Kent Police Federation calls for culture change to stop drivers using mobile phones

15 October 2019

The Kent Police Federation Chairman says a culture change is needed to educate drivers not to use their phones whilst behind the wheel.

Neil Mennie stated that there has been a number of recent traffic collisions in Kent, including a tragic death, caused by people distracted by a mobile phone.

Now Neil has appealed on BBC Radio Kent to drivers to avoid averting their attention from the road for their own safety and others.

“We would say that anything that you’re doing other than concentrating on the task in hand…is a distraction”, Neil said.

“We really need to educate people not to do this in the first place.”

Despite the lack of traffic officers in Kent Neil says that response officers remain committed to tackling the ongoing issue.

“The traffic officers are our roads policing officers and are a dedicated specialist team of officers that tend to focus on our faster and more strategic roads.

“However, our area police officers are just as capable at dealing with motorists for a number of offences and that includes mobile phone use.

“Traffic policing is a specialist area but I wouldn’t want anyone to go away with the view that it’s only traffic officers that can deal with these types of offences because it isn’t”, Neil added.

With the Government’s allocation of an additional 150 officers to Kent, Neil is hopeful that these extra officers will help to discourage distracted driving.

“Hopefully Kent Police will have more officers to deal with these types of things, but also it’s a balance between enforcement…and education and trying to make the use of these devices socially unacceptable.”

However, the Kent Federation Chairman admitted that extra police officers would not immediately stop the problem and it would be more about implementing a “complete change in culture” around the use of mobile phones whilst driving.