Riding Along with Thames Valley Police

Yesterday, Mark and I were given the opportunity to ride along with Thames Valley Police’s Roads Policing team, part of a Joint Operations Unit with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary. We spent the day with PCs Chris and Annie – two brilliantly professional individuals whose patience, kindness, and empathy with members of the public were matched by their clarity, firmness, and refusal to brook any nonsense.

It was an early start at their Bicester headquarters, with a 7am briefing, before climbing into the back of a patrol car and heading to Upper Heyford. Once a Cold War air base, it is now a site used by a large number of companies as a logistics hub and for vehicle storage – making it an ideal location for a joint enforcement operation. There, the team was working alongside the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, focusing on commercial vehicles and compliance with legislation: weight of loads, vehicle maintenance, and driver safety.

I was shocked to see just how many vehicles were non-compliant. Overloaded car transporters, poorly secured loads, even drivers registering that they were under the influence of drugs. Each time we left the site to take up position, another vehicle was pulled.

I’d imagined long stretches of waiting to react to the occasional call. The reality could not have been more different. Scarcely a moment passed before Chris and Annie either spotted a contravention and pursued the vehicle, or received information via their computer system, which uses Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR).

ANPR, for those not familiar, is a technology that uses cameras and software to read vehicle registration plates, cross-checking them instantly against databases for law enforcement and traffic management. The speed at which it works is remarkable – and I hadn’t realised how many static cameras are deployed around the county, in addition to those on police vehicles.

During the morning, we picked up a driver whose tinted windows were 60% below the legal visibility level. Not long after, a delivery van was stopped for overtaking in a built-up area – the driver seemingly oblivious to the rules of the road and the risks to others around him, and not even wearing a seat belt. We also pursued another car flagged as untaxed and uninsured, only to discover – on this occasion – that the driver was legally delivering a vehicle that had just been taxed and insured that very morning. Although he was carrying trade plates, he didn’t need to display them because the car was already appropriately covered. The problem lay with the computer systems, which had simply not yet caught up with that morning’s updates.

Shortly afterwards, ANPR flagged an unlicensed and untaxed refrigerated lorry parked in a layby. A mechanic was on hand, claiming to have been called out to mend it. The story unravelled quickly: the vehicle was supposedly bound for export, but when the police contacted the “owner” he was unable to produce the correct paperwork. Instead, he sent a hastily edited PDF of an export form, with an export date already long past. The officers were patient but clear – the vehicle would be impounded. We – along with the rather nonplussed mechanic – watched as a local contractor arrived and efficiently removed the truck. Later in the day, we would visit the contractor’s yard and see for ourselves the line of vehicles impounded for similar offences, including some that had been involved in fatal accidents.

By mid-morning, the operation relocated to the Cherwell Services at junction 10 of the M40. One vehicle we pulled over was towing a trailer. What emerged was shocking: the trailer was overloaded, the tyres were well below the legal minimum, the load of scaffolding poles and tools was unsecured and far too heavy, there was no number plate displayed, the safety cable was not connected, and the trailer had no brake fitted. The driver protested that the country’s regulations were “too strict”. He was gently but firmly told that driving on a dual carriageway in that condition – tyres with no grip, an unsecured load – could kill him and anyone else nearby if an accident occurred.

After lunch, an ageing Transit van was stopped to double-check its compliance. To the driver’s relief, it passed. He was an Indian national, driving legally on an Indian passport, and he went out of his way to commend the police on their politeness and their assiduous commitment to upholding the law.

For the most part, this approval of the police’s actions was strong, even from drivers inconvenienced by being stopped. One man was pulled over because a passing patrol thought he might have been displaying a blue light and potentially impersonating a police vehicle. It turned out that the “light” was in fact a holographic sticker on the windscreen, glinting in the sun. The driver was surprised to have been stopped, but utterly supportive of the officers’ decision to check.

Not everyone was so supportive... Later in the afternoon, as we left the services, a large lorry pulled out directly in front of us at a junction without stopping. When pulled over, the driver was unapologetic and even suggested the police were at fault – despite being shown a video replay of his driving. What might have been dealt with by a warning turned into a ticket for driving without due care and attention.

At times during the day, when responding to calls or catching up with vehicles identified for checks, we reached speeds of over 120mph on the M40 with lights and sirens. What amazed me most was not the speed, but how many drivers appeared oblivious to what was happening around them (I should add that I have never driven at that speed before, and both Mark and I found it genuinely exciting). While many pulled over promptly, one driver remained in the right-hand lane at the speed limit, despite us following with lights flashing and sirens blaring for more than two miles.

Our final call of the afternoon was to a road traffic accident just outside Weston-on-the-Green on the A34. In slow-moving traffic, a truck had struck the back of a van, which in turn had shunted into a car. We were first on the scene. Thankfully no one was injured. Almost immediately, a National Highways traffic officer arrived to secure the road down to one lane, while Chris and Annie took swift control of the situation – checking the welfare of all involved, gathering information, and noting that the truck driver’s tachometer readings suggested he may have been driving beyond his allowable hours. That will be subject to further investigation.

Although the day was long, the time went by really quickly. It was fascinating, sometimes sobering, and always eye-opening. I came away with huge respect for the vigilance and professionalism of Thames Valley Police’s Road Policing team and their colleagues at DVSA and the Highways Agency. They do a tough job with skill, patience, and humanity – keeping our roads safer than most of us probably realise. We owe them real gratitude.