Thousands arrested in first year of police road safety drive

MORE than 1,000 people were arrested and 1,500 unsafe vehicles taken off the road in the year since the launch of a police crackdown on dangerous or uninsured drivers.

Hertfordshire Constabulary’s Operation Sentinal was launched in June 2009, as a joint road safety drive between two Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) intercept teams, every road policing vehicle, 94 neighbourhood teams, the Special Constabulary and the Force Communications Room.

To celebrate the Operation’s anniversary, Hertfordshire Constabulary has today (Tuesday) released the statistics of the drive’s first year in existence.

Between June 1 2009 and May 31 2010, the intercept teams arrested 1,065 individuals and seized 1,577 vehicles.

In addition, hundreds of others were arrested using ANPR, which identified them as either wanted for offences or driving an illegal vehicle.

Chief Constable Frank Whiteley said: “We have seen countless successes over the past 12 months with Operation Sentinel, which has undoubtedly contributed to keeping the county a safe place for road users and our residents.

“ANPR has proved itself an invaluable tool to modern policing, bringing hundreds of criminals including burglars, drug dealers and dangerous uninsured drivers to justice.

“I’d like to reassure our law-abiding local communities that we will continue to relentlessly pursue those criminals and dangerous, uninsured drivers who put others safety and well-being at risk.”