RIDE ALONG
A RIDE ALONG FOR ROAD SAFETY
Martin Owen, Internal Audit Manager at PFEW HQ, accompanies a team of Metropolitan Police Traffic Division officers and comes away “mightily impressed” by their driving skills and professionalism in keeping motorists safe
On Thursday 25 January morning, before I left PFEW HQ, National Chair Steve Hartshorn gave me two excellent pieces of advice: “Take a sick bag, and some nibbles for yourself and the crew.” Not necessarily complementary you might think, but still useful pieces of advice for almost any occasion such as whale-watching or wedding reception or Taylor Swift concert. I was going to be on the rear seat of Oscar Whiskey 35, a Volvo V90, as a lay observer on the Met Police’s Ride-Along Scheme. I set off to meet my hosts at a discreet traffic police garage in Merton as I was assigned to be on the 1400-2300 shift with the Met’s Traffic Division officers Harry and Ian. Harry was going to tell me why they were colloquially termed ‘Black Rats’ but it was quickly forgotten in the excitement to come. Many forces in England and Wales
operate a ride-along scheme. The Met’s states, “Ride Along is a scheme which offers members of the public the chance to join our officers on patrol and experience daily policing first hand”. The Met currently offers experience of their response teams, the Territorial Support Group, and the Roads Policing teams. The scheme enables two-way learning and helps create greater understanding and closeness between the
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police and the public. You can easily find information on the force website using internet search engines. Some forces also call them lay observer schemes. Now, I’m a law-abiding accountant-cum-
auditor with little excitement in life (I know that’s hard to believe). I have had very little contact with the thin blue line, though I was an Independent Custody Visitor some
I said I was from the Federation and just wanted to listen, learn and understand how we could make their lot better. Nothing much to report or pass on at the parade, so the whole shift quickly went down to the canteen for a brew, natter, catch-up and light banter, which I took as the first chance to bring out some of my purchased-on- the-way nibbles. Thank you, M&S. Harry, Ian and I quickly went
“The officers were concerned about under-investment in technology. They had no means of accessing live or
historic ANPR data that would allow them to use intelligent targeting.”
years ago, and hence, have had much experience with custody teams operating microwaves to serve the DPs with their frozen curries. So, when the chance of spending a day with a copper or two came up, I leapt at the chance and started making a long list of questions.
Our first event was the parade with the duty sergeant. I was introduced as a guest for the day and, yes, there was some understandable caginess from the officers as to my intent. One previous visitor had apparently declared that she didn’t like the police. This had not gone down too well.
down to the car, a liveried 2-litre Volvo V90 hybrid electric. As the pair went through the car checks, I then had to review and sign off the ground rules via a quick presentation on a tablet. All were commonsense points,
such as following officers’ instructions, staying mostly in the car, and considering GDPR matters when taking photos, etc. Within minutes we were on the open road. We had no specific patrol area, so we were free to roam the entire south-west of London. Fortunately, this is my backyard so I know the roads pretty well myself. The first call came in pretty quickly and we were blue lighting from Wimbledon to Wandsworth. This is a distance of just over 3.5 miles where traffic is notorious. It would normally take 15 minutes or so, but probably took us about five minutes. The rest of the
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