A "disturbingly high" number of drivers in Leicestershire are committing offences behind the wheel, police have said, with fears raised over the "major issue" of drug driving.

Officers from Leicestershire Police appeared at a Leicestershire County Council scrutiny committee meeting earlier this month to update councillors on road safety around the county.

However, documents seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) saw that police say that a "disturbingly high" number of drivers are "ignoring" what it calls Fatal4 offences – these drink or drug driving, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt and being distracted by mobile phones.

Other figures found that during 2025, almost 70,000 drivers in Leicestershire received a Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) for a motoring offence, including 29,563 notices from static speed cameras, 11,623 from just seven average speed cameras, and 6,720 for red-light running.

As a result, 39,567 drivers opted to complete a driver education course rather than face formal prosecution.

During the meeting, Graham Compton from Leicestershire Police said that driving while under the influence of drugs was becoming a "major issue".

He said: "We are arresting 100 drivers every month for drink-driving. We've got a major issue emerging in Leicestershire and across the country around drug driving.

"Drug driving is going up and we've almost got to the stage where there's as many people being arrested for drug driving as there is for drink driving. It's a challenging issue".

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Mr Compton said that drivers not wearing a seatbelt and speeding was still a "major problem" and that drivers still using their mobile phone while driving was just the "tip of the iceberg" despite catching 439 drivers.

He also said that police were cracking down on e-scooters on the road, which are illegal, and said officers now have the power to confiscate and destroy e-scooters immediately after taking around "5 to 600" off the road in 2025.

He also said there was a "problem emerging" with e-bikes which were being "altered" to go 30mph to 40mph and police were getting complaints regarding them.

He also said police were "tackling car cruising "the best they can, despite it being difficult to police.

He added: "We can't put an operation together and say we'll put six police officers there. They'll say 'We'll meet at so-and-so.'"

"These things happen spontaneously, and then they shoot off and go somewhere else".

He added that police had purchased "several new devices" to help tackle car cruising to deal with any offence retrospectively.

Matthew Chester, road safety unit manager at Leicestershire Police, said that there was an "increase in compliance" around speeding, but said that police and the council were not seeing the numbers "flow through" to help reduce drivers being killed or seriously injured.

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He also said the police were considering using AI to spot drivers not wearing a seatbelt or using a mobile phone.

He added: "If we carry on doing the same thing, we'll continue to flatline. We need to do something different and draw on the technologies out there".