Essex Police is not processing thousands of speed offences as offenders reside out of the county, raising concern for community speed watch volunteers.
Community Speed Watch (CSW) is a volunteer-led initiative by residents who are trained to monitor traffic speeds using approved equipment.
The volunteers work for police forces across the country including Essex Police.
Ian Wardrop, chairman and parish councillor for Wickham Bishops, is a CSW for his village.
He said the procedure is that the registered keepers of the vehicles recording by the team are sent ‘warning’ letters which ask them to ensure their vehicles do not speed again.
Volunteers are further expected to check their recordings against the DVLA website to avoid mis-reads.
Mr Wardrop said: “My concern – and that of a number of CSW teams particularly on the borders with Herts and Suffolk – is the Essex Police policy of not sending warning letters to keepers of vehicles registered outside Essex.
“This is the Out of Force policy.”
Mr Wardrop said about a year ago Essex County Council’s Safer Essex Roads Partnership (SERP) informed CSW teams that insufficient information included out of force vehicles.
It was said this was due to the high cost of 'wrong' registration numbers recorded by the CSW teams, with keepers claiming that their vehicles were nowhere near Essex on the date in question.
This resulted in a lot of time being expended in checking and writing to these keepers, that it was necessary to stop sending warning letters to all keepers with vehicles registered outside the county.
Mr Wardop said: “The policy means that, as well as keepers living outside the county, drivers of company cars or vans registered at the company's HQ outside Essex will not receive warning letters, so many delivery van drivers, for instance, will not be warned about their speeds.
“It is also worth pointing out that Hertfordshire Police and Suffolk Police do not have a similar policy.
“So, an Essex resident recorded as speeding by a Herts CSW team will receive a warning letter, whereas a Herts resident speeding in Essex will not.”
Mr Wardrop further obtained information from the SERP website which shows more in the border parishes more speeding recordings were not processed than processed.
List of figures
Almost 5,000 were ignored into total throughout the country.
The category NFA (out of force) includes other reasons such as stolen vehicles which are accounted for in the figures.
- In Bures, 76 vehicles were processed, 100 were NFA (out of force), meaning 41 per cent were processed.
- In Elsenham, 184 vehicles were processed, 219 were NFA, meaning 37 per cent were processed.
- In Hadstock, 38 vehicles were processed, 80 were NFA, meaning 28 per cent were processed.
- In Henham, 55 per cent were processed, 101 were NFA, meaning 29 per cent were processed.
- In Lt Hallingbury, 765 were processed, 1128 were NFA, meaning 37 per cent were processed.
- In Wickham Bishops, 563 were processed, 74 were NFA, meaning 84 per cent were processed.
- In Essex, 12,594 were processed, 4,888 were NFA, meaning 65 per cent were processed.
Mr Wardrop, who has been trying to get this policy changed for 18 months, said this policy seemed to contradict the goal to achieve zero road deaths in Essex by 2040.
This further follows 60 people losing their lives in crashes in 2025 - the highest number since 2016, when 64 died.
Mr Wardrop added: “How can the zero road deaths aim, together with the assertion that excess speed is a major contributory factor in road deaths, fit with Essex Police ignoring so many speeding drivers?
In response to this article, a spokesperson for Essex Police said there were operational rationale behind their decisions.
The spokesperson said: “In 2025, we increased our roadside enforcement by 104 per cent, with 29,000 speed offences detected and reported.
“Working alongside our partners at Maldon District Council, there is a regular enforcement presence in Wickham Bishops.
“Throughout 2026 we will continue to increase visibility and enforcement at the roadside.
"This is a vital piece of work as we know speed is a significant factor in collisions and we’re committed to doing all we can to prevent loss of life on Essex roads.”
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