Wiltshire Police began a new series of high-visibility road safety patrols across Swindon on 8 February 2026. The proactive checks are part of a targeted enforcement operation intended to reduce collisions and improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists and local families.
Officers from the Roads Policing Unit, supported by local neighbourhood teams and Community Speed Watch volunteers, are concentrating on busy routes including Thamesdown Drive, Akers Way, Queens Drive and the A342 approach roads. Since fixed speed cameras were switched off across Wiltshire in 2010 following funding cuts by the Wiltshire & Swindon Safety Camera Partnership, the force has relied on mobile speed units, hand‑held devices and both marked and unmarked police vehicles to detect and deter speeding in residential areas.
Philip Wilkinson, Police and Crime Commissioner for Wiltshire and Swindon, has made road safety a cornerstone priority in his office’s policing plan; his office says these patrols are intended to help residents feel more secure in their neighbourhoods and to target the driving behaviours that most commonly cause serious injury and death on local roads — the so‑called ‘Fatal Five’.
The enforcement activity is being run to the Project Zero model, a high‑intensity day‑of‑action approach (traditionally run on Wednesdays) which Wiltshire Police are expanding into a roving week‑long programme of mobile checks to encourage safer driving and help prevent serious collisions.
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