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Alex Eckford spent a day shift with a Metropolitan Police traffic officer, and found out what it's like to be on the motoring front line.

"Moving into lane three. Holding back, holding back - see what develops. Is the blue van going to let us through? And the cabbie? Good man, quick courtesy wave. Good cabbie."

Five minutes after joining PC Lee Ellingham in his BMW patrol car we're weaving through traffic on London's Tottenham Court Road, on the way to an incident on the A40. The blue lights are flashing and vehicles are manoeuvring out of our way.

As an exercise in controlled high-speed driving it's hard to fault. Not to mention pretty bleedin' exciting. It's the first in a series of events which help give a picture of what the traffic police have to deal with every day.

Constable Ellingham and his colleagues work out of the Central Traffic Garage on Drummond Crescent near Euston station. Just beyond the huge blue shutters are a line of police cars and bikes from 4x4s to unmarked Vauxhall Omegas.

PC Ellingham has more driving qualifications than most. He's ex-army, and is trained to drive just about every vehicle going, at advanced level.

You might know him as 'Lambo Cop' - he's the man responsible for transforming a Lamborghini Gallardo into one of the best viral emails of 2005 - a Lamborghini police car.

It's just me and the 33-year-old traffic cop in the car today, so I get to sit in the passenger seat, with a front row view of London's traffic enforcement.

The car is a BMW 5-Series Touring with an automatic number plate reading camera, and enough equipment in the boot to deal with every potential situation, including the obligatory traffic cones and a 'Baracuda' - a spiked device for stopping HGVs.

The first message to hit home is that, contrary to popular opinion, the traffic police aren't out to stop people for the sake of it. We stop a woman for driving erratically, another motorist whose number plate is obscured, and have a friendly word with a bus driver who's parked his vehicle on a blind corner. There are no armed robberies, no drug busts, but the day is endlessly fascinating.

The message my tour guide is keen to get across is that safe driving is all about thinking about the situation logically.

"Drivers just need to use their common sense. We're never going to pull someone over for driving sensibly and using their heads," he says.

Trouble ahead

Our next call is one of public service. With traffic levels reaching critical mass in the Capital, more and more drivers are, illegally, using small residential streets as rat-runs. In one particular street in Hampstead, drivers still break the law and drive up the wrong way up a street marked with 'No Entry' signs.

It's a seemingly sedate task which quickly escalates into a potentially sticky situation.

We park in the road and wait for drivers to catch themselves out by driving through the plainly visible signs. Within seconds a silver saloon cruises round the corner, and PC Ellingham motions for the driver to pull over further up the road.

The driver isn't happy. He already has nine points on his licence, and the further three he's receiving today could lose him his job as a bus driver. Also in the car are his brother and a friend. They're not small, and are keen to express their dissatisfaction with the constable's point of view.

Three against one hardly seems fair, but PC Ellingham handles the situation well, asking the men to get back in the car, and explaining the situation to the driver reasonably and calmly. Potential beating avoided.

Secret road

One advantage of being in a police vehicle is we're allowed to go places other cars aren't. Shortly after driving past the Royal Albert Hall we turn right onto Kensington Palace Gardens. This is the only time I'm ever likely to travel along this road in my life. We pass Kensington Palace on our right, and a line of embassies - it's no wonder the road is closed to regular traffic.

Unmarked car

A frustrating aspect of driving around in a marked car is the way people respond to its visible presence. I swear pedestrians see the car and correct their posture. It's likely some motorists wait until we're out of sight and then carry on speeding.

Later in the day we transfer into an unmarked 3.2-litre Vauxhall Omega. It's got a little bit more kick than the Beemer.

We set off towards South-West London and suddenly in mid-conversation, we accelerate sharply and PC Ellingham flicks the switch to start the siren and front grill-mounted blue lights. He's seen a driver ahead of us go straight through a red light.

The man, who turns out to be a professional driver, receives penalty points and a fine. Our car has a video recorder in the boot, documenting everything we see during the day. PC Ellingham rewinds the video and shows me the moment at which the man runs the red light.

"It's very useful to have video evidence in court, because people will tell you they didn’t go through a red light. You play the video and they suddenly go quiet," says PC Ellingham.

We stop another driver for speeding on the Euston Road.

"He probably won't speed on that stretch of road now for six months. He'll think twice. That's what the job is about, making people aware of the risks, and making driving on the roads safer for everyone," says PC Ellingham.

The Tintman

Another tool at the traffic police's disposal is the Tintman. It's a device for measuring the amount of light which passes through darkened glass. Legally, 70 per cent of light must pass through the windscreen, driver's side and passenger side windows. We spot a BMW X5 which looks to have overly darkened glass.

One of the most interesting aspects of the day is seeing how PC Ellingham deals with the public. In the car he's open, funny and chatty - but when he steps out of the car to speak to drivers, he's 100 per cent professional.

After explaining the situation to the driver, a quick test with the Tintman shows the amount of light being let through the is well outside the legal limit. The man informs PC Ellingham he won't have to test the windscreen, as it's fine.

"I'll be the judge of that, sir," says PC Ellingham.

At the end of the shift I feel I've seen the traffic situation from a whole new perspective. Traffic policing is a tough job, and one without which most towns, cities and motorways would grind to a halt.

External links

The Metropolitan Police Traffic Operational Command Unit website

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