Gatso Calibration and Training

The request was successful.

Dear Warwickshire Police,
I would like to request a FOI disclosure which is basically to understand the annual money payments to Serco and Gatso for the calibration and maintenance of cameras, staff training, and how the speed is calculated as part of the secondary check.
Q1. How many fixed post Gatso (FPG) and Gatso Red Light(GRL) cameras were in use, on an annual basis, by your partnership in the past three financial years?
Q2.For these cameras, for the past three financial years, what were the total cost amounts paid(TCAP) for the annual calibration of these cameras, identifying the TCAP to intermediate agents such as Serco and the company Gatsometer B.V, and the additional amounts of V.A.T added ?
Q3.Please confirm if the partnership have ownership of these cameras, paid in full, or any other arrangement.
Q4.Please confirm if the calibration contracts (CC) have been agreed for a fixed term with break penalty clauses or negotiated annually, if the CC are inclusive of a greater contract regarding maintenance, and who signed the contracts on behalf of the partnership.
Q5.After the cameras have been returned following calibration please confirm if, apart from the calibration certificate, Gatsometer B.V provide a report on any faults detected and items replaced and, if so, please identify the items, including batteries, that have required replacement.
Q6 After calibration, please confirm if the cameras are returned with a shutter speed of two photographs at intervals of 0.5 seconds, and if your Camera Enforcement Officers make any adjustments to the shutter speed or flash setting prior to reinstallation and, if so, what are the setting adjustments?.
Q7.Regarding the secondary check viewing, please advise how the viewing staff are trained for their task, who does the training, are certificates of completion provided, and are the staff given post training assessments or hard copy reference documentation. Is the work of the viewing staff audited or reviewed at intervals?
Q8.For FPG please confirm the distance between the calibration lines on the road which are part of the secondary check, so that one can calculate the speed if five lines are passed.

Yours faithfully,

dennis fallon

Dear FOI (Warwickshire Police),

The purpose behind Q2 of my recent FOI is to calculate the unit cost of calibrating one Gatso Speed and one Gatso Red light camera.
If it is troublesome for you to add up the individual payments to Serco for calibration it will be acceptable to simply know the agreed calibration payment for each camera type over the three year period to assess the trend.

Yours faithfully,

dennis fallon

@ Freedom of Information,

Dear Mr Fallon,

Thank you for your email below which has been forwarded to the Camera Enforcement Unit.

Unfortunately there is a backlog in FOI requests, caused by staffing shortages within the Information compliance Office. We are working hard to clear the backlog and will respond to your request as soon as possible.

Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience caused by this delay.

Your sincerely,

Sabina Harris
Information Compliance Officer
Tel: 01788 853864 (internal 3864)
Fax: 01788 853781
email: [email address]

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Dear Ms Harris,

I appreciate you are subject to a backlog but would appreciate knowing how many FOI`s you are currently dealing with and when I might receive completion.

If it helps I will accept response to the simplified list of questions below, to replace the longer original FOI, whichever is most convenient to yourself.

Q1. How many fixed post Gatso (FPG) and Gatso Red Light(GRL)
cameras were in use, on an annual basis, by your partnership in the past three financial years?
Q2.For these cameras, for the past three financial years, what was the agreed cost for calibrating ONE of each type of camera?
Q3.After the cameras have been returned following calibration please confirm if, apart from the calibration certificate,Gatsometer B.V provide a report on any faults detected and items
replaced and, if so, please identify the items, including batteries, that have required replacement.
Q4 After calibration, please confirm if the Gatso speed cameras are returned with a shutter speed set at two photographs at intervals of 0.5 seconds, and if your Camera Enforcement Officers make any adjustments to the shutter speed or flash setting prior to
reinstallation and, if so, what are the setting adjustments?.
Q5.For FPG please confirm the distance between the secondary check lines on the road so that one can calculate the speed if five lines are passed.

Thanking you in anticipation.

Yours sincerely,

dennis fallon

Harris, Sabina 4959,

1 Attachment

Dear Mr Fallon,

A response to your request was sent to you at the following email address on 28th September, 2011.

request-84046 [email address]

A copy is attached FYI.

Yours sincerely,

Sabina Harris
Information Compliance Officer
Tel: 01788 853864 (internal 3864)
Fax: 01788 853781
email: [email address]

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Dear Ms Harris,
Thank you for your reply, received 7 November 2011,to my request from 25 August.

I did not receive any reply on 28 September so I don`t know where the problem occured, and although most of the points are helpfully answered there is still some confusion and I would appreciate clarifications.

QUOTE REQUEST / REPLY

"Q1. How many fixed post Gatso (FPG) and Gatso Red Light(GRL)cameras were in use,
on an annual basis, by your partnership in the past three financial years?
Response: Q1. Warwickshire Police operate 15 Gatso (FPG) cameras and 2 Gatso (GRL)
cameras
Q2. For these cameras, for the past three financial years, what were the total cost
amounts paid(TCAP) for the annual calibration of these cameras, identifying the TCAP to
intermediate agents such as Serco and the company Gatsometer B.V, and the additional
amounts of V.A.T added ?
Response: Q2 Calibration costs and any repairs arising are as below
2008-2009
Annual Cost net VAT £12,957 plus VAT £2,127.17
2009-2010
Annual Cost net VAT
£6,261.60 plus VAT £1,010.29
2010-2011
Annual Cost net VAT £14,628.67 plus VAT £2,925.60
The lower figure in 2009-2010 is accounted for by some cameras being replaced with new
digital cameras which did not require calibrating in their first year as they come calibrated".

I am trying to ascertain the 3 year cost trends relating to Gatso for calibration but the replies cause some confusion in that the answer to Q1 implies a consistent level of 15 Gatso (FPG) cameras and 2 Gatso (GRL)cameras, but there is mention of changing some to digital format,and the costs are pooled to include repair charges.

CLARIFICATION POINT ONE
For the years commencing April 2008,2009,2010 please confirm the basic agreed cost,exclusive of VAT and repair costs,for calibrating one fixed Gatso Speed Camera and one Gatso Red light camera, and advise of any mid-year increases in charges if applicable, and any advised calibration costs for the digital variety after introduction, exclusive of VAT as I believe the tax is fully reclaimed.

CLARIFICATION POINT TWO.
For the years commencing April 2008,2009,2010 please advise of the types and number of fixed camera in use, differentiating between wet film and digital,and fixed speed and red light, to see how the digital changeover has been introduced.

Clarification point three relates to the the response to Q7." Regarding the secondary check viewing, please advise how the viewing staff are
trained for their task, who does the training, are certificates of completion provided, and
are the staff given post training assessments or hard copy reference documentation. Is the
work of the viewing staff audited or reviewed at intervals?
Response: Q7 All initial training including secondary check viewing was carried out in Holland with GATSO. Certificates were issued. There is no formal review of staffs work".

CLARIFICATION POINT THREE.
I did not realise that staff went to Holland to receive the official training and certificates and thought Serco would deal with it locally.
Please confirm how many staff have received training in Holland,how did they travel to the venue,are new staff trained in the same way and please disclose, by way of pdf, an example of the relevant certificate issued.

CLARIFICATION POINT FOUR
I appreciate that mobile enforcement is becoming more popular so to understand the complete picture please advise of the number and types of all camera enforcement equipment currently in use by Warwickshire Police.

Thank you in anticipation of clarification of these points.

Yours sincerely,

dennis fallon

Harris, Sabina 4959,

Dear Mr. Fallon,

I write concerning your email below. I am liaising with the Camera Enforcement Manager to see if the detailed information requested is held. I note that at points three and four, you are seeking information not requested in your original request. These will therefore be logged as a new request, and dealt with in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act, 2000. Where a requestor makes a subsequent similar request, the requests can be aggregated for the purpose of cost.

In this case your two new questions, although they are being treated as a new request, have been aggregated for cost purposes with your request reference FOI-2011-00381.

Yours sincerely,

Sabina Harris
Information Compliance Officer
Tel: 01788 853864 (internal 3864)
Fax: 01788 853781
email: [email address]

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Dear Ms Harris,

Thank you for your update.

I accept the way you are dealing with my requests which are of general interest as the public do not know how the system operates.

Yours sincerely,

dennis fallon

@ Freedom of Information,

4 Attachments

Dear Mr. Fallon

Please find attached the Warwickshire Police response to your Freedom of Information request.

Yours sincerely

Sabina Harris

Sabina Harris
Information Compliance Officer
Tel: 01788 853864 (internal 3864)
Fax: 01788 853781
email: [email address]

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Dear Ms Harris,
Thank you for the response to my FOI request 84046.
It has been very informative, and for convenience I will summarise some key points from the various attachments.

Reference Q1(attachment 00381),
Warwickshire Police operate 15 Fixed Post Gatsos and 2 Gatso Green Light Cameras.The total of fixed cameras is 2 Redspeed digital,2 Truvelo wet film,8 Gatso Fixed digital,7 Gatso Wet film, and 2 Gatso Wet film.
There is no information regarding date of installation of Gatso digital due to technical issues.

Reference Q2,the latest calibration charges were mid-year 2010 and comprised of £658 for a fixed post Gatso and £527 for a Gatso Red Light Camera.

Reference Q7,all the initial training was supplied by Gatsometer B.V by staff attendance in Holland, co-ordinated by Essex Police and,reference certificate attachment gatso 015.pdf and attachment 00543,consisted of 8 police staff attending a 5 day course.

Reference attachment 00544,information requested about mobile enforcement,there was the reply that Warwickshire deploy 3 mobile units using Lastec Cameras and Ultralyte 2020 TSM lasers.

All this information has been very interesting but there still remains issues of confusion regarding the Gatso digital implementation and the incorrect term Lastec Cameras when Lastec is the name of a recording system and not a camera.

This FOI has become stretched out so for tidyness I shall consider it complete and post any outstanding queries on a new FOI in the near future.

Thank you for your help.

Yours sincerely,

dennis fallon