Police now on the buses to snare drivers using phone
MORE than a dozen drivers will receive £200 fines in the post after undercover police hiding on buses caught them on their mobile phones.
The police sting was conducted in and around Great Barr, and in just 90 minutes, 19 people were caught redhanded by the West Midlands Police road harm reduction team, who filmed them.
PC Mark Hodson, who led the aptly-named Operation Top Deck, said: “We’re on the bus and literally we’ve got officers – two upstairs, two downstairs – who are looking for people who are using their mobile phones.
“What we’ll do is we’ll capture the video evidence and we’ll ticket them later in the post. They will get their six points and £200 fine for the offence.
“It’s a really effective way of us catching people. It is the easiest and most prolific way of doing it.
“In two-and-a-half hours of doing it last time we caught 41 offenders. Lots of people are aware that we’re doing it. It’s great public awareness.
“They’ll go out and tell people and it really is the case of that if you’re driving and you’re around any bus in the West Midlands now, you could be caught using your mobile phone.
“It’s not worth doing so turn it off, put it in your glove box and there won’t be any issues.”
Back in September, cops staking out motorists from the top deck of a bus prosecuted a woman for driving without due care and attention – after she was caught eating from a bowl of cereal in her lap.
A man was also caught using his phone while on route to a speed awareness course, while a disqualified driver was also pulled over and arrested. Information is radioed to police bikers who divert offenders to a designated site where they are given an educational input, including a hard-hitting, virtual reality video highlighting the potentially devastating consequences of using a phone while driving.
But the new tactic has not met with universal approval from the public, with many people taking to social media to criticise the use of resources.
Steve Spence posted: “The amount of burglaries and stabbings going on, they wanna get off the bus and patrol the streets.”
Carl Roney added: “I’m a big defender of the police. They do a thankless and very difficult job. But there’s no excusing this, there’s kids literally being stabbed on our streets regularly. Houses being robbed daily. We need police on the streets not on buses.”
Sue Woodley added: “Maybe they should be looking for kids with knives & patrolling buses making them safe for our kids, rather than trying to make money.”
And Barry Andrew added: “Absolute joke. Hammer the motorists while the real criminals are running about with guns and knives. Get real West Midlands Police.”