On drink drive patrol in an unmarked police car
Operation Holly is a national campaign that targets drink drivers at Christmas. James Baggott joins Hampshire Constabulary as officers take impaired motorists off the road
As we creep into the quiet cul-de-sac in a sleepy Hampshire town, no one notices the unremarkable black BMW on surveillance duty.
Looking quite like every other 3 Series on the road, the unmarked police car raises little suspicion as it slips into the street where most of the houses are lit up with Christmas lights and their occupants are settling down for a Friday night in front of the TV.
This is no social visit, though. Traffic cop PC Rob Lewis is looking for someone specific – a known, repeat drink-driver who has been shopped to cops on the Crimestoppers hotline.
Tip offs
“The intelligence suggests this Jaguar driver downs a few pints every evening in a pub in the High Street and then drives home around 7pm,” explains PC Lewis, 44. “We are here to try and stop him.
“This information has mostly come from the Crimestoppers hotline,” he adds. “People call in with details and that is fed to us to investigate – and that’s exactly what we’re doing now.”
Christmas campaign
Operation Holly is a national drink-drive campaign that brings drink and drug driving into the spotlight – and this year police forces, like Hampshire Constabulary, are taking a more intelligence-led approach to catching offenders.
While the high profile, roadside operations that pull over drivers at random are still on-going, they’re taking somewhat of a backseat to stings like this one across the UK.
PC Lewis – a traffic cop for five years and a policeman for 18 – is clutching print outs of bulletins with pictures of offenders, car information, and details of their known patterns. And we’re out looking for them.
