A new respect for Trafpol.
Discussion
Now, i've been driving 3 and a bit years, in that time i've been lucky enough to have never been pulled by the OB despite driving a car that is fairly loud, being of the stereotypical boy racer age and generally being a tit (calmed down a lot recently though).
Until this evening that is, 40 mph dual carriageway right next to where I work and I was clocked by a following trafpol doing .27 lepton faster than the legal limit. Bloody stupid I know, and as I looked into his car to read the computer speed reading I felt sick.
Unfortunately I had no idea, being dark, I was being followed and the first inclination I had was when the Christmas tree lit up behind me, my heart sank as I knew straight away why i'd been pulled.
Out I got as did plod, who asked if I knew why i'd been pulled over, straight away I said speed and decided to be completely honest, open and straight with him without sounding like an ass licker.
He made me feel 2 inches tall as I got a tongue lashing about the offence and rightly so it put the living shits up me as he told me potentially my licence could be lost by a moment of stupidity.
Eventually he said to me he'd let me off this once with a warning but beign a regular patrol in the area if he caught me again he would throw the book at me (which is only fair in my very humble opinion).
After a quick chat and the issuing me with the producer he sent me on my way with a flea in my ear and a firm handshake, telling me i'd been lucky this once.
Over the course of the evening I have driven around another 30 miles and I can honestly say I never went above the speed limit once.
Proactive policing at it's finest, he taught me a lesson, saw I was genuinely remorseful for being a t
t (which I really was) and sent me on my way. I have far more respect for him, and trafpol in general who often get a bad press than if he had booked me there and then.
Thanks again to the officer in Stevenage this evening, have a beer on me.
Until this evening that is, 40 mph dual carriageway right next to where I work and I was clocked by a following trafpol doing .27 lepton faster than the legal limit. Bloody stupid I know, and as I looked into his car to read the computer speed reading I felt sick.
Unfortunately I had no idea, being dark, I was being followed and the first inclination I had was when the Christmas tree lit up behind me, my heart sank as I knew straight away why i'd been pulled.
Out I got as did plod, who asked if I knew why i'd been pulled over, straight away I said speed and decided to be completely honest, open and straight with him without sounding like an ass licker.
He made me feel 2 inches tall as I got a tongue lashing about the offence and rightly so it put the living shits up me as he told me potentially my licence could be lost by a moment of stupidity.
Eventually he said to me he'd let me off this once with a warning but beign a regular patrol in the area if he caught me again he would throw the book at me (which is only fair in my very humble opinion).
After a quick chat and the issuing me with the producer he sent me on my way with a flea in my ear and a firm handshake, telling me i'd been lucky this once.
Over the course of the evening I have driven around another 30 miles and I can honestly say I never went above the speed limit once.
Proactive policing at it's finest, he taught me a lesson, saw I was genuinely remorseful for being a t
t (which I really was) and sent me on my way. I have far more respect for him, and trafpol in general who often get a bad press than if he had booked me there and then.Thanks again to the officer in Stevenage this evening, have a beer on me.
Edited by Nic Jones on Sunday 7th October 02:19
wasted years said:
Moral of the story: be honest and humble and good things can happen to you. I can't fathom why some people advise to act dumb when pulled.
Nice to have a positive post about Policing.
Nice to have a positive post about Policing.
There was no point in me acting stupid, he had me on his in car (vascar?) doing that speed, so acting dumb and ignorant would just have got me into more trouble.
As someone siad above, if it had been a scamera i'd just have slowed down driven through sped up and driven above the speed limit all night I expect. As it was my standard of driving and (observation
) improved tenfold after being pulled.In the cold light of day i've just realised what a lucky bastid I was last night.
Nic Jones said:
wasted years said:
Moral of the story: be honest and humble and good things can happen to you. I can't fathom why some people advise to act dumb when pulled.
Nice to have a positive post about Policing.
Nice to have a positive post about Policing.
There was no point in me acting stupid, he had me on his in car (vascar?) doing that speed, so acting dumb and ignorant would just have got me into more trouble.
As someone siad above, if it had been a scamera i'd just have slowed down driven through sped up and driven above the speed limit all night I expect. As it was my standard of driving and (observation
) improved tenfold after being pulled.In the cold light of day i've just realised what a lucky bastid I was last night.
Highway61 said:
Nic Jones said:
wasted years said:
Moral of the story: be honest and humble and good things can happen to you. I can't fathom why some people advise to act dumb when pulled.
Nice to have a positive post about Policing.
Nice to have a positive post about Policing.
There was no point in me acting stupid, he had me on his in car (vascar?) doing that speed, so acting dumb and ignorant would just have got me into more trouble.
As someone siad above, if it had been a scamera i'd just have slowed down driven through sped up and driven above the speed limit all night I expect. As it was my standard of driving and (observation
) improved tenfold after being pulled.In the cold light of day i've just realised what a lucky bastid I was last night.
Nic Jones said:
Now, i've been driving 3 and a bit years, in that time i've been lucky enough to have never been pulled by the OB despite driving a car that is fairly loud, being of the stereotypical boy racer age and generally being a tit (calmed down a lot recently though).
Until this evening that is, 40 mph dual carriageway right next to where I work and I was clocked by a following trafpol doing .27 lepton faster than the legal limit. Bloody stupid I know, and as I looked into his car to read the computer speed reading I felt sick.
Unfortunately I had no idea, being dark, I was being followed and the first inclination I had was when the Christmas tree lit up behind me, my heart sank as I knew straight away why i'd been pulled.
Out I got as did plod, who asked if I knew why i'd been pulled over, straight away I said speed and decided to be completely honest, open and straight with him without sounding like an ass licker.
He made me feel 2 inches tall as I got a tongue lashing about the offence and rightly so it put the living shits up me as he told me potentially my licence could be lost by a moment of stupidity.
Eventually he said to me he'd let me off this once with a warning but beign a regular patrol in the area if he caught me again he would throw the book at me (which is only fair in my very humble opinion).
After a quick chat and the issuing me with the producer he sent me on my way with a flea in my ear and a firm handshake, telling me i'd been lucky this once.
Over the course of the evening I have driven around another 30 miles and I can honestly say I never went above the speed limit once.
Proactive policing at it's finest, he taught me a lesson, saw I was genuinely remorseful for being a tt (which I really was) and sent me on my way. I have far more respect for him, and trafpol in general who often get a bad press than if he had booked me there and then.
Thanks again to the officer in Stevenage this evening, have a beer on me.
Possibly not quite what it may have seemed at the time.Until this evening that is, 40 mph dual carriageway right next to where I work and I was clocked by a following trafpol doing .27 lepton faster than the legal limit. Bloody stupid I know, and as I looked into his car to read the computer speed reading I felt sick.
Unfortunately I had no idea, being dark, I was being followed and the first inclination I had was when the Christmas tree lit up behind me, my heart sank as I knew straight away why i'd been pulled.
Out I got as did plod, who asked if I knew why i'd been pulled over, straight away I said speed and decided to be completely honest, open and straight with him without sounding like an ass licker.
He made me feel 2 inches tall as I got a tongue lashing about the offence and rightly so it put the living shits up me as he told me potentially my licence could be lost by a moment of stupidity.
Eventually he said to me he'd let me off this once with a warning but beign a regular patrol in the area if he caught me again he would throw the book at me (which is only fair in my very humble opinion).
After a quick chat and the issuing me with the producer he sent me on my way with a flea in my ear and a firm handshake, telling me i'd been lucky this once.
Over the course of the evening I have driven around another 30 miles and I can honestly say I never went above the speed limit once.
Proactive policing at it's finest, he taught me a lesson, saw I was genuinely remorseful for being a t
t (which I really was) and sent me on my way. I have far more respect for him, and trafpol in general who often get a bad press than if he had booked me there and then.Thanks again to the officer in Stevenage this evening, have a beer on me.
Edited by Nic Jones on Sunday 7th October 02:19
On the face of it it does seem like good old fashioned policing.
However knowing how modern policing works since my Brother in Law is one and he as much as anyone depresses me with his insight during our evening chats at regular family functions.
Knowing that they could have claimed a 'detected' crime it seems strange that they didn't pursue the charge against you given that the police constantly defend speed cameras also my previous 'let offs' pre camera days were never for gross speeding offences but for around up to 15mph over the limit even pre camera I was once ticketed for 84mph on the motorway.
What your story suggests instead rather indicates yet another example the public don't know about how policing works in this country.
It is called . Shift change 'blindness'
The police actually turn a 'blind eye' to any criminal activities when the end of their shift aproaches.
This includes turning their radios off , failing to reply to calls and deliberately driving their patrol vehicles away from the known hotspots into quieter areas .
The reason being they don't want to get caught up with filling in paperwork or making statements back at the nick when they could be signing off and going home.
A look at any police stations records will show that the number of crimes logges dramatically decreases in the hour before a shift is due to change. what a strange coincidence.
However he was still unimpressed with you enough to give you a talking to rather than just ignoring you so please bear that in mind and think about where it is safer to use speed.
Edited by mark69sheer on Monday 8th October 10:48
Mark, he told me that he was just starting his shift and was due to finish around midnight and was on his way to setting up a speed trap (I think) when I went past him. The only reason a mate (who is also plod) could offer was that he might not have had a chance to calibrate the camera at that point if it was early in his shift. How true that is I don't know, my mate isn't trafpol though.
As I say on another night with a different attitude my speed potentially could have seen me in court and using public transport, I have taken it on board and have driven far more sensibly since Saturday. I think possibly I was still in that 'invincible' phase thinking I was untouchable. Getting stopped has made me realise how easy it is to lose my licence.
It can't be a bad thing.
As I say on another night with a different attitude my speed potentially could have seen me in court and using public transport, I have taken it on board and have driven far more sensibly since Saturday. I think possibly I was still in that 'invincible' phase thinking I was untouchable. Getting stopped has made me realise how easy it is to lose my licence.
It can't be a bad thing.
mark69sheer said:
Possibly not quite what it may have seemed at the time.
On the face of it it does seem like good old fashioned policing.
However knowing how modern policing works since my Brother in Law is one and he as much as anyone depresses me with his insight during our evening chats at regular family functions.
Knowing that they could have claimed a 'detected' crime it seems strange that they didn't pursue the charge against you given that the police constantly defend speed cameras also my previous 'let offs' pre camera days were never for gross speeding offences but for around up to 15mph over the limit even pre camera I was once ticketed for 84mph on the motorway.
What your story suggests instead rather indicates yet another example the public don't know about how policing works in this country.
It is called . Shift change 'blindness'
The police actually turn a 'blind eye' to any criminal activities when the end of their shift aproaches.
This includes turning their radios off , failing to reply to calls and deliberately driving their patrol vehicles away from the known hotspots into quieter areas .
The reason being they don't want to get caught up with filling in paperwork or making statements back at the nick when they could be signing off and going home.
A look at any police stations records will show that the number of crimes logges dramatically decreases in the hour before a shift is due to change. what a strange coincidence.
However he was still unimpressed with you enough to give you a talking to rather than just ignoring you so please bear that in mind and think about where it is safer to use speed.
Talking crap about a subject of which you know absolutely nothing again Mark?On the face of it it does seem like good old fashioned policing.
However knowing how modern policing works since my Brother in Law is one and he as much as anyone depresses me with his insight during our evening chats at regular family functions.
Knowing that they could have claimed a 'detected' crime it seems strange that they didn't pursue the charge against you given that the police constantly defend speed cameras also my previous 'let offs' pre camera days were never for gross speeding offences but for around up to 15mph over the limit even pre camera I was once ticketed for 84mph on the motorway.
What your story suggests instead rather indicates yet another example the public don't know about how policing works in this country.
It is called . Shift change 'blindness'
The police actually turn a 'blind eye' to any criminal activities when the end of their shift aproaches.
This includes turning their radios off , failing to reply to calls and deliberately driving their patrol vehicles away from the known hotspots into quieter areas .
The reason being they don't want to get caught up with filling in paperwork or making statements back at the nick when they could be signing off and going home.
A look at any police stations records will show that the number of crimes logges dramatically decreases in the hour before a shift is due to change. what a strange coincidence.
However he was still unimpressed with you enough to give you a talking to rather than just ignoring you so please bear that in mind and think about where it is safer to use speed.
There's a surprise.
I've been in possession of a Clean Licence since 1984 (when I passed a moped test at 16 years and 1 month old) and had been stopped about 12 times until april 2007 when I got my first points from a camera van for the really bad crime of "KEEPING UP with THE TRAFFIC in FRONT"
I have to say that whilst I was made to feel "LIKE a TIT" the lack of points was always something I was quite Smug about. No matter. 3 years and they'll be gone.
I have to say that whilst I was made to feel "LIKE a TIT" the lack of points was always something I was quite Smug about. No matter. 3 years and they'll be gone.
I have a friend who is a TrafPol any he can be very fair at times. one of my favorite examples is one night he was coming along the A43 silverstone bypass and spotted a car travelling at a high rate of knots. VASCAR'd it at over 110mph and pulled it over.
The driver was a young lad who had only passed his test 2 weeks before. My friend gave him a very stern talking to including pointing out to the lad that the speed he was clocked at would result in him losing his licence and being forced to retake his test. The lad was very humbled and apologetic and as a result my friend wrote the ticket out at 99mph.
He explained to the lad that he was giving him a second chance. he was getting 3 points and a fine, instead of losing his licence. If the lad got done for speeding again he would lose his licence automatically due to the 2 year new drivers 6 point limit.
The lad left with a new found respect for the police and will undoubtedly be watching his speedo very carefully for the next few years and will hopefully turn into a good and safe driver. He knows he won't get a third chance!
A ban would have achieved very little except decreasing his and all his friends respect for the police, and potentially creating another uninsured driver on our roads.
The driver was a young lad who had only passed his test 2 weeks before. My friend gave him a very stern talking to including pointing out to the lad that the speed he was clocked at would result in him losing his licence and being forced to retake his test. The lad was very humbled and apologetic and as a result my friend wrote the ticket out at 99mph.
He explained to the lad that he was giving him a second chance. he was getting 3 points and a fine, instead of losing his licence. If the lad got done for speeding again he would lose his licence automatically due to the 2 year new drivers 6 point limit.
The lad left with a new found respect for the police and will undoubtedly be watching his speedo very carefully for the next few years and will hopefully turn into a good and safe driver. He knows he won't get a third chance!
A ban would have achieved very little except decreasing his and all his friends respect for the police, and potentially creating another uninsured driver on our roads.
Its just a case of gaining more experience.
Speed as everyone knows even plod isn't the big killer on our roads.
Just be careful where you use it.
40mph inner city roads are just crying out for a ticket because its so easy to get done on them.
I allways set my cruise control to the speed limit when in 30/40 areas.
However I ended up with a ticket on a 40mph dual carriageway.
I had the cruise set to 40mph and I was idling along in 6th gear (diesel) the road however started to go downhill and as I went along this road with my foot OFF the accelerator and watched the other cars / traffic and potential hazzards around me I was snapped by a mobile unit at 48mph.
What I learnt from that is that the cruise control only prevents my car from driving above the speed limit under power but that gravity assisted travel will still pull my car past the speed limit even with the cruise on.
I had never even considered that anomoly
Speed as everyone knows even plod isn't the big killer on our roads.
Just be careful where you use it.
40mph inner city roads are just crying out for a ticket because its so easy to get done on them.
I allways set my cruise control to the speed limit when in 30/40 areas.
However I ended up with a ticket on a 40mph dual carriageway.
I had the cruise set to 40mph and I was idling along in 6th gear (diesel) the road however started to go downhill and as I went along this road with my foot OFF the accelerator and watched the other cars / traffic and potential hazzards around me I was snapped by a mobile unit at 48mph.
What I learnt from that is that the cruise control only prevents my car from driving above the speed limit under power but that gravity assisted travel will still pull my car past the speed limit even with the cruise on.
I had never even considered that anomoly
R_U_LOCAL said:
Talking crap about a subject of which you know absolutely nothing again Mark?
There's a surprise.
Reg please that is me talking about a subject I have been told about by someone actually in the job someone whose years of experience give him the position to know exactly how things happen.There's a surprise.
I don't ever actually talk crap.
In this case I was wrong about the circumstaces ie They were actually just starting a shift.
I wasn't wrong about how shift changes affect policing.
mark69sheer said:
I don't ever actually talk crap.
mark69sheer said:
I have just invented something . . .
In the light of all the new infra red speed cameras and the topic of garage door openers now deemed illegal in cars because they 'blind' the poor things wouldn't it be a shame if someone designed a solar powered device that emitted infra red signals which could be stuck in the ground pointing at the lenses of the speed cameras and designed to look like a 'rock' with the solar panel wired to but some distance away so as not to arouse suspicion?
£10 says you do. In the light of all the new infra red speed cameras and the topic of garage door openers now deemed illegal in cars because they 'blind' the poor things wouldn't it be a shame if someone designed a solar powered device that emitted infra red signals which could be stuck in the ground pointing at the lenses of the speed cameras and designed to look like a 'rock' with the solar panel wired to but some distance away so as not to arouse suspicion?
10 Pence Short said:
mark69sheer said:
I don't ever actually talk crap.
mark69sheer said:
I have just invented something . . .
In the light of all the new infra red speed cameras and the topic of garage door openers now deemed illegal in cars because they 'blind' the poor things wouldn't it be a shame if someone designed a solar powered device that emitted infra red signals which could be stuck in the ground pointing at the lenses of the speed cameras and designed to look like a 'rock' with the solar panel wired to but some distance away so as not to arouse suspicion?
£10 says you do. In the light of all the new infra red speed cameras and the topic of garage door openers now deemed illegal in cars because they 'blind' the poor things wouldn't it be a shame if someone designed a solar powered device that emitted infra red signals which could be stuck in the ground pointing at the lenses of the speed cameras and designed to look like a 'rock' with the solar panel wired to but some distance away so as not to arouse suspicion?
Oh I know because I'm a civilian and you are a policeman...ha ha
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