An innocuous van sits n a bridge overlooking the A1 dual carriageway just outside Ban bridge, Co Down. Only the more eagle-eyed driver passing beneath would notice the lens of a camera pointing from the partially opened side door. If the driver was speeding, it would already be too late.
The RUC has five such vans on the North's roads every day and any driver caught speeding will eventually receive a fixed penalty ticket (FPT) demanding they pay a fine of £60 sterling or face a court appearance.
If the courts are not involved they will also have "three points" added to their driving licence. Individual RUC officers can also issue FPTs for speeding and other offences such as careless or reckless driving.
If a driver collects 12 points in a three-year period, they can be banned for up to two years. With a similar system due to come into force in the Republic within a year, the experience in the North, where points were introduced in 1998, is educational.
"At the start there was a noticeable reduction in speed but as time wore on we found speeds were starting to increase again," says Sgt Sam Walker of the RUC Traffic Branch. "Then there was another reduction as the points built up for some people and they went to court, lost their licences and made the news."
While points may have a deterrent effect for some, there has been an increase in the number of fixed penalty tickets given out. In the first year of operation, 17,000 drivers received points. Sgt Walker says the figure is now running at about 2,000 a month, an increase of as much as 7,000 annually.
This increase can be partly accounted for by an increase in road traffic but it also shows the system is far from being a panacea.
One increasingly large group of drivers for whom the points system holds no fear is drivers from the Republic. They are treated the same as a driver from Paris, "except we don't get many Parisians around here," says Constable Robert Campbell.
In circumstances where a Northern driver would have to be given a ticket or have his details taken for a summons, a driver from the Republic "would normally have to be arrested and taken to the station to pay £300 (sterling) bail".
"It's a bit harsh but it's the only way open to us under current legislation," says the constable who like all the other officers would welcome a harmonised points system for the entire island.
He may have to wait a while. Although the authorities have made noises about harmonising points systems, nothing can be contemplated until the system in the Republic is introduced, and this could take up to a year.
As well as being harsh, other officers say the time it takes to process a Southern driver means they are more likely to receive only a talking-to. When points are introduced to the Republic, therefore, it seems Northern drivers will still have a little less to fear once they cross the Border.
The introduction of penalty points, along with other measures, has had an effect. Deaths and serious injuries are both down on the figures for a decade previously but the picture is far from ideal.
In the year ending last March, 163 people died on roads in the North; this figure, although better than that in the Republic on a comparative basis, was almost 10 per cent more than the figure for the previous year.
While every accident is different, crashes involving one car with only a young male driver are becoming increasingly common. In April alone there were four such fatal crashes, all involving victims under 30.
The narrow country roads where such accidents often take place are too numerous to patrol properly and have corners that challenge even experienced drivers. On these, "you don't even have to be driving over the speed limit to be way in excess over what is appropriate for the conditions," Sgt Walker says.
Drink driving is often a factor in these crashes but traffic officers say it is no longer rare to find drivers who are under the influence of drugs. In Britain as many as a quarter of young people admitted to driving while under the influence of drugs.
While trends like this continue, points will simply be another means of enforcement, and our roads, North and South, will still remain dangerous places.