Highways England Traffic Officer Service
| Highways England Traffic Officer Service | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | HETO |
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | 2015 |
| Preceding agency | Highways Agency |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Operations jurisdiction* | Country of England, United Kingdom |
| Legal jurisdiction | England and Wales |
| General nature | |
| Operational structure | |
| Overviewed by | Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary/Independent Police Complaints Commission |
| Headquarters | Birmingham |
| Officers | 3,500 |
| Footnotes | |
| * Divisional agency: Division of the country, over which the agency has usual operational jurisdiction. | |
The Highways England Traffic Officer Service (HETOS) is an operational unit within the Highways England in England.
In April 2004, Highways Agency Traffic Officers (HATOs) began working alongside police on motorways in the West Midlands. The roll-out of traffic officers was completed on 18 July 2006 and they now cover all of the motorway network within England, i.e. that which is owned or managed by Highways England, and some of the all-purpose trunk road (APTR) network. The introduction of the officers was aimed to reduce the 25% of delays caused by collisions by around 5%.
On 1 April 2015 the Highways Agency became Highways England, a government-owned company. Summer 2016 sees The National Infrastructure Constabulary being decided on by Parliament. It is expected that Highways England Traffic Officers' will be combined with British Transport Police, Port Police and the Nuclear Police and therefore have an extended remit and powers.
Normally, each patrol has a crew of two. Only team managers, their deputies or specially trained single crew officers may be single crewed - but this limits their capabilities. A pilot of single crewed Traffic Officers is ongoing and planned to be rolled out nationally, starting in September 2013. All crew members wear high-visibility jackets, distinctive by the orange and yellow markings, along with dark blue cargo-style trousers. All staff who work on the network are required to wear steel toe cap boots and have access to other protective equipment such as high visibility waterproof trousers, gloves and safety goggles. Staff have the option to wear a white collared shirt and tie, an open necked white shirt or a navy collared polo shirt. All officers carry a portable Airwave radio.
Traffic officers patrol the motorway network using high-visibility 4x4 patrol vehicles. Such vehicles are used mainly for their ability to tow, or clear broken-down or disabled vehicles to a place of safety off the carriageway if needed. 4x4 vehicles can remain mobile in flood or snow conditions, as well as being able to carry the large amount of safety and recovery equipment (including a basic first aid kit) that the patrols use. Such vehicles also have the advantage of visibility – their size makes them more visible to other motorists when stationary on the hard shoulder. All of the vehicles are liveried with yellow and black Battenburg markings; equipped with a Sepura vehicle mounted TETRA digital radio; hands-free mobile telephone; have the benefit of red and amber LED lightbars and additional LED lights. All of the latest vehicles are fitted with alternating headlights (wigwags) and a bull horn to assist with progressing through stationary traffic on approach to an incident.
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