Road Traffic Unit - A discussion

[Mim]

Road Traffic Unit - A Discussion
​

Hello everyone,

As of recent, traffic command has been trying to look at ways to improve the quality of our officers and have slowly been taking steps to address the possible reasons why it has gotten to this point anyways.

Since I got my command position last November I have always tried to assess and uphold high standards in the division and once I got Captain me and my command team worked to rework the application process to make it more adaptable but also teaching officers new skills at the same time. This is something we have had a resounding success in over the past months. However, I'm not ignorant to the fact that there are still issues or things people want to see from the Road Traffic Unit so I want to open this to everyone.

We would like to know of any concerns about the department (Not about individual members of the department or anything currently being dealt with) and what you like, don't like and want to change. We obviously can't promise changes however all responses will be discussed and looked into.

It goes without saying that there are a few rules about posting:
-Posts need to be constructive
-Any concerns over specific officers should NOT be bought up in this post
-All forum rules still apply and we ask people to be respectful as well.

We look forward to any responses!

Kind Regards,
Captain Jimmy Brown (Mim)
Head of Traffic

Lieutenant Hayden James (Hayden)
Traffic Command

 

[jacf104]

Training

Personally I believe as a Road Traffic department and for every department inside the PLPD that we need more training in many different aspects of our role such as pursuits,shoot outs ect as currently talking in a RTU perspective as this is what this post is about,If they our a successful candidate they get training on the stage 2 assessment of all things RTU and certain special practices what we are able to do but then almost thrown into the deep end.

I think training as a whole for this department and PLPD as a whole would be a great thing as during the training their could be a stage where officers our able to ask questions to their command members of any queries they have and would give them a chance to speak out if theirs anything they have spotted since the last training which may need addressing and a bit of practice as from knowledge (I may be wrong) if a officer may struggle during a pursuit with their driving (for a example) and reported they get a supervised ride along,Whilst this is good to give the officer feedback I believe it would be more effective to give that officer in question practice in certain situations on the training server.

The only negative for this may be the resources RTU have available to effectively run a full department training and would have to be careful with what you do with officers who just do not turn up to training.

Teamspeak

This is more of a suggestion of what I will put in to the PLPD as a whole (but could get some replies from this post) that for effective communication of the department and so that fellow RTU members our able to speak to each other in a private channel rather than the lobby or the open police rooms,For the argument that sometimes in the channels important things are being talked about by yourself or command members is to set channel codes when only certain people are allowed in or add a teamspeak channel under each department which is a office for the Head of the department or a Command only room.

I believe this would be helpful for command members also to be able to talk to their officers in more of a general way and bring closer togetherness within all departments of the PLPD rather than always doing it on the server

 

[Mim]

Thanks for the response,

Training,

Stage 2 is meant to mainly be a competency test, however, I changed it so it teaches new techniques. This I believe gives officers a chance to ask trainers to go over things they aren't sure about whilst also completely and learning the stage.

In terms of larger-scale sessions, this is something we as a command team are planning on doing ASAP, we want to teach our officers better techniques however teaching them how to perform in a shootout will never be on our agenda. We are a traffic unit, we will teach traffic based tasks, like pursuit tactics and better driving habits. Along with how to set up good cone placement, better investigative work etc. Cordons and things for shootouts can be considered however they aren't on our priority list.

As stated in our handbook at the moment under training and RTO may ask their command team to go over skills on the training server which we still stand by, if you are an RTO and just need some help perfecting a few things feel free to make a helpdesk ticket.

Teamspeak

In terms of TeamSpeak, we have no plans to be adding channels for RTO's to talk in, however, something that does sound cool is a place for RTO's to communicate in-game without being interrupted by other officers. This could be a separate radio channel but this would involve development work but definitely something I for one am interested in. We are trying to not use TeamSpeak as much as we can even for Stage 2's we try to limit this also.

The command channel is used for command meetings, discussions with SMT and other command members and for confidential division based conversations. Other than that we try not to use the channel for non-PD purposes.

I hope this helps and Hayden and I will discuss your points further however these are my initial thoughts.

 

[Double J]

Hello Fellow Command Member,

Personally, I feel as though RTU has come a long way since its first establishment in 2016/17.

I have a few questions I feel as though should be answered so the wider audience knows about them.

How do you feel about RTU officers responding to non-traffic related incidents E.G Assaults in progress, Robbery ETC?

Do you think policies should be in place for the above question?

Are there any planned updates to RTU that you can disclose?

How do you go about dealing with 104 Traffic officers every day?

How do you feel with the possibility of Traffic becoming a secondary division? Do you think this will affect traffics reputation and/or amount of officers?

Hope to hear from you soon!

 

[Tyla Jai]

I already voice my views to you as you know but I believe road traffic should remain a primary division but should be significantly more elitest in terms of quality and training of officers, and consideration of limiting the number of allowed officers into the division. The main role of road traffic is traffic law enforcement, which mostly includes pursuits, we should be better equipped in dealing with pursuits for example the Porsche Cayanne and BMW 340i should have significant speed increase, which as we know is being worked on slowly anyway, with the Mercedes hopefully being removed as it's not a practical police vehicle.

I realise I contributed to the new Stage 2 process but I do believe we should be incredibly strict in making sure all officers know how to use the various techniques, rolling roadblocks, pursuit funneling, reinforced stop, box and stop, safe spikestrip deployment, pursuit commentary including safety criteria, and more. I believe this would be the only way we can justify buffing road traffic by having officers that are trusted to use the new features.

A lot of the changes I would want for traffic would need dev work which I understand is a bit of a grey area at the moment but ideas include ANPR cameras built into traffic cars, more notices/signs for the 1-5 keys, traffic cones with blue light placements on them, configurable matrix boards, etc.

 

[Tyla Jai]

I think pretty much this entire document should be taught https://www.app.college.police.uk/app-content/road-policing-2/police-pursuits/

 

[Mim]

How do you feel about RTU officers responding to non-traffic related incidents E.G Assaults in progress, Robbery ETC?

Do you think policies should be in place for the above question?

This question is a tricky one. The wording leads me to believe you want to know if a Traffic Officer can respond to those incidents and my answer is this:

In short, IT DEPENDS, It all depends on the circumstance. Personally, the way I look at it is that if you are in an RTU vehicle (The BMW, Porsche, merc or any of the unmarked) you should prioritise all traffic-related incidents and not make yourself actively assignable to other incidents. However, as assessed by our Stage 1 you need to know when to stop prioritising. If you are an RTO not in an RTU vehicle then I don't mind what incident you go to.

If you get a callout over the radio of shots fired at projex let's say and you are in the BMW 340i. You shouldn't instantly call up and respond, instead continue your duty but keep an ear out on the radio and see what's going on, if it's clear they need help then pop over and give them a hand. If no-one is on the cordon prioritise that over going inside, if not I don't mind what you do.

There are policies in place to deal with any serious breaks in this but like I said there isn't really many situations where its realistic to punish and officer for doing so. We have been trying to combat the amount of officer using our cars plainly to get to incidents faster or to avoid transporting prisoners in which our Use of Vehicle policy will be able to deal with them.

I hope this answers that question

Are there any planned updates to RTU that you can disclose?

There are a few changes planned most of them are already public like the PLPD proposed changes which outline the addition of Traffic Hi-Vis Vests which I love but also the ability to not always be in Traffic Gear and be able to choose when you gear up in that gear. This should help clarify the previous question and if implemented gives us a lot more give in how we punish officers who abuse this gear.

How do you go about dealing with 104 Traffic officers every day?

Well to start with it helps to have a good Command Team which in this case is me and @Hayden. But since i got my position in RTU command in November every day has a unique problem or situation to deal with.

However, I don't like to say dealing with 104 Traffic Officers because I'm not 'dealing' with them. I am helping them, encouraging them and teaching them trying to make them better officers each day. And the small minority of officers who don't fall in line are encouraged to improve before action is taken. Positive Reinforcement is better than consistent threats of removal which is something I have learnt throughout my time as a command member.

How do you feel with the possibility of Traffic becoming a secondary division? Do you think this will affect traffics reputation and/or amount of officers?

At first, I will admit when @Momo @Super_ and @McGlinchy told me about their idea to make this a thing I was completely opposed to the idea. Mainly because I jumped onto all the negatives it could mean, however at the time there wasn't many at all.

When the proposed changes document was published I was shocked at first however have given a more detailed response over there but I will update and summarise here.

I am NOT opposed to RTU becoming a secondary division, I do think it is something that is needed to be able to increase the quality of RTO's and gives me and Hayden more control over what happens in the division. We can have things like Hi-vis jackets, restrict certain things allow people to gear up and down and many more future things down the line. However, as explained in the previous post the number of officers, to begin with, will most likely decline due to the dislike of the lowering of armour and removal of a primary firearm, these are issues I still oppose however I believe rather than complaining about them I can spend my time better and look at other ideas that will encourage officers to stay qualified as an RTO.

I love where RTU has come and in my opinion, its reputation has improved but has some ways to go. Continuing with some of the proposed changes may affect it negatively or positively but its something we don't know for sure until it happens and I have faith that it will be fine.



Thank you for your response and I hope this answers your questions

 

[Tyla Jai]

We really shouldn't make traffic something you gear up / down for. It's completely unnecessary and unrealistic when we have something which works completely fine right now. What even are the advantages of having a gear up / down system? @Super_ @McGlinchy @Momo @Mimball

 

[Mim]

@Tyla Jai

First of all, we can look into hour tracking for our officers. This means that i can just remove inactive RTO's meaning we would instantly have a smaller unit.

In terms of gearing up and stuff it also means that RTO's don't always have to be an RTO, with the addition of the light guns to Patrol Sergeants and stuff like that being in Traffic Gear doesn't allow that therefore gearing up facilitates those changes too and in my opinion gearing up into the gear should be how it always should have been

 

[jacf104]

Many Thanks for your thoughts and explaining a couple things I was unsure on

Training

Stage 2
As of stage 2 I was pleased about the changes as of my breaks from perp I seen the reformed and the old stage 2 as it used to be watch a couple videos on plpd.online and do stage 2 whilst now yourself and other trainers actually go through it to make sure officers fully understand the techniques if they are successful

Large Scale Training
Think the large scale session will be a great thing for this department and all departments if they look into it,A extra suggestion towards this is to do a google questionnaire thing (forgot what its called) so officers can express their opinion on long with yours of some more things which should be said during the training session,Whilst im guessing they would not happen too much due to logistics they will be effective.

Teamspeak

Yeah I agree with your thinking towards teamspeak as mostly the TS server is not the most active thing in the world with people either sitting afk in a room to generally be approachable or sitting in private rooms,This may take some deving but what would also be cool is on the F3 police computer their would be a chat just for RTU officers kinda like the current shoutbox on PLPD.online or the forums

 

[Tyla Jai]

@Mimball You can already track hours of officers, if they're not performing their role as a traffic officer then you can deal with that on a case by case basis. If you're a traffic officer you should always be traffic. I am very opposed to giving rifles to just patrol division, either don't at all or give to both. It's unrealistic to have to gear up as traffic and just going to make it like the old [unused] speed enforcer job.

 

[Double J]

@Tyla Jai Patrol didn't have much of an incentive to be in that division. Personally, the rifle for Patrol Sergeants is a good step.

 

[Sorle]

Expanding on the quality aspect which Tyla mentioned, RTU in my eyes often simply acts as an addition on top of Patrol as opposed to a separate division to patrol - being part of RTU for the most part just seems like it grants a bunch of stuff that Patrol doesn't have access to while also just doing the same things; it's very rare that I see people setting up speed checkpoints and things of the sort or using the tools granted to RTU for the purposes of road traffic control, as it should be. It tends to just be a lot of the same as Patrol.

Officers should be in densely-populated urban areas of the map directly and actively seeking out traffic law breaches, however it simply just doesn't seem to happen. What's your stance on this?

 

[Mim]

Officers should be in densely-populated urban areas of the map directly and actively seeking out traffic law breaches, however, it simply just doesn't seem to happen. What's your stance on this?

As stated in my post, I am trying to tackle the fact that officers don't do traffic duties whilst in their cars. I can't control if they use my cars or not but whilst using RTU cars they should be performing traffic duties if you are ranked Corporal+there is a form you can fill out where you can report minor policy breaks (Internal RTU policy) or officers simply not doing their job.

The only way to tackle this issue is by the Corporals and Sergeants doing their part of reporting it when they see it.

 

[Sorle]

bril, ty for the clarification & apologies that i didnt properly see that

 

[Mim]

@Sorle Its ok, questions like this is what this post is about, clearing up any things for people and making sure people know we are listening to them and that of course to point out I'm not inactive for those that don't see me on the server when I'm on

 

[Tyla Jai]

@Jimmy Jackson It’s the default division for a reason! I would be up for making TFU a primary division too if I’m honest.

 

[Tyla Jai]

There’s a few of us who dedicate their time to pursuits/traffic. Jacf & Henry to name a couple, I think the reason they are encouraged to is because they are newer traffic officers who have been taught the far better Stage 2

 

[Mim]

Road Traffic Unit - A Discussion​

Hello everyone,

I haven't responded to this thread in a while and I thought it would be a good idea to sort of update on what we have done since this thread was opened.

Training
In terms of training me and Hayden have released a brand new Road Traffic Unit training video which is there to teach and advise on skills officers may not already have. This video doesn't contain everything but is 'required' to be watched to have a good chance at passing Stage 2. The video allows the RTU stage 2 to cover more content whilst keeping the stage as short as possible. We now assess 4 new practical pursuit skills and an in-depth driving stage within the new Stage 2.

We have edited the way we assess Stage 3's to make sure we are screening the officer's performance in Stage 2's by checking their driving, performance but also their behaviour. This allows us to make sure the officers we are accepting into RTU represent the division in the best way possible.

We have also tried to re-encourage mandatory retraining by allowing all RTU training staff to request mandatory retraining on any RTO (obviously to be command approved). This is slow and steady so far but we encourage officers to contact a member of the RTT training team or command if they witness (with evidence) poor driving or traffic duties.

Policy Changes
Since this post was created there have been a few small shoutbox announcements about policy changes within our RTU internal policies the most noticeable one being the removal of the policy restricting the use of the unmarked cars. Unmarked cars can now be used for general policing however the policy does still state that traffic duties should be preferenced over general policing duties.

We have also made some handbook changes to reintroduce the Porsche (seems it wasn't added when it was readded) and the traffic vest.

We are always looking at ways we can improve RTU and make it more enjoyable but also effective as a division

Observation Reports
In November of 2020, Hayden and I decided it was time we ramped up our OR flagging and performance tracking of officers ranked Corporal+ within RTU. We have since had what I would call tremendous success. Here are some of the numbers.

November 2020: (Before we sent out PMs)
Each Corporal on average was writing less than 1 OR each.
Each Sergeant on average was writing just under 1 OR each.
Each Command member on average was writing under 1 OR each.

December 2020: (First month after PMs were sent)
Each Corporal on average was writing almost 1 OR each.
Each Sergeant on average was writing just about 2 OR's each.
Each Command member on average was writing just about 1 OR each.

January 2021: (Second month of PMs)
Each Corporal on average was writing 1 OR each.
Each Sergeant on average was writing more than 2 OR's each
Each Command member on average was writing more than 1 OR each.

As you can see the numbers are improving and will be shown clearer in this graph below:

The trend lines are very promising and we hope to get both Corporal and Sergeant to the minimum of 2 OR's on average each and Command to get there eventually despite command not actually having an OR requirement.

Conclusion
Over the past 4/5 months, we have made some considerable changes to the everyday running of the division and the performance tracking of individual officers with the focus being on increasing performance and helping those who are falling below expected standards.

What else do you want to see from us as a command team and do you have any questions for us?

Stay Safe!

Captain Jimmy Brown (Mim)
Head of RTU

Lieutenant Hayden James (Hayden)
RTU Command

 

[CaughtRed]

Why did you make the CPL and SGT colours so similar in your graph