A new weapon to tackle road crime is on the streets of south Kent, but you won’t spot it unless you’re on your mobile.

PC Ian Clark’s team of traffic cops covers everywhere from Ashford to Folkestone – the South Kent policing area – and he is always on the look out for new ways of cracking down on dangerous drivers.

PC Clark said: “We all spot people talking on their mobiles and driving badly on the way to work and we can’t do anything about it, but when you (the police) are highly visible people don’t do those things.

“But now we’ve got an unmarked car we are going to be out hunting people down.”

The traffic team’s usual operations involve marked police cars and motorbikes pulling people over. While that is successful, PC Clark reckons the unmarked car – a first for the area’s traffic team – is going to be a good new weapon.

“Just the other day in Ashford a woman pulled out in front of me at the roundabout, causing me to do an emergency stop, and she had her mobile in her right hand clamped to her ear and no seatbelt on,” said PC Clark.

It was with some satisfaction that PC Clark let fly with the hidden lights and sirens and pulled the errant driver over. While prevention is still the aim of the police, the knowledge that you could be in front of an unmarked car is thought to be a useful deterrent.