Leadingtheway

Operation Close Pass was launched in September 2016 after Hodson and Hudson had studied three years’ worth of KSI (Killed/Seriously Injured) data from traffic accidents. Latest statistics from the Department for Transport show that serious injuries to cyclists have increased by 48 per cent since 2003. “In 99.9 per cent of cases, it is the driver’s fault,” says Hodson.

The pair were working on campaigns with Birmingham Cycle Revolution – “Sky Rides and other initiatives aimed at getting more people on bikes” – before they had a light bulb moment: “We realised it wasn’t the cyclists we should be educating, but the drivers. So we came up with the idea of a plain clothes officer riding up and down a road.”

As well as running undercover operations at least twice a week, they encourage cyclists to send them video footage of close passes. “The volume is so big that our traffic process office now handles it on our behalf,” says Hodson. “We’ve successfully prosecuted 1350 cases on the strength of the video evidence. When this news gets out, it changes drivers’ behaviour. Within two weeks of this being made public, the number of close passes being reported to us dropped by half.”

Nine other UK forces, including Police Scotland and the Metropolitan Police, have since launched Operation Close Pass, with others set to commence in the near future. “We’ve even had interest from countries you wouldn’t expect, such as France and the Netherlands,” says Hodson. “These have segregated infrastructure, but it doesn’t run everywhere and at some point you still have to join a normal road.”