Road policing unit review reveals investigation 'failures'

An internal review into a road policing unit criticised by a judge for "unacceptable" delays found serious concerns, the BBC has discovered.

The 2018 review into the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire team found "failures... requiring immediate attention" within investigations.

Judge David Farrell QC noted lengthy delays in three cases brought by the team this year.

The unit's new head said he was confident issues had been addressed.

Among the cases highlighted by the judge was that of Cambridge cyclist Stewart Milne.

The driver who killed him in December 2017 was not sentenced until August this year, a delay called "totally and utterly unacceptable" by the judge.

Mr Milne's partner, Carrie-Anne Hardingham, said she felt she had been "left in limbo" during the investigation.

Lorraine Slater, widow of John Slater who was killed in a November 2018 crash, said her family had felt "forgotten".

The unit was formed by a merger of teams from the three forces.

The review was obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act.

It highlighted problems with the standardisation of working practices between its bases in Huntingdon and Hitchin and "the cultural changes to be made to reflect one unit".

It includes reference to a 2014 review, which found "a completely disjointed and unprofessional relationship between the two bases" and "an attitude of mistrust and cynicism".

The 2018 report said: "Any outstanding cultural and operational issues within RPU [roads policing unit] must been resolved as a matter of urgency."

It concluded the team had "been in existence for over five years and a 'one-unit' ethos would have been expected by now".

It also found investigations required "closer management/supervision" and that it "appears to be an accepted current practice" that "witnesses or suspects were not being interviewed until a considerable period of time after the incident".

The BBC also obtained four separate letters to Crown Court judges sent by the unit between September 2019 and September 2020, each apologising for delays.

The unit's new head Det Insp Garry Webb, in post since June, said the cases criticised by the judge "were investigated during the bedding in of new processes and structures".

He added: "I am confident we won't find ourselves in this position again."

After the 2018 review, the team split into a forensic collision investigation unit and a serious collision investigation unit (SCIU).

Det Insp Webb said he was "confident this split will make our investigations more focussed and will be more timely", and that an additional nine officers had been recruited to the "evolving" SCIU team.

"We continue to be responsible for very complex investigations and on occasion delays and long investigations will be inevitable, but we will always seek to conduct and complete an investigation bringing closure to families and offenders to justice as soon as practicable," he said.

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