Police defend 'dangerous' filming of bike speedsters

More than 1,000 motorcyclists are expected to ride through Hull on May 1 to protest against Operation Achilles, which uses a super-fast unmarked Suzuki machine to video the worst offenders.

East Yorkshire Motorcycle Action Group says the combination of two speeding bikers and a third vehicle used by police to stop the culprit is dangerous.

Chairman Jolyon Lawson said the one per cent of speeding bikers "needed to be stopped" but added: "The last thing they need is a video bloke sat behind them – that's just blatantly dangerous."

He added: "It isn't going to be long before a video on the front of a bike picks up an accident and what will happen then is they will use it against motorcycling ever more.

"If the vehicle stopped that speeding motorcyclist that video footage would never exist."

Mr Lawson said the operation ran contrary to a national strategy penned by Humberside Police's Deputy Chief Constable David Griffin, which states that a "high-visibility presence and instant intervention" are more effective than "covert monitoring or remote camera detection and justice by post".

However Mr Griffin insisted the initiative was the right way to tackle a "hard-core minority" and blamed a number of "myths" circulating amongst bikers for fanning the flames of discontent.

The officer, who rides a Triumph Tiger 1050 and once took part in rides against the helmet law, said they had tried other techniques and they had not worked.

"We used it last summer and saw a fall in the number of casualties. It is not popular – it's cod liver oil.

"The vast majority of people we stopped were given verbal warnings. We still apply discretion appropriately. The one thing I look at in terms of gauging success is the number of casualties, not the number of prosecutions."

He added: "There's a number of myths circulating, that there's someone out there on a stealth bike who will try and egg you into speeding and nick you. We don't need to do that.

"The other is that you get done at 61mph. The last time we adopted this technology we prosecuted at over 85mph."