police parked on hard shoulders/merges

[newuser24]

Hi all,

Its always baffled me what they are doing when police cars are parked on a slip road merge or at the side of the road in the hard shoulder. They dont look like they are doing speed, well i never see them hold a hand gun or anything, sometimes the lights are on aswell.

Are they just waiting for someone to go past at stupid speeds or something? There was one today parked on the hard shoulder with thier lights flashing, no other cars or anything parked up.

[Conscript]

Well, they have to go somewhere. I imagine it's not very efficient to have them constantly patrol the motorway when not dealing with an incident or responding to a call. So I guess they just position themselves at key locations until they are needed somewhere.

[fezst]

Most of the time they are waiting for a specific car that has been pinged by an ANPR camera a few miles up the road.

[Durzel]

Waiting to pick up someone who has been reported further up the road?
Letting their in-car ANPR system scan people and respond to any alerts?
Taking time out to eat a donut (LOL!) in a place where they can potentially respond faster to a call on the radio?

[newuser24]

Fair suggestions so far

Always makes me nervous that they are checking speed somehow stealthily

[blearyeyedboy]

newuser24 said:

There was one today parked on the hard shoulder with thier lights flashing

newuser24 said:

Always makes me nervous that they are checking speed somehow stealthily

So they're stealthily checking speed in a battenburged car with its lights flashing?

[Toaster Pilot]

Those are pretty dangerous places you describe - they'll not be sitting in them without good reason (and a generic speed trap isn't a good reason IMO, they do that on bridges etc surely)

[newuser24]

blearyeyedboy said:

So they're stealthily checking speed in a battenburged car with its lights flashing?

Lol well people might assume they are doing something else

If a police car is parked up does the driver have to use a speed gun to measure speed or is there a built in camera that can measure speed through the back window?

[glasgowrob]

Started parking side on on slips and hard shoulders up here to use their speed guns up here recently


Doesn't exactly seem clever

[blearyeyedboy]

newuser24 said:

Lol well people might assume they are doing something else

If a police car is parked up does the driver have to use a speed gun to measure speed or is there a built in camera that can measure speed through the back window?

I don't know.

What I know is that I probably wouldn't speed past a battenburged car regardless, just because it makes sense not to.

If it's on flashing lights, I'd consider slowing down a fair bit below the limit in most cases- there may be a hazard you're about to drive into.

[alecescolme]

I came across a strange one the other night on a dual carriageway at 10:30pm. Police car completely blocking one lane with lights flashing, parked at odd angle, car in front on me almost completely stopped, then waved past by police. Could not see anything had happened, no debris.

[SteveSteveson]

newuser24 said:

There was one today parked on the hard shoulder with thier lights flashing, no other cars or anything parked up.

I would guess either waiting to pick up someone pinged on ANPR or waiting to join another unit to make a stop if someone has called for backup/needs support to force a stop. I would be very careful with that in mind.

Edited by SteveSteveson on Friday 6th February 11:52

[Swanny87]

Waiting for idiots that don't know how to join a motorway? Looking for someone/something in a nearby field or in the verge?

[newuser24]

glasgowrob said:

Started parking side on on slips and hard shoulders up here to use their speed guns up here recently


Doesn't exactly seem clever

Sideways on is pure lunacy

[Matttracker]

Just a thought, but often we'll stop a car finish with it and sit there for a few minutes sorting stuff out before moving on, since you're seeing a snippet driving past. Could be just this a few times

[Matttracker]

Just a thought, but often we'll stop a car finish with it and sit there for a few minutes sorting stuff out before moving on, since you're seeing a snippet driving past. Could be just this a few times

[newuser24]

Matttracker said:

Just a thought, but often we'll stop a car finish with it and sit there for a few minutes sorting stuff out before moving on, since you're seeing a snippet driving past. Could be just this a few times

Are you a pig bro?

[daveinhampshire]

Police work is 95% boredom so I imagine they're cruising for their next victim and with ANPR I doubt that takes long.

[aw51 121565]

newuser24 said:

Matttracker said:

Just a thought, but often we'll stop a car finish with it and sit there for a few minutes sorting stuff out before moving on, since you're seeing a snippet driving past. Could be just this a few times

Are you a pig bro?

Ah ha ha , no, ...

I think it is fair to say that he is a police officer, .

[anonymous-user]

I saw a police car parked on double yellows the other week. No hazards on, car wasn't running, no blues on, just sat there. There was a takeaway there, though (just around the corner from the police station). Lazy on a number of levels. And illegal, but what do they care?

Haha, another, at a T junction, all traffic lighted, mine turned to green, police van stops and then puts blues on just as I go round the corner just so he can get through the lights. There is absolutely no way his lights turned to green as I went through. Doing so would cause a crash. Incidentally I was stopped on christmas day around 1am for running a red, in similar circumstances, except I don't have blue lights to force my way through, and I got stopped. What would happen if I tried to stop the van?

If anyone wants to have a word with a towns police station, DN14 area, 20,000 population, rubbish town separated by 3 (THREE) bridges and a railway station. Any guesses. Begins with G. You can treat yourself to a visit to see all the lovely protons and astras.