Police with Clipboards??

[TigerS6]

Hello all,
I'm new to this and you all 'seem' to know what you are talking about!
so...
I was out driving on Saturday morning, I entered into a 30 zone at no more that 30 and proceeded to pootle down the road minding my own business. Parked on the exit of a t juction (questionable in itself) was a battenburg'd T5 with 2 members of the local authority standing by the road, one of them was facing me and as I approached I saw him looking and noting down my number plate on this clipboard!!! This didn't exactly fill me with confidence.
on my car I have one of those stick on number plates that point 'approaching' vertical because I have no-where else to put it, could this be why??, alternatively my car is fairly loud (98.6dB) could this be it???

What should I be expecting, any opinions would at least put my mind at rest!!!
Cheers
Gavin

[Don]

Could easily be a road tax campaign...

[madcop]

TigerS6 said:

Hello all, I'm new to this and you all 'seem' to know what you are talking about! so... I was out driving on Saturday morning, I entered into a 30 zone at no more that 30 and proceeded to pootle down the road minding my own business. Parked on the exit of a t juction (questionable in itself) was a battenburg'd T5 with 2 members of the local authority standing by the road, one of them was facing me and as I approached I saw him looking and noting down my number plate on this clipboard!!! This didn't exactly fill me with confidence. on my car I have one of those stick on number plates that point 'approaching' vertical because I have no-where else to put it, could this be why??, alternatively my car is fairly loud (98.6dB) could this be it??? What should I be expecting, any opinions would at least put my mind at rest!!! Cheers Gavin

Forget it. Drive into any town centre area these days and your number plate will be recorded on several cameras. If you drive into London, Kens cameras will check it. There are any number of ANPR devices at the sides of roads and now installed in petrol stations to alert the operators that there may be a problem.

The fact someone has possibly written your number plate down by hand means nothing at all. If you are all above board then do ot worry about it.

[deltaf]

madcop said:

TigerS6 said: Hello all, I'm new to this and you all 'seem' to know what you are talking about! so... I was out driving on Saturday morning, I entered into a 30 zone at no more that 30 and proceeded to pootle down the road minding my own business. Parked on the exit of a t juction (questionable in itself) was a battenburg'd T5 with 2 members of the local authority standing by the road, one of them was facing me and as I approached I saw him looking and noting down my number plate on this clipboard!!! This didn't exactly fill me with confidence. on my car I have one of those stick on number plates that point 'approaching' vertical because I have no-where else to put it, could this be why??, alternatively my car is fairly loud (98.6dB) could this be it??? What should I be expecting, any opinions would at least put my mind at rest!!! Cheers Gavin Forget it. Drive into any town centre area these days and your number plate will be recorded on several cameras. If you drive into London, Kens cameras will check it. There are any number of ANPR devices at the sides of roads and now installed in petrol stations to alert the operators that there may be a problem. The fact someone has possibly written your number plate down by hand means nothing at all. If you are all above board then do ot worry about it.

Surely we SHOULD be worried? After all we ARE innocent until PROVEN guilty...arent we?
Why does "someone" want to know who i am?
More undercover secret surveillance bullsh*t.
Eastern Germany 1975.

[plotloss]

I thought it was so they could look important?

Isnt that the only reason to carry a clipboard?

[N17 TVR]

He might just be a collector of number plates, and was just combining his hobby with his work ?

[Alan420]

I had the same thing on the BP garage, M25/A1 Jn last night. Lad stood there writing down everyones plates.

Blatantly a civilian, so what was he doing?

It's not like he was checking if they'd payed for their petrol or anything... If I wasn't in such a rush I'd have asked him.

[timwatsham]

I used to work for a traffic survey company a few years ago - one of the projects we had was plotting traffic movements through an area to see 1) average traffic speeds, 2) whether certain turnings and routes were used. We used to do this by having about 10 people stationed around an area writing down numberplates of cars entering and exiting the area.

Not very high-tec, but with student wages a cheap way to do it...

So, might have been this?

[madcop]

deltaf said:

Surely we SHOULD be worried? After all we ARE innocent until PROVEN guilty...arent we? Why does "someone" want to know who i am? More undercover secret surveillance bullsh*t. Eastern Germany 1975.

It doesn't worry me! I have nothing to fear as I do nothing to draw attention to myself.

If you have credit/mortgage/bank account/vote etc there will be a vast amount of data available to the authorities if they wish to investigate you. Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, allows the Police/other authorities in certain circumstances to gain any information they require to investigate anyone. The authority has to be signed by Superintendent of Police, Chief officers of Police or the Minister for Home Affairs depending on the nature of the information sought and the methods required to be used.

There is an answer deltaf, Don't own or drive a vehicle. If you walk everywhere, no one is going to be able to tell who you are especially if you wear a Groucho Marks nose and glasses and a 'scousers wig'
or an Osama Binladen party costume

[TigerS6]

Fine,
Okay guys, thats fairly reassuring, thanks.
I'll keep you all posted 'if' anything comes of it, oh, and I'm completely above board

[N17 TVR]

madcop said:

especially if you wear a Groucho Marks nose and glasses and a 'scousers wig'

......you've met him before then.

[TigerS6]

timwatsham said:

I used to work for a traffic survey company a few years ago - one of the projects we had was plotting traffic movements through an area to see 1) average traffic speeds, 2) whether certain turnings and routes were used. We used to do this by having about 10 people stationed around an area writing down numberplates of cars entering and exiting the area. Not very high-tec, but with student wages a cheap way to do it... So, might have been this?

Not so sure, as they were in the usual traffic uniform and flourescent jackets (with proper car).

[DennisTheMenace]

Perhaps he is a train spotter at the weekend and finding it hard to get out of the habit of jotting down numbers

[deltaf]

madcop said:

deltaf said: Surely we SHOULD be worried? After all we ARE innocent until PROVEN guilty...arent we? Why does "someone" want to know who i am? More undercover secret surveillance bullsh*t. Eastern Germany 1975. It doesn't worry me! I have nothing to fear as I do nothing to draw attention to myself. If you have credit/mortgage/bank account/vote etc there will be a vast amount of data available to the authorities if they wish to investigate you. Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, allows the Police/other authorities in certain circumstances to gain any information they require to investigate anyone. The authority has to be signed by Superintendent of Police, Chief officers of Police or the Minister for Home Affairs depending on the nature of the information sought and the methods required to be used. There is an answer deltaf, Don't own or drive a vehicle. If you walk everywhere, no one is going to be able to tell who you are especially if you wear a Groucho Marks nose and glasses and a 'scousers wig' or an Osama Binladen party costume

Lol thanks MC. Id probably BE more inconspicuous if i was dressed up like Bin Lardarse anyway..

[s2ooz]

TigerS6 said:

timwatsham said: I used to work for a traffic survey company a few years ago - one of the projects we had was plotting traffic movements through an area to see 1) average traffic speeds, 2) whether certain turnings and routes were used. We used to do this by having about 10 people stationed around an area writing down numberplates of cars entering and exiting the area. Not very high-tec, but with student wages a cheap way to do it... So, might have been this? Not so sure, as they were in the usual traffic uniform and flourescent jackets (with proper car).

by me they give "specials" the full kit, and cars. they refuse to allow specials to be less official than paid police, as the public may take less notice if they nick them