40 cars stopped as police carry out operation in Wythall - The Bromsgrove Standard

40 cars stopped as police carry out operation in Wythall

Bromsgrove Editorial 24th Aug, 2015 Updated: 17th Oct, 2016   0

A POLICE operation on Sunday (August 23) to combat anti-social driving and other motoring offences in Wythall saw almost 40 cars stopped in the space of five hours.

Two vehicles were taken off the road for having no insurance and one warning was issued for speeding following the campaign which centred around the A435.

Complaints had been made to the force by residents about cars racing along the carriageway and the operation was set up in response to that.

Ten officers in five cars took part in the drive, along with members of the West Mercia Police Road Policing Unit.




ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) technology was used to identify the cars which were stopped.

In a split second, the system photographs vehicles’ number plates and cross references them against the DVLA computer and the Police National Computer (PNC).


Those databases identify drivers who are driving without tax or insurance, drivers who do not have a valid licence and vehicles which have been used in criminal activity, such as drug dealing and other offences and flags them up to the police.

It was based on that intelligence that officers pulled over the vehicles.

Sgt Richard Field, who led the operation, said: “We want this to send out a clear message to motorists that anti-social driving will not be tolerated and that, if you are involved in criminal activity, we will catch up with you.

“The encouraging thing is that the majority of drivers our ANPR cameras came across were law abiding ones who had valid driving licences, tax and insurance and were travelling within the speed limit.

“But, we did also catch drivers who were acting outside the law and they were dealt with appropriately.

“We want the residents of Wythall to know we are doing something in response to their pleas and we will continue to do so with future operations aimed at clamping down on anti-social driving and other offences.”

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