Drugs and alcohol screening expert welcomes the addition of roads policing to national policing priorities

Published on March 2 2023

The Home Office has published its first Strategic Policing Requirement since 2015, setting priorities that police forces must focus on and address.

The latest publication has been widely welcomed by road safety groups and campaigners for including roads policing – the enforcement of traffic laws, detection, deterrence and the response to illegal or dangerous activity on the roads.

It follows the publication of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) National Roads Policing Strategy (2022/25) last April, a widely consulted on document, which includes four key pillars of activity, based around the key principle of ‘Policing our roads together’.

These are to; prevent harm and save lives, tackle criminality, drive innovation and technology and change minds.

It is the first pillar which Cold Chain Federation Member D.tec International, the UK’s sole distributor of DrugWipe, the global leader for police roadside driver drug screening, used by all 43 police forces in England, Wales and Scotland, is supporting efforts to remove thousands of drug drivers from our roads each year.

Ean Lewin, Managing Director of D.tec International, said; “It is welcome news that it is now incumbent for Police and Crime Commissioners to work with their Chief Constables to ensure every force (across England and Wales) has an ability to provide the specific and technical requirements of a Roads Policing Unit.

There are already examples of where this approach is yielding positive results – for example in Sussex where Jo Shiner, Chief Constable, who is also NPCC’s Lead for Roads Policing and Katy Bourne, Police and Crimes Commissioner, have been collaborating over a sustained period to tackle criminality on their roads, improving road safety and saving lives”.

Ean Lewin has long been calling for stronger emphasis on roads policing to tackle a growing drug driving culture.

Latest figures from the Ministry of Defence (MOJ), indicate that 206 drug and drink driving offences are committed every day in England and Wales – a total of 75,159 offences per annum and that drug driving offences have more than trebled over the past five years from 7,683 in 2017, to 27,962 by the end of 2021.

Comments are closed.