POLICE are preparing to unveil the latest weapon in their campaign against speeding drivers — a handheld laser camera with a range of more than a mile.

The device, which can be operated just as easily from behind a bush as from the back of a van, can detect a speeding car long before the driver has a chance to spot the police officer wielding it. A high-quality video camera will simultaneously record the licence plate and a picture of the driver so that there can be no argument about who was behind the wheel.

The £8,000 ProLaser III camera is designed to prevent drivers evading penalties by slowing down for roadside cameras then speeding up afterwards.

In many areas the cameras will not require warning signs telling motorists where they are. The cameras have the potential to raise millions of pounds and lead to thousands of drivers losing their licences.

Dorset will be one of the first counties to introduce the ProLaser III next month.

The policeman who operates the camera can stand on the road and point it at a car up to 2,000 metres away. The laser is then projected on to the vehicle and it bounces back to the camera, where the speed is recorded.

The video in the camera then records the numberplate and the driver and the notice of impending conviction is sent through the post in the normal way.

The Dorset Safety Camera Partnership says that the device is designed to save lives, not raise revenue. But the Police Federation is concerned that public confidence in the police is being eroded. Clive Chamberlain, the federation’s Dorset representative, said: “One of our primary objectives should be to provide public reassurance by high-visibility policing. I don’t know how much the introduction of an even more covert camera will do towards enhancing this objective.”

Johnny Stephens, project manager for the Dorset Safety Camera Partnership, said that his overriding priority was to reduce the number of casualties on Dorset’s roads. “We know that some members of the public race towards cameras and then break hard as they pass. This new technology will assist the partnership in stopping this very dangerous practice,” he said.

Paul Smith, from the campaign group Safe Speed, insisted that speed cameras are making roads more dangerous “because drivers are looking for speed cameras, not road hazards.”

Edmund King, of the RAC Foundation, agreed. “Recent research from the Department for Transport on the cause of accidents showed that excessive speed was number seven in importance. Number one was inattention, which might be drivers looking for speed cameras.”

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