The link between high-risk traffic offences and crash risk has been replicated across several studies and disqualified drivers are often prolific repeat offenders. 50% of those convicted already have a conviction for disqualified driving and one in eight have five or more. As disqualified drivers represent a significant road risk a new approach to ensuring that high-risk traffic offenders comply with license suspension orders is required.

 

In 2021, Lincolnshire Police received Road Safety Trust funding to assess whether electronic monitoring technology can reduce the risk to road users caused by persistent disqualified drivers. The technology is an ankle tag to identify driving a vehicle on a public road and a software platform to manage and report the data. The tag combines a gyroscope with GPS and this monitors data points capturing offender location information. The data is transmitted almost instantaneously with the capability of alerting police if an offender is driving. 

 

PsyDrive was commissioned to provide academic supervision of the project and conduct a proof-of-concept study to demonstrate that the ankle tags reliably detect journeys. A false positive could lead to the offender being wrongly charged if the tag sends out an alert when the individual is not driving relative to true positives (the tag sends out an alert and the individual is driving). 

 

With subsequent trials, the tag may be relied upon by the police, prison and probation staff and crown prosecutors to accurately and reliably detect whether a disqualified driver is driving. 

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