What do you think? (scamera)
Discussion
Edited to rephrase my question.
When on a road which has a mobile scamera, is the officer operating the camera likely to (at a possible range of 250-400 metres) move the camera about, looking for the fastest car, or more likely to just sit tight, and see what moves through his fixed field of focus.
Another question - at the sort of aforementioned range, how difficult would it be for the camera operator to focus on a car which is moving through traffic, and most of the time obscured by other cars, but visible some of the time?
>>> Edited by UKBob on Monday 18th April 18:11
When on a road which has a mobile scamera, is the officer operating the camera likely to (at a possible range of 250-400 metres) move the camera about, looking for the fastest car, or more likely to just sit tight, and see what moves through his fixed field of focus.
Another question - at the sort of aforementioned range, how difficult would it be for the camera operator to focus on a car which is moving through traffic, and most of the time obscured by other cars, but visible some of the time?
>>> Edited by UKBob on Monday 18th April 18:11
To clarify, I'm in the job, not Trafpol, but I have done several two-week attachments with them.
With the laser, the MO seems to be pick a spot, decide at which level you will be ticketing and reporting drivers (say 39mph and 45 mph respectively in a 30 mph limit), then ping every vehicle through. Its only a question of lining up and pulling the trigger before the subject vehicle sees you and slows down, so its fairly easy on a single carriageway, not too hard on a dual carriageway and I'm not fast roads trained so no idea on a motorway.
With the radar its a bit harder as rather than a discreet beam, you have an expanding, err, cone, I guess, which can be confused by multiple vehicles, such as an overtake on a motorway. I seem to recall that an error message comes up rather than a speed on the readout.
The idea of preselecting your limits is to ensure consistency and prevent (legitimate) moans that "you let my mate off this morning" and the like.
Hope that is of interest, sure it will be ripped apart by the profssionals!
Edited to add: If you're driving a bright yellow Cerbera, you may attract rather more attention...
>> Edited by carnage on Monday 18th April 19:33
With the laser, the MO seems to be pick a spot, decide at which level you will be ticketing and reporting drivers (say 39mph and 45 mph respectively in a 30 mph limit), then ping every vehicle through. Its only a question of lining up and pulling the trigger before the subject vehicle sees you and slows down, so its fairly easy on a single carriageway, not too hard on a dual carriageway and I'm not fast roads trained so no idea on a motorway.
With the radar its a bit harder as rather than a discreet beam, you have an expanding, err, cone, I guess, which can be confused by multiple vehicles, such as an overtake on a motorway. I seem to recall that an error message comes up rather than a speed on the readout.
The idea of preselecting your limits is to ensure consistency and prevent (legitimate) moans that "you let my mate off this morning" and the like.
Hope that is of interest, sure it will be ripped apart by the profssionals!
Edited to add: If you're driving a bright yellow Cerbera, you may attract rather more attention...
>> Edited by carnage on Monday 18th April 19:33
carnage said:
...then ping every vehicle through. Its only a question of lining up and pulling the trigger before the subject vehicle sees you and slows down.
Interesting...I thought that the "guidelines" (those things that are continually ignored and used for bog roll by the SCPs) said that the laser was to be used to corroborate the opinion of an officer that a car he has already seen was speeding...i.e. the operator must have seen the car and thought "that's travelling too fast".
Nice to see that the SCPs really are the low-life moral-less scum everyone thinks they are...not!
havoc said:
...then ping every vehicle through. Its only a question of lining up and pulling the trigger before the subject vehicle sees you and slows down.
Interesting...I thought that the "guidelines" (those things that are continually ignored and used for bog roll by the SCPs) said that the laser was to be used to corroborate the opinion of an officer that a car he has already seen was speeding...i.e. the operator must have seen the car and thought "that's travelling too fast".
Nice to see that the SCPs really are the low-life moral-less scum everyone thinks they are...not!
Obviously if its Mrs Miggins on her way home from bingo you might not bother, but I was amazed at how hard it is to judge the speed of vehicles accurately,especially when they're travelling towards you on a dual carriageway.
Obviously the above applies to coppers using their own judgement, not fixed sites or vans crewed by civvies...
havoc said:
Obviously the above applies to coppers using their own judgement, not ... vans crewed by civvies...
Hmmm...isn't that another "guideline"...or is that a rule that's being flouted there?!? And how can a civvy have any professional level of judgement???
You're right, and in my force the guidelines for action are generally slightly higher than the ACPO (10% plus 2)guidelines. Interestingly, the traffic (sorry, roads policing...) department often - but not always - seem to add another couple of mph on top.
I guess they would justify this by claiming their experience as professional road users allows them to set what they consider appropriate standards given the road, conditions, weather, etc. I have to say, that of the five different traffic officers I've been crewed with, four had exactly the same (relatively) lenient "personal" limits for tickets and one used the ACPO standards at all times. That officer also booked a motorist driving with his headlights on during the day for causing undue dazzle, and gave him a £30 FPN. Draw your own conclusions!
With regards to civvy levels of judgement, I would love to give vent to personal prejudice and say the have none, especially the Police Community Support Officers... but honesty means I have to point out I have had no training in drunkeness or judging speed, but as soon as I put my uniform on for the first time I automatically became an expert witness in both. I can't claim to be any better at it than any other PHer!
carnage said:
That officer also booked a motorist driving with his headlights on during the day for causing undue dazzle, and gave him a £30 FPN. Draw your own conclusions!
So what happens when I go out on my bike with the headlight permanently wired 'on' through the ignition? Am I causing undue dazzle??? 'Cos if I am how some there's so many to55ers in cars that still fail to acknowledge my presence?
maxrider said:
That officer also booked a motorist driving with his headlights on during the day for causing undue dazzle, and gave him a £30 FPN. Draw your own conclusions!
So what happens when I go out on my bike with the headlight permanently wired 'on' through the ignition? Am I causing undue dazzle??? 'Cos if I am how some there's so many to55ers in cars that still fail to acknowledge my presence?
I know, I had a bike for 7 years before I joined the job, and if I was seriously blatting I'd just leave full beam on. Funnily enough, I now drive a Volvo ( and an Elise - I'm not that bad!!!) which has permanent daytime running lights. I wouldn't be over happy if I got stuck on, either.
My rule of thumb for my colleagues: 95% are lovely people, who work there arses off to try and do the best they possibly can... and the other 5% are probably the main cause of the grief the rest of us get.
UKBob said:
Its been 2 weeks and a day - nothing in the post yet, so im not getting a ticket, right?
I was stopped for driving round a small roundabout a bit too briskly. I wasn't endangering anyone or anything, was not driving over the speed limit, but I still managed to upset a BiB who saw me.
The summons turned up nearly 3 MONTHS later. The court case was set for over a month after that. I made a statement and declined to attend. Having taken my license to add the points, I didn't get it back for a further TWO MONTHS. Total elapsed time from incident to returned license was SEVEN MONTHS.
Maybe it is all part of the psychologal warfare?
That was my story. I hope yours turns out better.
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