A new unit has been set up by North Yorkshire Police to crack down on dangerous drivers. Crime reporter David Wiles joined them at a roadside in York.

Traffic Constables Dave Brown, Ken England and Sean Grey with the new equipment to catch speeding motorists

The moment many people first realise they have been targeted by the TOPS team is when a fixed penalty notice for speeding lands on their doormat.

But by then it is too late: the team has done its job and your only options are to pay up or take a trip to your local magistrates court.

The officers of the TOPS - Traffic Operations - unit are out on patrol to make the roads of North Yorkshire a safer place. They would prefer to deter you from putting your own or other peoples' lives at risk, but are more than willing to hand out tickets after the event.

We parked up on the brow of a slight hill on Boroughbridge Road, the engine of the unmarked blue Rover still running to power the team's equipment. The road stretches out for several hundred yards in each direction, perfect for the high-tech speed gun and video recorder which can see vehicles coming, and monitor their progress, from more than a kilometre away.

A few of the lunchtime drivers seem unaware of our presence, and motor past blissfully ignorant of the fact that their every move is being monitored not only by two traffic officers but also a video camera.

Others slow noticeably when they catch sight of us, glance guiltily at their speedometers and in their mirrors, then shuffle past at a leisurely 25mph, flashing their lights at approaching cars to warn them of our presence. But there's no fooling TCs Sean Grey and Ken England and their Laser Data Interface.

They are two of the four-man TOPS team which includes colleagues Dave Brown and Steve Burrell, set up in October to crack down on dangerous driving behaviour - anything from drink-driving to speeding to failing to wear seat-belts. They are dedicated traffic cops; the creation of the new central area of North Yorkshire Police freed them from routine patrolling duties to concentrate on their own operations.

Whereas their colleagues' work concentrates on responding to call-outs to accidents and other incidents, the TOPS unit seizes the initiative to prevent offences happening in the first place by making their presence felt.

Last week their focus was motorists driving without seat-belts. In a three-hour period they issued 102 tickets, each of which cost the recipient £20.

"It might not seem too important, but we bother because we see what's left of people who don't wear seat-belts," says TC England.

But speeders won't slip through the net. The instruments that will bring them to book include a laser speed gun which is linked to a video recorder and an LCD monitor attached to the dashboard.

Not dissimilar to the "heads-up display" found in fighter planes, a glowing red circle at the centre of an eye-piece targets and locks on to a vehicle up to a kilometre away and records its speed with a high degree of accuracy.

If it locks on to your car and you are exceeding the speed limit, they have you bang to rights. Contest the fixed penalty notice when comes through your letterbox and they will see you in court, armed with video evidence showing you, your car and your speed in black and white.

Despite being in an unmarked car, they are not out to bust people using underhand tactics. After all, we are parked in full view of traffic coming in both directions and the tripod-mounted camera is perched at the roadside.

And there's no peeking out from behind fences for the TOPS team. Their task is as much deterrence as anything, and if they can dissuade people from speeding in the first place, then that's a success for them.

"We would rather stay here all day and not get anyone for speeding than be called out to deal with the aftermath of an accident caused by a speeding motorist," says TC Grey.

"That way at least we know we are doing something good, something positive. We are not here to see how much money we can generate in fixed penalty fines. Our aim is to deter."

So our 45 minutes at the side of Boroughbridge Road can be classed as a success for the team. Not one driver exceeded the speed - set slightly higher than the local speed limit - that the camera was set to detect.

But not every day spent at the side of the road yields such impressive results. Last week 25 speeders were detected - and 25 fixed penalty notices with their £40 fine and three penalty points sent out - in a similar operation in another part of the city.

The unit's message is simple: Drive within your limits and within the law and there will be one less item of post coming through your door.

TOPS - coming soon to a street near you.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.