Dummy policewomen prove their worth in Perthshire speed spot

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Braco man has proved having electronic signs showing drivers how fast they are going and cut-outs of police officers helps get cars to obey the village speed limit.Ron Rose (57) says he enjoys counting cars.

He lives beside the A822, a busy road from the A9 turn off which goes from Greenloaning for five straight miles to Braco.In the 16 years he’s lived in the Perthshire village, he’s always feared an accident.The road through Braco is straight and many drivers are tempted to put their foot down, ignoring signs to keep slow through the well-populated area.So in a public-spirited bit of citizen science, Ron did an experiment.He took note of speeds shown on several VAS - vehicle activated signs - around Braco.Ron measured how many cars ignored the 30mph speed limit through the village, how many slowed to obey the limit after the signs lit up red and also what effect a ‘cut-out’ cop - a life-size model of a police officer - would have on motorists.He insisted the fake police lady fooled people into ‘complying’ with the law and that, when they glimpsed the uniformed figure seemingly watching at the roadside, they quickly slowed down.The positioning of two ‘policewomen’ in Braco was something Ron asked to do five years ago but it was not met with enthusiasm with the community council of the time.He persisted and was able to talk the current community council into trialing two speed dummies with help from PKC’s Safer Communities team.Ron likes watching the BBC’s comedy Scot Squad.

So he named one fake officer pictured with a speed camera in hand ‘Officer Karen’ in tribute to the show.The second one, he asked local school children to name.They suggested the trick PC should be called ‘Officer Polly’.“I thought it would be a