Community Speed Watch

A national initiative

Community Speed Watch (CSW) is a national initiative which brings together the community and the police in a joint endeavour to act as a deterrent and highlight speeding concerns, reduce road casualties and improve community safety.  CSW is community driven, and is a way of re-assuring the community that they can play their part in keeping our roads safe. Speeding increases the risk of serious injury and fatal collisions and CSW has a huge part to play in helping to reduce road casualties across Dorset.

The CSW Teams in Dorset (currently around 80 teams) operate on the authority of the Chief Constable of Dorset.  The CSW teams are required to follow policy on how they operate which is monitored by the local Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT).  CSW teams do not have prosecution powers.  CSW since implementation in 2013 have generated approx 15,000 letters.

CSW Teams in Dorset operate with a basic speed detection device which is not calibrated and does not take photos; the device can resemble a mobile phone.  Teams list the details of any vehicles they record as speeding onto a sheet; this sheet is then sent to Dorset Police where vetted police staffs identify the Registered Keeper (RK) of the vehicles.  A letter is then sent to the RK of the vehicle notifying them of the speed their vehicle was detected travelling at.

How does Community Speed Watch work?

1. Each  Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) area will have a CSW Liaison Officer. 
2. This officer can either pro-actively recruit members of the community to take part in CSW and / or they will receive requests from the public to initiate a CSW in a given area. 
3. Police assurance checks to be carried out on all new volunteers. 
4. Once the checks have been satisfactorily completed, the Liaison Officer can provide training to the members of the public in the use of the speed checking equipment and give advice on where it can be used.
5. As and when the CSW team carry out speed checks, they will record how many vehicles were checked and how many were observed exceeding the speed limit thresholds (25 mph in a 20 mph area and 36 mph in a 30 mph area and 47 mph in a 40 mph area). 
6. A warning letter will be sent by Dorset Police to the registered keeper on the first two occasions that their vehicle is seen exceeding the speed limit.  If the vehicle is observed for a third time, an action will be sent to the local NPT for further attention. 
7. However, on occasions Policing Support Officers will conduct joint speed enforcement sessions along side of Community Speed Watch groups.  On these occasions Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIPS) notices will be issued to vehicles detected speeding.