ESSEX Police is splashing out more than £1million on new cars and camera technology in a bid to tackle dangerous driving.

It comes amid an ambitious plan to reduce to the number of fatal and serious crashes in the county to zero by 2040.

Essex’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst has given the go ahead to spend £1.5m on ‘high-performance’ vehicles and new dashcam technology which officers hope will secure more convictions for dangerous driving.

Head of roads policing in Essex, Adam Pipe, said: “Adam Pipe said: “Our new vehicles will mean we can get to incidents quickly and maintain pursuits with criminals who are in high-performance cars, and we’ve had £1.5m of investment approved by the PFCC for in-car video (dashcam) that will see 80 cars fitted with units.

“This will be an absolute game-changer.

“All of our roads policing officers now have laptops which means they won’t have to return to police stations as often, and we’ve been able to invest in equipment such as portable weighing plates that allow us to do our jobs better.”

Nearly 300 people in Essex were arrested over the festive period on suspicion of either drink or drug driving, with officers carrying out more than 1,200 breath tests in that period.

Brentwood Live:

The roads policing team, which is made up of 152 officers, is working in partnership with Essex County Council, Highways England and the Safer Roads Foundation to crackdown on bad driving.

They regularly carry out speed checks and host awareness events in an effort to educate drivers.

But Mr Pipe insists the addition of the new technology and vehicles will also help to crackdown on career criminals using Essex’s roads.

He added: “We have some very significant roads in Essex and along with the Met Police and other neighbouring forces we have a number of ongoing operations that are targeting key routes linked to high-harm crimes including drug dealing, violence, sexual offences and burglary.

“Our team is committed to making our roads safer and will take the strongest possible action against anyone putting lives at risk by driving when unfit or using our road network for criminal purposes.”