When constabulary duty’s to be done, to be done – A BHS employee’s lot can be a happy one!

Fortunately, it is not often that one finds oneself locked in the back of a police car, but such was my lot as an observer on a ‘day of action’ for Operation ‘Lose The Blinkers’, which sees police officers mounted on police horses undercover but miked up to an unmarked police car operating nearby.

‘Lose the Blinkers’, nearly six months old now, is a collaboration between the British Horse Society and Police Scotland and the jaunt that I was on is about the 10th day of action and my first as an observer.

The initiative has the aim of reminding road users that the public highway is not exclusively for motorists but that other users; walkers, cyclists, horse riders, farmers moving stock – all use the roads system to get from A to B as well.

The BHS collects details of areas where horse riders are feeling intimidation on the roads and Police Scotland’s Mounted Unit arrange undercover visits at a time that suits them and their road policing colleagues.

Thus we found ourselves on Mollins Road, Cumbernauld (where speeding is a problem and there has been an equine fatality in the past) with police horses, Harris and Stewarton. These were ridden by officers, PC Jennifer Weir and PC Gillian Sleight, all a bit dressed down – ordinary tack, exercise sheets from home, pink gloves and personal waterproof coats.

It goes without saying that they carried the correct amount of hi-vis gear. One was sporting a head cam and both were in contact with our unmarked Ford Focus where I sit observing the action in the car driven by PC Gordon Barrie, from the roads policing unit, at Motherwell, along with Sergeant Alan Gilbert, from the mounted unit. We are all ears to the girl’s radios.

The two hours pass quickly and are fairly intense – during which 20 cars are stopped and drivers educated. They are asked why they were stopped and it is explained that they either passed too close or too fast (or both) to a ridden horse.

The guys patiently explain about Lose the Blinkers, remind the drivers of their duties under the Highway Code and hand over a leaflet for reading afterwards. The responses they receive are interesting – “I did not see the horses until the last minute” .... “that is the first time I have ever encountered horses on the road”!

Mostly the drivers are really pleased to have been reminded of their duties towards vulnerable road users under the Highway Code and thank the officers for policing the roads!

Let’s be frank, they were probably relieved to receive education rather than enforcement because when blue lights and siren pulls you over and you watch two uniformed guys walking towards your car in your rear view mirror, you do think the worst don’t you?

Besides, this excellent education, there is enforcement too. During those two hours, three drivers were charged with road traffic offences.

We have always known that horse riders have a superior view, so it’s easy to see when a rear seat passenger is not belted in. The subsequent vehicle stop sometimes takes a few minutes as the officers don’t activate their lights or siren until they have seen the offence for themselves as Scottish Law requires corroboration.

As soon as they have spotted the offence its pull in time with sirens and blues, you see the offender scrambling for their belt. A £100 fine later is a sobering lesson.

Then an incident for which the operation is directly aimed took place – a contravention of section 3 Road Traffic Act 1988 (careless driving) when an impatient driver drove too fast and close to the ridden horses. The outer rider got such a fright she could not help but shout out.

This driver was stopped and issued with a conditional offer of fixed penalty in relation to the offence which is a £100 fine and three points on his licence. Had Harris been an ordinary horse out for a hack and not a highly trained police horse chosen for the job, there is a high possibility that an accident could have occurred.

Overall, these two hours were such an effective use of our precious Police Scotland resources – for the changes they produce in the speeds and attitudes of drivers, for seeing the police professionally using discretion and education and for the subsequent social media campaign.

I cannot tell you how grateful the BHS is to have so much support for our equine road safety campaigns or how important near miss reporting and accident reporting is. It had been a busy morning for Road Policing, but Gordon confirmed a), how positive the initiative was for driving attitudes; and b), to being a bit dismayed that we had to choose which vehicles to stop as so many of them passed too close and too fast to the horses.

For me, it was an exciting two hours, but I did wonder afterwards whether the people who saw a frightened looking lady in the back of a police car sporting the precious British Horse Society brand – was under arrest!