Good Afternoon Resident,

Your local neighbourhood team are committed to improving the safety of road users, including pedestrians, in your area. This is the most frequent complaint we receive from the community at PACT meeting, police surgeries and through local Councillors.

Last year, we launched Operation Classify, aimed at reducing death and serious injury on the roads of Bolton. Excessive speeding, alongside drink and drug driving have been the main key causes of road traffic collisions.

Local officers regularly conduct traffic operations around Bolton, identifying motorists who:

We carry out these operations to make sure you and your loved ones are safe on the roads. It is also what the community tells us they want to see us doing.

We also have the assistance of the mobile speed van, which can be deployed to different roads each day.

In recent months, following some of our successful operations, we have seen a number of people posting on social media or mobile map apps to alert other road users that police are at a certain location.

Posting online that police are conducting a traffic operation can prevent those who do not drive legally being dealt with. Drivers who don’t have a licence and/or insurance will choose an alternative route to avoid their car being seized and them being prosecuted. Drivers who persistently speed will slow down to avoid being caught and once they’ve passed the traffic operation, continue to speed.

If someone chooses to commit any driving offence, they need to be dealt with. If someone doesn’t have a licence, we need to be able to take their car off them to stop them from driving and prosecute them. If someone doesn’t have insurance, we need to be able to take their car off them until they can get insurance and prosecute them. If someone chooses to use their phone whilst driving, we need to be able to issue them points and a fine. If someone chooses to speed, we need to be able to prosecute them.

We can’t do that if people post our whereabouts online.

For some motorists, it will take points on their licence to change their mindset and driving habits. Too many points leads to a disqualification from driving, which will completely affect their whole life. Continuing to drive whilst disqualified leads to prison.

Are you one of those people that share our location online or flash other motorists heading towards one of our traffic operations? If so, you could be warning someone that shouldn’t be driving, who then goes on to kill or seriously injure another road user, friend or family member.

Kind regards,