We are seeing, as traffic volumes grow, and time pressures on drivers increase, a greater willingness to take risks and drive without due care and attention putting their lives and those of others in jeopardy. Sadly, behaviour such as tailgating, rapid lane changing, road rage, undertaking, using mobile phones while driving or even eating is all too common.

Working with police forces in regions such as the Middle East I am reminded, time and again, of the potential for things to go badly wrong and the need for the right technology to be in place to clamp down on the culprits. One particular area of concern are motorway emergency lanes and hard shoulders where vehicles are travelling illegally at speed to avoid traffic queues, the danger here is that cars using the lanes for breakdowns are liable to be hit from behind. Recently there have been a number of fatalities in the Middle East related to high speed impacts where lawbreakers have crashed into the back of static vehicles.

Thankfully, there is a growing consensus amongst authorities in both the developed and developing world regarding the need to take action. Many are turning to in-car CCTV as, unlike fixed cameras, they are better placed to capture specific patterns of driver behaviour and be rapidly deployed to hotspots across the entire road network so drivers know, wherever they are, that there is the potential for a suitably equipped police vehicle to catch their transgressions.

Speed Enforcement

Certainly, an essential element in today's roads policing is speed enforcement.

In this regard mobile CCTV solutions in police vehicles are particularly attractive as they can unlock a number of major benefits compared to static solutions. 

Static cameras can provide an effective solution at specific locations but studies show that in most cases, once drivers know where the cameras are located, they will simply slow down by the camera to avoid detection but then speed up again once they have passed it. This erratic driver behaviour can in itself cause problems and, often, the issue is simply moved along the route or worse still, transferred to an adjacent route by drivers wanting to avoid detection.

Mobile systems by contrast can be used across the road network - often tied in with high profile anti-speeding campaigns - so drivers know that wherever they are there is the potential for a suitably equipped vehicle to catch their transgressions. In-car CCTV can also be rapidly deployed - in marked or unmarked vehicles - at accident blackspots to address immediate problems. 

In terms of regional take-up, Eastern Europe and the Middle East are particularly significant growth areas for roads policing, especially, where flexible mobile digital CCTV solutions are concerned.

Looking at the Middle East in particular, from our experience during trials, it is apparent that police forces in the region have a real appreciation of the potential of mobile speed enforcement technology to act as a powerful law enforcement tool to address the high level of automobile accidents. Sadly in the Middle East there also tends to be a high proportion of single vehicle fatalities caused by excessive speed leading to a loss of control without other drivers being involved. 

A Digital Approach

The good news for the Middle East is that as forces in the region are, by and large, adopting CCTV in the context of roads policing for the very first time, they are keen, at the outset, to bypass older analogue systems and go straight to more capable digital CCTV when trialling equipment and making final purchasing decisions. This contrasts with some areas, such as the UK, where forces have been more reticent to move to digital, held back by a reluctance to retire older equipment or concerns regarding the different operational and training requirements.

Radar and Vascar

Looking in more detail at the technology now being employed for roads policing, and specifically to ascertain a vehicle's speed, there are two main approaches:

'Vascar' and 'Radar'. With 'Vascar' it is all about average speed over a minimum distance, whereas with 'Radar' the focus is very much on 'spot' speed. In both cases effective training is a prerequisite for efficient operation.

When applied correctly I would contend that each technology is capable of delivering accurate speed measurements and, in association with digital video, compelling evidence which can be presented to an errant motorist at the roadside or if necessary in a court of law. In fact, although we designed the first computerised version of 'Vascar' back in the late 1970s, we always take account of local preferences - historical and legislative - and globally specify just as many systems with 'Radar' as 'Vascar'. From our experience once a technology has proven itself in a police force or region they are extremely reluctant to change tack.

Radar AutoVision

Returning to the Middle East, in this region the digital mobile CCTV system which has caught the attention of police forces is the Radar Autovision, which is now being used to very good effect in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

Once fitted in a police car, it is able to integrate accurate speed measurement using 'Radar, with digital CCTV evidence of a target vehicle that has exceeded the speed limit or committed other traffic violations. 

The Radar AutoVision system comes with a powerful forward facing colour/infrared camera with 18x optical zoom, BEE III mobile radar, ruggedised Digital Video Recorder and a simple to operate robust handset. In operation, with instantaneous fast-forward, rewind and 30 second pre-event facility, a police officer can either review the driving offences with a motorist at the scene of an incident or download specific events in the back office. Images are all overlaid with relevant data including security frame tagging, date, time, own vehicle and target vehicle speed. 

For a speeding infringement a jpeg image can be saved and printed to help qualify any fine being issued. To support image retrieval the Radar AutoVision comes with advanced NetVu ObserVer video management software - this is an interface common to AD Group systems - which allows users to readily select and copy images from the Radar AutoVision's removable hard drive which can be swapped out for a clean one in minutes. Crucially, the flexible Radar AutoVision can be used in a stationary or moving vehicle and to monitor offenders travelling towards or away from the police car.

Effective Results

One of the latest adopters of our Radar AutoVision in the Middle East is the Bahrain Police Force where it is deployed in patrol vehicles to assist officers in their roads policing duties. This follows on from an extremely successful in-vehicle trial which  helped the Bahrain Police Force to obtain nearly 700 prosecutions for excessive speed and inappropriate driver behaviour.

Crucially, the Bahrain Police Force were able to see the benefits of the mobile digital CCTV on the ground, with Radar AutoVision proving itself to be extremely effective when used on the busy Bahrain Causeway, a four-lane highway, which links the territory with Saudi Arabia. 

From our discussions in the Middle East we are also finding that ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) is becoming a favoured additional capability - provided the country has a reliable and up-to-date license plate database - given that there is now the potential to accurately read Arabic script as well as Roman numerals.

The Future of Roads Policing

Ultimately, digital mobile CCTV incorporating high accuracy speed measurement is going to become an increasingly important weapon for police forces to combat poor driver behaviour and excessive speed. The hope has to be that this type of action, combined with high profile publicity campaigns, will make motorists take a safer, more considered, approach to driving and so produce a downturn in road accident fatalities.

For more information about TSS and its CCTV solutions please Tel: +44 (0) 870 1617100, email: sales@tssltd.co.uk or visit http://www.tssltd.co.uk/