The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) ended 2024 by appealing to criminals to stop deliberately driving into police cars. There were 40 ramming incidents in the 12 months up to the end of November, injuring 58 officers. To put that in context, it is three times more than the number injured during the week of racist rioting across Northern Ireland in August.
Deputy Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said most incidents were attempts to avoid arrest, for offences ranging from no insurance to robbery or assault. “Offenders are, in essence, using their vehicle as a weapon against us.”
Punishment for this rarely seems to fit the crime. In a typical case from 2023, a Belfast man who rammed a police car was given a seven-month prison sentence and a 15-month driving ban. He had 91 previous convictions, one-third for motoring offences. The arguments for and against longer custodial sentences are well-rehearsed and apparently endless, but the case for longer driving bans seems clear and strangely overlooked.
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In Northern Ireland, as in Britain, judges have wide discretion to impose bans. More serious offences attract mandatory disqualification for minimum periods of two or three years. In practice, those minimums are maximums. Anything longer is rare and liable to be reduced on appeal. While lifetime bans are possible in theory, case law has established 10 years as the absolute limit. The courts take the view that very long bans hamper rehabilitation by restricting options to work and lead a normal life. The opposing view is that getting persistent offenders off the road makes reoffending harder – a career criminal without a car has as much trouble getting to “work” as anyone else.
For persistent offenders, the most effective means of rehabilitation yet discovered is turning 35. Recidivism is constant up to that age, then falls away
In 2002, just four months after it was established, the PSNI led an innovative multiagency exercise in Belfast called Operation Clean-up. The senior officer in charge said the aim was “to strike at criminality at its most basic level”. A total of 943 vehicles were seized over a three-month period, mainly for lack of insurance, a licence or proof of ownership. The law in Northern Ireland permits vehicles to be immediately impounded under such circumstances. Only 145 were reclaimed. The PSNI judged most of the remainder to be what it called “runabouts”, not stolen but still involved in crime.
In the six weeks following the operation, there was a 50 per cent reduction in thefts from vehicles across Belfast plus a 25 per cent reduction in road traffic collisions. The British government praised these initial findings in the House of Commons. The PSNI said it demonstrated the benefits of “making criminals less mobile” and the operation would “likely” be extended across Northern Ireland. Then nothing was ever heard of it again.
Of course, the PSNI has continued to catch drivers without insurance or a licence, or who have been disqualified. Over 10,000 cases were referred to prosecutors last year. It seizes 2,000 vehicles in a typical year for lack of insurance and occasionally mounts short operations to catch uninsured drivers through roadside checks.
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However, the PSNI has never repeated anything as high-profile or focused as Operation Clean-up. Since 2023, it has cut staff at its Road Policing Unit by 10 per cent in response to budget shortfalls. Although its financial challenges are serious, the PSNI shows little sign of valuing roads policing as a cost-effective solution to its primary objective of preventing crime.
Keeping persistent offenders off the roads until they are mature enough to return is a simple, humane and cheap way to protect the public
Imposing longer driving bans on prolific offenders might seem futile when so many get straight back behind the wheel. But there is a good chance of the message getting through if they have reason to fear their vehicles being seized.
Operation Clean-up had an intelligence-led aspect, to the extent that prolific offenders are a tiny, well-known part of the population. The PSNI should be capable of following enough of these people around to make a point, even under its present straightened circumstances. The cost of 40 damaged police cars and 58 injured officers could be offset against it – those figures could be expected to plummet.
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The concern of the courts about rehabilitation is legitimate and leeway for it must always be available. Unfortunately, for persistent offenders, the most effective means of rehabilitation yet discovered is turning 35. Recidivism is constant up to that age, then falls away.
We rarely imprison young men, as most criminals are, for 10-15 years for any reason. The United States has “three strikes and you’re out” laws to jail repeat offenders for long periods but this is controversial even there, and would be unthinkable under British and Irish jurisprudence. A 10-15-year driving ban is another matter. Keeping persistent offenders off the roads until they are mature enough to return is a simple, humane and cheap way to protect the public.
The only downside would be dealing with them on the bus.