An area of technology which interests me is how Police forces use modern technology to prevent and solve crimes. They use a range of different technologies in many different areas to do this. From fingerprinting to breath-testing, technology is vital in the fight against crime in today’s world. An example of this is in the Garda “Traffic Corps” division, whose “responsibility it is to significantly reduce the incidence of fatal and serious injuries and improve road safety”. They prevent traffic offences such as speeding and drink-driving and use technology to do this. An example of this is the recent launch of a Garda initiative called the “Go Slow Initiative”, which was introduced in an attempt to reduce speeding on our roads.
The “Go Slow Initiative” introduced mobile speed cameras or “mobile safety cameras” around the country. The initiative is in partnership with a company called GoSafe who will operate the cameras on behalf of the Gardai. The cameras will be installed in vans, which will be placed on the road-side in different locations around the country. Surveys have been carried out and these sections of road “were identified as having a significant proportion of collisions whereby, in the opinion of the investigating Garda, a safe speed was exceeded”. Ongoing surveys will be conducted to ensure that these sections of roads continue to represent locations where speeding is happening, and the cameras can be easily moved to a different location if required.
The sections or road where the cameras will be located are available on the Garda website, however their exact location is not. The vans will also be clearly marked as having a safety camera on-board as “the aim is to change driver behaviour, reduce speed and as a result improve road safety. It is not to generate revenue either for the State or the service provider.”
The cameras will operate day and night, and can monitor both sides of the road simultaneously. GoSafe will provide 6,000 enforcement hours and 1,475 survey hours per month across the country.
The Gardai hope that the safety cameras will:
• Increase compliance with speed limits across the entire road network.
• Reduce speed at locations that have a speed related collision history.
• Act as a deterrent to driving at excessive speeds.
This new initiative is a typical example of how the police use technology to prevent road collisions and save lives as “The use of safety cameras will have a significant effect in decreasing speeding levels which will directly reduce the rate of fatalities and serious injuries from collisions on the roads in Ireland”
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