what powers to locals have when holding speed gun?

what powers to locals have when holding speed gun?

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Discussion

robinessex

11,046 posts

180 months

Thursday 18th September 2014
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Breadvan72 said:
Worst "I've got an M3" thread in EVAH.
Well spotted BV............!!

Red Devil

13,055 posts

207 months

Thursday 18th September 2014
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the_lone_wolf said:
HTP99 said:
I went by them a few days later and waved, they were not happy.
Even funnier to cruise past slowing down, then after passing them drop it a few gears and watch them spin round with gleeful smiles only to see you still doing less than the speed limit...

Works every time...
I've only encountered the geriatric/blue rinse posse once. I saw the advance sign which was placed before a bend (the lolly on a stick was after it) so thought I would have a little fun. A suitably 'sporty' exhaust helps (I'm told a TVR is especially good for this). I dropped into 2nd round the corner (so they couldn't see me).

They have a simple belief system: noise level is a directly proportional to speed. So they were all visibly excited by the time I came into view. This exhibition of unbridled pleasure was then eclipsed by the look of bafflement followed by fury when they discovered that their speed gun showed I was under the limit (I was doing around 28mph).

The only thing which did concern me somewhat was one of the more senior citizens looked as if he was about to suffer an aneurysm. eek

I don't have an issue with them per se. Firstly because they are unlikely to 'ping' me as I don't hoof it through villages, and secondly it means that the police can tick the community involvement box while freeing up scarce resources for other, more important, tasks.

Alpaca

308 posts

171 months

Thursday 18th September 2014
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Webber3 said:
Was the letter from the police? If not, how did these people get the address?
Yes it was from the Police (Sussex Police Operation Crackdown). The letter states something about keeping it on file for a year, can't remember what it said if they nabbed you again, I knew it was coming, read it briefly then binned it.

Interesting that hardly anyone broke the speed limit when the road in question was a 40mph limit from what I could see, but once the limit dropped to 30 the violations increased but most speeds were under the old limit of 40mph. Go figure.







Cooperman

4,428 posts

249 months

Thursday 18th September 2014
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Make-believe 'Old Bill' acting as Vigilantes. How they wish they could report for prosecution.
No place for that in our society.
Perhaps we'll get 'Drug-watch', 'Drunk-watch', 'No TV-licence-watch', or something else next.

Jon1967x

7,175 posts

123 months

Thursday 18th September 2014
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Cooperman said:
Make-believe 'Old Bill' acting as Vigilantes. How they wish they could report for prosecution.
No place for that in our society.
Perhaps we'll get 'Drug-watch', 'Drunk-watch', 'No TV-licence-watch', or something else next.
They could call themselves "neighbourhood watch"

TheAllSeeingPie

865 posts

134 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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Cooperman said:
Make-believe 'Old Bill' acting as Vigilantes. How they wish they could report for prosecution.
No place for that in our society.
Perhaps we'll get 'Drug-watch', 'Drunk-watch', 'No TV-licence-watch', or something else next.
It's hardly vigilantism as they are sanctioned by official law enforcement and given the same equipment and training fifth the task. They are basically the equivalent if PCSO's for speeding. Anything that reduces the cost of policing while serving a similar purpose should be applauded. Fundamentally it saves the taxpayer money and helps focus police resources, it's win win unless you're incapable of keeping to the speed limit in cities, towns and villages.

MrTrilby

934 posts

281 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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TheAllSeeingPie said:
Fundamentally it saves the taxpayer money and helps focus police resources, it's win win unless you're incapable of keeping to the speed limit in cities, towns and villages.
Quite. For what it's worth, I was at a meeting last night where one of our local schemes was discussed. They are routinely recording speeds of 45MPH past the village school (30mph limit), at school pick up time in the afternoon. The highest speed recorded is over 70MPH. Now I'm sure some of the more extreme people on here won't see a problem in that, but I do. All the schools in the local area complain about speeding cars, but now the police have real evidence, collected at very low cost, on which schools really do have a problem that they can focus their limited resources on.

Which strikes me as the kind of thing Pistonheads should like - police speed traps are more likely to be deployed where they're really needed, rather than being open to accusations of just being about raising revenue.

arfur sleep

1,166 posts

218 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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Always used to drop a gear and rev my Focus ST as I went past the local CSW people on my commute, they'd get excited by the noise then realise i was doing 25mph.

Doesn't quite work so well in the diesel Leon...

And yes, it's mainly the locals that get caught. Mate lives in the village in question and knows the guy that runs the operation who says 80% of people they catch speeding live in the village...

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

185 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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MrTrilby said:
They are routinely recording speeds of 45MPH past the village school (30mph limit), at school pick up time in the afternoon. The highest speed recorded is over 70MPH.
I bet a proportion of those people are doing the school run, even if to a different school.

DoubleSix

11,691 posts

175 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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Johnnytheboy said:
MrTrilby said:
They are routinely recording speeds of 45MPH past the village school (30mph limit), at school pick up time in the afternoon. The highest speed recorded is over 70MPH.
I bet a proportion of those people are doing the school run, even if to a different school.
Totally. School runners are some of the worst speeders around my way. I live near a number of large private schools and the Mums & Dads drive like total aholes ime.

emmaT2014

1,860 posts

115 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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arfur sleep said:
Always used to drop a gear and rev my Focus ST as I went past the local CSW people on my commute, they'd get excited by the noise then realise i was doing 25mph.

Doesn't quite work so well in the diesel Leon...

And yes, it's mainly the locals that get caught. Mate lives in the village in question and knows the guy that runs the operation who says 80% of people they catch speeding live in the village...
Has it never occurred to you that dickish behaviour like that is why they are there in the first place?

Trax

1,527 posts

231 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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emmaT2014 said:
What makes you say that?
It may be the case that only a letter will result from this type of operation but there is nothing to prevent a prosecution from the evidence of 2 witnesses even if they didn't have a gun to measure the speed. With a speed gun their evidence is even more acceptable.
Do you think that when they go back to the police with, say, a speed reading of 95mph in a 30mph speed limit the police will be justified in sending out a snotty letter?
It will be interesting to see what does happen if such an event occurs.
The police don't have a monopoly on prosecutions, the civilians can take their evidence to the CPS. Again it probably won't happen but there is nothing to prevent that.
Had a good look, but no onse seems to have pointed out that this is like, erm, not true?

bimsb6

8,034 posts

220 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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emmaT2014 said:
Has it never occurred to you that dickish behaviour like that is why they are there in the first place?
Surely then they would need noise meters not speed guns ?

Red Devil

13,055 posts

207 months

Friday 19th September 2014
quotequote all
emmaT2014 said:
arfur sleep said:
Always used to drop a gear and rev my Focus ST as I went past the local CSW people on my commute, they'd get excited by the noise then realise i was doing 25mph.

Doesn't quite work so well in the diesel Leon...

And yes, it's mainly the locals that get caught. Mate lives in the village in question and knows the guy that runs the operation who says 80% of people they catch speeding live in the village...
Has it never occurred to you that dickish behaviour like that is why they are there in the first place?
No. That is not their purpose (which is monitoring speeds in excess of the limit, something I have no issue with as I said earlier). Maybe you are one of them and mistakenly equate sound volume with speed. I also suspect you are one of the many MoP who have difficulty accurately estimating from the roadside how fast a car is actually going. Hence the need for an accurate measuring instrument.

Jakdaw

291 posts

209 months

Friday 19th September 2014
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pablo said:
If you have the time, take photos of them whenever they point the camera at a car. Nothing annoys people like photographing them in a public place smile
... and when they ask why you're doing so - explain that you want to put pictures of them on the Internet?

emmaT2014

1,860 posts

115 months

Friday 19th September 2014
quotequote all
Trax said:
emmaT2014 said:
What makes you say that?
It may be the case that only a letter will result from this type of operation but there is nothing to prevent a prosecution from the evidence of 2 witnesses even if they didn't have a gun to measure the speed. With a speed gun their evidence is even more acceptable.
Do you think that when they go back to the police with, say, a speed reading of 95mph in a 30mph speed limit the police will be justified in sending out a snotty letter?
It will be interesting to see what does happen if such an event occurs.
The police don't have a monopoly on prosecutions, the civilians can take their evidence to the CPS. Again it probably won't happen but there is nothing to prevent that.
Had a good look, but no onse seems to have pointed out that this is like, erm, not true?
why?

Rovinghawk

13,300 posts

157 months

Friday 19th September 2014
quotequote all
emmaT2014 said:
why?
Read up on what evidence is required to support a successful prosecution.

If you don't have that kind of evidence, CPS will laugh at you.

Martin4x4

6,506 posts

131 months

Friday 19th September 2014
quotequote all

Appart form their special powers, self importance level 3 and minding other peoples business 1, zip!

Johnnytheboy

24,498 posts

185 months

Friday 19th September 2014
quotequote all
emmaT2014 said:
Trax said:
emmaT2014 said:
What makes you say that?
It may be the case that only a letter will result from this type of operation but there is nothing to prevent a prosecution from the evidence of 2 witnesses even if they didn't have a gun to measure the speed. With a speed gun their evidence is even more acceptable.
Do you think that when they go back to the police with, say, a speed reading of 95mph in a 30mph speed limit the police will be justified in sending out a snotty letter?
It will be interesting to see what does happen if such an event occurs.
The police don't have a monopoly on prosecutions, the civilians can take their evidence to the CPS. Again it probably won't happen but there is nothing to prevent that.
Had a good look, but no onse seems to have pointed out that this is like, erm, not true?
why?
Just as an aside, I once read a BBC article online in which Wilts Police were quoted as saying they'd be prosecuting motorists purely on the basis of CSW evidence. This was c. 2010.

I sent Wilts Plod an FoI asking (a) if they were going to be doing this and (b) if they were aware of anyone having been prosecuted on the basis of CSW evidence.

The answers were no, and no.

TheAllSeeingPie

865 posts

134 months

Friday 19th September 2014
quotequote all
Johnnytheboy said:
Just as an aside, I once read a BBC article online in which Wilts Police were quoted as saying they'd be prosecuting motorists purely on the basis of CSW evidence. This was c. 2010.

I sent Wilts Plod an FoI asking (a) if they were going to be doing this and (b) if they were aware of anyone having been prosecuted on the basis of CSW evidence.

The answers were no, and no.
But you're the only person to find that out, everyone else who heard about the article probably started driving better. Therefore it was a lovely win in terms of road safety even if the Police Spokesperson was a lying scrot!