Cumbria police have launched a new dedicated unit aiming to make the roads safer.

Called the Roads Policing Unit (RPU), it is Cumbria Constabulary’s new unit which will see them move away from officers operating a dual role as road policing officers and firearms officers.

There are now 20 additional officers dedicated solely to road policing.

“It’s all part of a wider concern about how we improve safety on the roads.

“There’s another part of it, the reformed roads policing committee, which replaced CRASH, and that’s about partnering.

“You’ve got fire, the councils and police looking at where the problem areas are around the county.

“The solution is not always a police car, sometimes it’s things like road engineering or new speed limit signs.

“The other part of this is the physical policing and that’s what the RPU’s about, and I’m pleased to say now that together with uplift and the officers we’ve recruited over the last few years, we’ve now got about 231 extra officers we didn’t have in 2016, that’s allowed us now to draw together a standalone team to do roads policing,” said Peter McCall, Cumbria’s police, fire and crime commissioner.

Every officer is out and about to deal with crimes they see, this isn’t a case of there only being 20 officers on the roads, but rather a group that is dedicated to targeting the root of various road safety issues.

Such issues on the road range from using mobile phones while driving and not wearing a seatbelt, all the way to county lines and fatal crashes.

The idea is, as Mr McCall explained, that police will be actively looking for these crimes in order to tackle the cause and manage the effect, which will make the county safer long term.

For the cops, it’s about listening to what the public wants, according to Rob Carden, chief constable, who said: “I don’t know if it’s the legacy of Covid, but people talk of driving standards perhaps going slightly backwards, so it’s important we have the right resources the make that the roads in Cumbria are safe.

“Previously we had a joint department with firearms and roads policing, we’ve now been able to increase the number of officers we have and separate those departments.

“You get a double whammy, the road safety capability for the roads policing unit, and additional proactivity for the firearms officers.

“Not only are the roads safer in terms of driving offences but also serious crime from people using the roads to come into Cumbria to commit a crime.

“Previously we’d do 150 stops in a month, but now the figures are at the mid-800s a month, and with that proactivity, you uncover more crimes.”

It’s already seeing results, as on October 2, six drink/drug driving arrests were made in Cumbria, all during the day.

Inspector Jack Stabler, an RPU inspector, said: “I’ve created a road harm index which uses partnership data over a five-year period, that shows us where the collision hotspots are based on the severity of the injury.

“Some of those hotspots are the A66 east of Penrith, Brampton Bypass, and the A590 at Newby Bridge, all these areas are brought into the partnership to see who the lead agency is to deal with these issues.

 “We’re all focussing on the fatal four: speeding, drink/drug driving, not wearing seatbelts, and using mobile phones while driving.

"Having officers dedicated to the new Roads Policing Unit is an investment in our commitment to making significant improvements to road safety across Cumbria."