Concerns raised over abuse and attacks on speed camera operators

There have been occasions when those inside road safety vans were assaulted and their vehicles attacked.

Jonathan McCambridge PA 00:01, 04 Aug 2025

Abuse and violence against speed camera operators in Northern Ireland has to end, Chief Superintendent Sam Donaldson has said.

The PSNI[1]'s road safety lead said there had been occasions when those inside road safety vans had been assaulted and their vehicles attacked.

The 12 vans with mobile cameras, operated by NI Road Safety Partnership (NIRSP), detect speeding motorists at around 230 sites across the region.

The PA news agency joined one of the vans in operation in east Belfast[2]. After set-up in a 40mph area, seven motorists were detected by the camera driving above the speed limit in under half an hour.

Just minutes after the van had parked, a photograph of it appeared on social media[3] along with an abusive message.

One passing motorist shouted obscenities at the vehicle while several blared their horns.

The van driver demonstrated a protective perspex shield in front of the camera which can be drawn down if he is approached or threatened.

He said he is regularly the victim of verbal abuse and has had people attempting to take his photograph. He also said he had colleagues who had been physically attacked.

Mr Donaldson said this type of abusive behaviour is not unusual: "I have lots of concerns around this. First of all there is the generic sentiment as a community towards the deployment of the vans.

They are still seen as a negative thing.

"We have got to change that thinking. Then there is the specific deployments on a specific road at a specific time when the social media messaging will go bananas.

"It is completely unacceptable and the mentality of the people around that kind of really bad language and that offensive language, I just don't understand it.

"Clearly, they don't understand the purpose of the vans being there."

He added: "And then there is another element to this, that is that some of our vans and some of our van drivers have actually been physically attacked.

"I struggle to get my head around why someone who, if they were to take a step back and realise that the van is there to slow people down and to keep them safe, I don't think they would behave the way they have been behaving.

"Our vans have been attacked and individuals within our vans have been attacked on more than one occasion.

"I should say it's rare. I don't want people having this mentality that everyday people are attacking our vans with baseball bats or whatever the case may be, but it does happen."

The senior officer said there had been a review of the health and safety policies and risk assessment following one incident where a van was attacked with a weapon.

Mr Donaldson said there are many "myths" about the safety camera vans, particularly around how they are sited and the money which is raised through fixed penalty notices.

He said: "We are not, genuinely not, setting out to catch people[4].

Number one message is around prevention. If we don't catch you speeding that is actually a good thing.

"If we deploy a van on a certain road at a certain time and we don't detect anyone speeding, that is success. In terms of visibility, there are some guidelines around where the vans should be deployed."

He added: "I have to say I am really, really frustrated when somebody who is speeding and has been detected speeding, maybe near a school, maybe near a place where young people or children are frequenting or crossing the road, and they are fixated on how visible the van was as opposed to being fixated on the fact that they were speeding and were causing a really, really significant risk for the other road users and could have killed someone.

"I get that frustration, and I get the fact that people will write in from time to time and say it was behind a bus stop, or the police officer was behind a lamppost, I am sorry but you are not going to get a lot of sympathy from me around that.

You shouldn't be speeding."

The chief superintendent said he was also tired of hearing people state that the speeding cameras[5] raise revenue for the Government.

He said: "All the money that the Road Safety Partnership generates as a result of both fines and fees is reinvested back into road safety. It doesn't go to the Government.

"At the end of each financial year, because we work on an annual financial basis, if there is money that the partnership has not spent, we have an obligation to return that to Government. That is the same as any other agency, any other partnership, any part of any Government department.

"It happens at the end of each financial year that a small proportion of the money has to be surrendered back in again.

"But let me be really clear, the money that is generated from the fines and the fees, goes to back to road safety in Northern Ireland, the upkeep of the vans, the investment in the equipment, we also have to pay staff to drive the vans, administer the processes, prepare the prosecution files."

Mr Donaldson added: "We are not collecting money to give to the Northern Ireland[6] Government or the UK Government[7] or anybody else, that comes straight back to the partnership and we reinvest the money in road safety here in Northern Ireland."

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References

1. ^ PSNI (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
2. ^ east Belfast (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
3. ^ social media (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
4. ^ people (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
5. ^ speeding cameras (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
6. ^ Northern Ireland (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
7. ^ UK Government (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
8. ^ Click this link (chat.whatsapp.com)
9. ^ Privacy Notice (www.reachplc.com)
10. ^ here (www.belfastlive.co.uk)
11. ^ sign up to our daily newsletter (www.belfastlive.co.uk)