Nice little earner?
Discussion
Having just spent several days working at Hollywood Towers - that'll be the Bristol Cribbs Causeway training venue version - I was amazed at the number of Speed Awareness courses being held there. Regardless of whether it's better to sit through the propaganda or take the points, this was a real mini industry at work: it looked like there were three rooms in use, each with three shifts, morning / early afternoon / late afternoon. There was no shortage of punters at each session. Isn't the price £100 a throw? The day-delegate rate and daily room hire fees would be lower than usual as no food was provided (awww). The customers were like a cross between the Womens Institute and Round Table. No yoof anywhere. Then on the way home, big surprise, there was a silver unmarked car at work on the M5, booking in the next cohorts.
Apart from opening debate on this growth industry, it'd be interesting to hear from any BiB in the area (Silverback Mike?), if they're able to comment in today's BiB on BiB surveillance society.
Apart from opening debate on this growth industry, it'd be interesting to hear from any BiB in the area (Silverback Mike?), if they're able to comment in today's BiB on BiB surveillance society.
Yellabowley said:
If we are doing speeders in North Yorkshire using a static car, force policy stipulates that it should be a marked car. Cannot speak for the force where you were driving.
Out of curiosity did you get done?
No, I was working at Hollywood Towers in connection with my own business, and the moving unmarked was seen on my way home but not because it stopped me. They're easy enough to spot, blues behind the front grille in this case.Out of curiosity did you get done?
Apologies
I thought you meant a static unmarked car.
It's amazing how many people still fail to notice the unmarked cars. One of our guys had a bloke the other night who flew up behind him whilst on his mobile. On went the rear viewing cameras for just over a mile. Then the matrix board displaying "POLICE PULL OVER" and the blues. The bloke crapped himself and dropped the phone as if he might get away with it!!
Obviously I never speed and never use my mobile whilst driving, but if I did I'm sure I would be extra vigilant to look out for police car marked or not.
I thought you meant a static unmarked car.
It's amazing how many people still fail to notice the unmarked cars. One of our guys had a bloke the other night who flew up behind him whilst on his mobile. On went the rear viewing cameras for just over a mile. Then the matrix board displaying "POLICE PULL OVER" and the blues. The bloke crapped himself and dropped the phone as if he might get away with it!!
Obviously I never speed and never use my mobile whilst driving, but if I did I'm sure I would be extra vigilant to look out for police car marked or not.
Yellabowley said:
Apologies
I thought you meant a static unmarked car.
It's amazing how many people still fail to notice the unmarked cars. One of our guys had a bloke the other night who flew up behind him whilst on his mobile. On went the rear viewing cameras for just over a mile. Then the matrix board displaying "POLICE PULL OVER" and the blues. The bloke crapped himself and dropped the phone as if he might get away with it!!
Obviously I never speed and never use my mobile whilst driving, but if I did I'm sure I would be extra vigilant to look out for police car marked or not.
No worries, I think I fully understand your perspective on this!I thought you meant a static unmarked car.
It's amazing how many people still fail to notice the unmarked cars. One of our guys had a bloke the other night who flew up behind him whilst on his mobile. On went the rear viewing cameras for just over a mile. Then the matrix board displaying "POLICE PULL OVER" and the blues. The bloke crapped himself and dropped the phone as if he might get away with it!!
Obviously I never speed and never use my mobile whilst driving, but if I did I'm sure I would be extra vigilant to look out for police car marked or not.
Quinny said:
FishFace said:
Has anyone actually been on one of these without hitting the people talking to you? I imagine it's hard for one to bite their tongue.
Nope and I never will.I'd rather take the points, as a matter of principle, than have some condacending t
t tell me how to drive
In fact, just the other day on an early morning motorway long haul, when I wasn't speeding (of course) but in a mirror check I noticed a single headlight rapidly approaching from the rear, well back so lift asafp with no brake lights - when a space in lane two became available I indicated and tucked in. The approaching biker was still a fair way back but eventually turned out to be a police motorcyclist. He slowed and gave a thumbs up alongside, before disappearing off at what must have been well over a ton. It was reassuring to see my lane discipline and progress at the speed limit was so clearly appreciated.....
Quinny said:
FishFace said:
Has anyone actually been on one of these without hitting the people talking to you? I imagine it's hard for one to bite their tongue.
Nope and I never will.I'd rather take the points, as a matter of principle, than have some condacending t
t tell me how to driveHi 
Interesting point coming up here...
So lets assume I got offered one of these courses (I haven't yet)
So say I went ...then said...
Well I was a pro Race mechanic for years, I have driven at over 300 mph and then told them precisely why speed does NOT kill...with figures to back myself up....
What would they do ?? fail me ?? or ask me to teach them ?
Can you actually fail these things or do you just have to attend ?
All the best Brett
Interesting point coming up here...
So lets assume I got offered one of these courses (I haven't yet)
So say I went ...then said...
Well I was a pro Race mechanic for years, I have driven at over 300 mph and then told them precisely why speed does NOT kill...with figures to back myself up....
What would they do ?? fail me ?? or ask me to teach them ?
Can you actually fail these things or do you just have to attend ?
All the best Brett
The reluctance of BiB to comment is uderstandable, but a shame in relation to the kind of society that expects its quasi-military police force (or is it now a police service ?) to keep discipline by relinquishing freedom of speech over issues that are a million miles away from national security.
Reminds me of the time shortly after Cheltenhamshire got its speed camera upgrade - most are now flashing away on the great road in the sky, but that's another matter - when Glospol suddenly started swanning around in very decent Mercs and some Hondas rather than the usual Fords and Vauxhalls. One lucky PC FQ even got a very sweet Mitsi. Other forces were probably on the same path but who knows.
Mindful of my latest council tax arithmetic alongside the notion of transparency in public affairs, I contacted HQ to ask about funding for police vehicles, amounts, numbers, marques, changes, uses, funding sources, but was refused on 'operational' grounds which was expected but really total b0ll0x. Should've tried a freedom of information line, or got my MP on it, or gone the French way via direct action, but I have a family and ethics to keep me honest and businesses to run that keep me busy, and that's what they seem to rely on to remain opaque. Not a pleasant thought but symptomatic of the way the country is run at the very top, trickling down to politicised top brass and from there to ground zero.
Reminds me of the time shortly after Cheltenhamshire got its speed camera upgrade - most are now flashing away on the great road in the sky, but that's another matter - when Glospol suddenly started swanning around in very decent Mercs and some Hondas rather than the usual Fords and Vauxhalls. One lucky PC FQ even got a very sweet Mitsi. Other forces were probably on the same path but who knows.
Mindful of my latest council tax arithmetic alongside the notion of transparency in public affairs, I contacted HQ to ask about funding for police vehicles, amounts, numbers, marques, changes, uses, funding sources, but was refused on 'operational' grounds which was expected but really total b0ll0x. Should've tried a freedom of information line, or got my MP on it, or gone the French way via direct action, but I have a family and ethics to keep me honest and businesses to run that keep me busy, and that's what they seem to rely on to remain opaque. Not a pleasant thought but symptomatic of the way the country is run at the very top, trickling down to politicised top brass and from there to ground zero.
Coincidentally this is in the Sunday press today:
I feel persecuted. Put upon. Hounded. In the past three weeks, I have been prosecuted no fewer than five times, paid six fines, been stopped and questioned by the police twice, had my car towed once, and the bailiffs have been to my house, hammering on the door at 6am.
I have had a driving licence since 1984, and it remained pristine, without a single point, until this year and now suddenly, if I make just one more transgression, I risk losing it.
Four of the prosecutions were for driving at 32mph in a 30mph zone; despite explaining that I picked up speed because I was going downhill, and that one of the signs had been vandalised, I got six points on my licence, as well as having to spend two-and-a-half hours in speed school, which I had to pay £75 to attend, to avoid getting nine – a pretty pointless (ha! ha!) exercise.
However, I did learn that when a motorway sign flashes a notice telling you how far away a junction is, and how long it will take to get there, it is not, as I thought, just being helpful, it is monitoring your average speed.
I was questioned by the Metropolitan Police on the Caledonian Road and asked if I had been drinking, simply for wandering along the road with a torch at 3am. I answered crossly that I was teetotal and was, in fact, looking for my cat. I was worried, tired and annoyed, but I certainly didn't start rioting.
My car was towed off when I briefly parked outside a rural railway station late on Sunday night to see my friends on to the platform. I thought putting people on a train was a good thing: polite and green.
The bailiffs came to my house because a man used my address when he purchased a motorbike, and then stopped paying for it.
My run-ins with authority and red tape go on and on. It has got to the point that in the past year, for the first time, I have begun to live in constant fear: not of terrorists, but of stepping, momentarily, out of line and being punished.
It is odd, isn't it, that people all around us behave badly all the time and go on getting away with it all the time.
I recently complained to Transport for London about the conduct of a No. 38 bendy-bus driver who almost ran over an old lady, then slammed the door in my face. Despite the fact that I had noted down the vehicle registration, nothing came of my phone call, other than the man on the other end of the line telling me off for describing the driver as "having a huge beard".
Well, I am sick of it. I am middle-aged, middle-class, white and female, and I seem to have no rights whatsoever, not even the right to people treating me with respect.
No one saw my wheels being removed, despite the fact that whenever I parked in that very same spot with my bumper jutting beyond the white lines of my parking space, which I had paid for, I got a ticket slapped on my windscreen.
I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE. Can you?
In one sense it goes a bit beyond the thread topic but then there's a lowest common denominator in there somewhere.
I feel persecuted. Put upon. Hounded. In the past three weeks, I have been prosecuted no fewer than five times, paid six fines, been stopped and questioned by the police twice, had my car towed once, and the bailiffs have been to my house, hammering on the door at 6am.
I have had a driving licence since 1984, and it remained pristine, without a single point, until this year and now suddenly, if I make just one more transgression, I risk losing it.
Four of the prosecutions were for driving at 32mph in a 30mph zone; despite explaining that I picked up speed because I was going downhill, and that one of the signs had been vandalised, I got six points on my licence, as well as having to spend two-and-a-half hours in speed school, which I had to pay £75 to attend, to avoid getting nine – a pretty pointless (ha! ha!) exercise.
However, I did learn that when a motorway sign flashes a notice telling you how far away a junction is, and how long it will take to get there, it is not, as I thought, just being helpful, it is monitoring your average speed.
I was questioned by the Metropolitan Police on the Caledonian Road and asked if I had been drinking, simply for wandering along the road with a torch at 3am. I answered crossly that I was teetotal and was, in fact, looking for my cat. I was worried, tired and annoyed, but I certainly didn't start rioting.
My car was towed off when I briefly parked outside a rural railway station late on Sunday night to see my friends on to the platform. I thought putting people on a train was a good thing: polite and green.
The bailiffs came to my house because a man used my address when he purchased a motorbike, and then stopped paying for it.
My run-ins with authority and red tape go on and on. It has got to the point that in the past year, for the first time, I have begun to live in constant fear: not of terrorists, but of stepping, momentarily, out of line and being punished.
It is odd, isn't it, that people all around us behave badly all the time and go on getting away with it all the time.
I recently complained to Transport for London about the conduct of a No. 38 bendy-bus driver who almost ran over an old lady, then slammed the door in my face. Despite the fact that I had noted down the vehicle registration, nothing came of my phone call, other than the man on the other end of the line telling me off for describing the driver as "having a huge beard".
Well, I am sick of it. I am middle-aged, middle-class, white and female, and I seem to have no rights whatsoever, not even the right to people treating me with respect.
No one saw my wheels being removed, despite the fact that whenever I parked in that very same spot with my bumper jutting beyond the white lines of my parking space, which I had paid for, I got a ticket slapped on my windscreen.
I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE. Can you?
In one sense it goes a bit beyond the thread topic but then there's a lowest common denominator in there somewhere.
Hooli said:
you dont think they could do real jobs do you? it lowers the unemployment figures after all.
Exactly - gets people off the dole and into work. And they pay their taxes - everyone's happy. Same with SCP's - they say the profits are small, though anyone who believes this spin is rather naive (but Labour's policies have a strong effect on these weak minded fools): it's about the salaries and taxes of the people working there, the reduction in unemployment and more money for the government in indirect taxes etc.Yellabowley said:
If we are doing speeders in North Yorkshire using a static car, force policy stipulates that it should be a marked car.
Aaagghh!! You're not supposed to be 'doing' innocent little speeders in North Yorkshire. We don't need it, we don't deserve it, and we don't want it. 
Anyhow, hello David - a police officer, eh? Are you in the RPU then?
Best wishes all,
Dave.
Gassing Station | Speed, Plod & the Law | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff