July a record month for Extra Eyes initiative

Essex Police responded to a record 98 ‘Extra Eyes’ submissions during July – after receiving more than 300 submissions in a single month for the first time.

Launched in December 2017, Extra Eyes encourages road users to submit footage showing dangerous road user behaviour, in a bid to reduce crashes and save lives on roads across Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock.

The Extra Eyes webpage provides a simple method for cyclists, motorcyclists and drivers to upload footage showing dangerous or illegal behaviour.

Having reviewed the footage, where appropriate Essex Police contact the person caught on camera and explain the potential consequences of their actions. Alternatively, the offender may be offered a driver retraining course, or in serious cases face prosecution with the footage used as evidence.

The 306 submissions received in July compares to 289 in June, 239 in May, 206 in April, 164 in March, 137 in February and 106 in January – taking the total number of submissions in 2018 to 1,447.

Of the July submissions, Essex Police took action in 98 cases – including issuing 82 Notices of Intended Prosecutions (NIPs).

Four NIPs were issued for mobile phone offences, while three were for driving on the hard shoulder of a motorway. 68 were for for careless driving – of which eight were for accidents of close passing.

Of those where no action was taken, 85 were due to no video being attached to the submission.

As a result, SERP is asking those preparing to submit a video to check the full guidance before doing so.

03 August 2018