Two police forces in Wales have continued not to take action on video footage of close passes submitted through Operation SNAP.
Last July, GoSafe, the country’s road casualty reduction partnership, announced it was not taking action on submitted close passes due to guidance issued by the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
GoSafe interpreted the guidance as suggesting that distance measurements in Operation SNAP videos must be investigated by trained forensic specialists, in line with standards set by the Forensic Science Regulator.
However, the regulator told road.cc it “has not issued any national guidance on the topic, and certainly nothing that would suggest forces suspend taking action on evidence submitted to Operation Snap for the purposes you outline.”
The net result of this confusion was police forces in Wales no longer issuing warning letters to drivers who dangerously overtake cyclists, pedestrians and horse riders, despite there being no formal policy change.
Last week, two road.cc readers got in touch with their own submissions to Operation Snap detailing the responses they received from different forces in Wales a year on from the guidance being introduced “for the foreseeable future.”
One reader shared a generic response received from South Wales Police,
“As we are unable to measure the distance of the pass to meet the evidential threshold required to prove the offence at Court and there are no other factors such as vehicles oncoming or exiting junctions we are unable to prove the offence of driving without due care and attention beyond all reasonable doubt.
“Operation SNAP has become so successful that the team is no longer able to manage the demand submitted by the public. We are in the process of reviewing the operation to ensure that it remains efficient and effective. Therefore, until further notice, we will not be able to take any further action in cases that would previously have been dealt with by an advisory notice (warning letter), such as this case.”
Meanwhile another reader who submitted a report to Dyfed-Powys Police, covering mid and south-west Wales, received a strangely curt response to footage of her being close passed by a driver of a bin lorry:
“CANNOT SEE ANY PART OF BIKE IN VIDEO TO GAUGE AND RECENT FORENSIC GUIDELINES INSTRUCT NO CLOSE PASS AS CANNOT SAY DISTANCE”
In response, our reader writes, “This seems so strange to me – not least because most videos I’ve submitted before haven’t had any parts of my bike in or any other bikes and they’ve had action taken. Most cameras won’t get part of the bike in either,” before adding that this was her first submission to Dyfed-Powys Police having previously submitted footage to other forces.
“It wasn’t as close as some that I’ve had (although it WAS a bin lorry passing me uncomfortably close while there was oncoming traffic) and I half expected them to say sorry that’s not close enough, but I’m really perplexed by this response.”
On their website, GoSafe say Operation Snap “will investigate offences of Dangerous Driving, Driving without Due Care and Attention, Careless Driving, using a mobile phone, not wearing a seat belt, contravening a red traffic light, contravening solid white lines, and other offences where the driver is clearly not in proper control of the vehicle.”
Among the listed frequently asked questions is whether Operation Snap can deal with growing demands, to which GoSafe say, “It’s easy for people to engage in Operation SNAP and processes have been designed to run smoothly. Operation SNAP has one desired outcome. That is making our roads safer.”
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However in a press release issued following last year’s controversial guidance, the partnership also confirmed that GoSafe staff do not hold the “specialist forensic accreditation” required to investigate close passes.
“For this reason, we temporarily suspended acting on evidence submitted whereby pedal cyclists, horse riders and pedestrians felt that a vehicle had passed them too closely, without any other aggravating factors present or corroborating evidence present.
“Whilst we cannot forensically analyse speed or distance, we did not discourage people from submitting possible offences. This remains true and Operation Snap continues to review these submissions.”
However, with fewer investigations carried out and drivers in Wales no longer receiving warning letters, the outcome of these investigations are unlikely to result in action being taken.
2 thoughts on “Police say “Operation SNAP has become so successful” as they continue not to investigate close passes without being able to measure passing distances”
Someone needs to tell these police forces that “beyond reasonable doubt” does not mean “with absolute certainty”, especially when the penalty is a minor fine or, more likely, an education course.
A while ago I spoke to a team leader for the Met police’s unit that deals with dangerous driving reports.
They said that the Met police seniors spoke to court/prosecution staff to find out which cases were most successfull, to work out which reports to prioritise/NFA as they are now getting too many to handle in a timely manner.
I think this might have been after the 2022 highway code update and the answer was phone use given it is pretty much a slam dunk with good evidence.
So I guess Wales police are basically taking this approach to the nth degree.