My perception of the patrol was that is a very useful way of dealing with mobile phone users and traffic light offences. However nobody is going to act aggressively or close pass a uniformed police officer and I wondered if they ever went out undercover. The problem with that is that unless unformed they cannot require someone to stop. They have very good HD cameras on their helmets and so could usefully be gathering evidence but I suppose, on reflection, they have a steadily rising group of people doing that for them for free. This moved us on to the Roadsafe initiative (which is separate from Simon’s group). Simon thought prosecuting close passing motor vehicles was not sensible because it was all very subjective. I disagree, in many cases a vehicle is much too close in clear contravention of the Highway Code and driving at the very least without due consideration. It further represents a powerful disincentive to cycling (if it make me think twice it must make countless others never take to their bikes again). We discussed the effectiveness of writing letters and were able to agree that it was better than nothing. I mentioned that the Surrey Police had taken the view that one of my shots of a close pass was sufficient for a prosecution and I will let Simon know the outcome of that in due course.
