In Disguise

Just like the one in Nottingham eh Alcazar


[Edited by In Disguise - 11/10/2003 7:16:54 PM]

P1Fanatic

Just come home from work. A33 from M4 Reading south to Basingstoke. Average traffic going along nicely just on the national limit. Police merc parked on hard shoulder. Everyone knocks off 5/10mph. Traffic becomes very congested (crwaling pace) then see a police camera van parked on our side of road, but further down the road over 12 police cars and 5 bikes parked up and off the road doing various spot checks.

Now why on earth do you do spot checks (taking a dual lane road down to one) before the speed cameras, knowing full well that the traffic will get congested, so much so that they are literally crawling passed the camera which is sat in a 50mph zone?

Simon.

fast bloke

you sure it isn't a road tax camera? Reads your reg and reports back in a few seconds if you have valid tax. By the time you get to the cars and bikes they know if you are taxed. If not you get pulled, done and checked for everything else (tyres/noise/insurance etc etc.

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

"over 12 police cars and 5 bikes parked up and off the road doing various spot checks."

Yep, sounds about right.

Certainly got THEIR priorities right in that region...........NOT![img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

What a bunch of w@nkers.

Another chief constable whho is a waste of space[img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

Alcazar

Huxley

Thats about normal for the Hampshire Traffic Scammers.


All about safety me thinks"NOT"


Huxley

Leslie

You don't expect the Police to care about inconvenience to the motoring public do you?

Les

P1Fanatic

Clearing away again today as I came passed a little later. Another days hard graft.

Simon.

jbryant

I went past that lot yesterday, but was going the other way. This was a road tax camera van.

They have a few motorbike cops about 1/2 a mile up the road, and the van will read your number plate. If your car is not registered as being taxed then you get pulled further up the road. I noticed on this occasion they also really slowed down the traffic with a width restriction but didn't seem to cause too much holdup.

I've also been told that if there are any outstanding warrants, fines, jumped bail, etc on the person that the car belongs to, you'll get pulled also. Wasn't sure about this one, but saw someone getting handcuffed a few weeks back at J12 M4 from the same type of camera crew so perhaps this is true...

As for the comments regarding better things to do, I don't agree. I'm all for these techniques. Seems like a far better use for traffic cops than holding speed guns, and might get some uninsured, untaxed, unMOTed heaps off the road, along with the scum that drive them.

Joolz

BuRR

So you're happy to let uninsured drivers carry on driving then?

These cameras note cars without tax, which usually carry other offences such as no insurance (as we all know we need an insurance certificate to obtain a tax disk)

Speed camera vans are usually alone. No outriders accompanying them.

pugoetru

it is still overkill though when there is so much real crime out there

fast bloke

When they piloted this in NI a few months back they caught about 8000 untaxed vehicles, took 1200 uninsured drivers off the roads and impounded a staggering 65000l of red diesel.

As they have a pic of you driving while uninsured, they impound your car and arrest you on the spot. The out and out ******* probably wont care, but the borderline cases who are generally law abiding but think they can get away without insurance might take notice

Danbo

Sounds like ANPR (auto number plate recognition). Its not just for tax, it flags up anything that the car has been involved in or if it hasnt been registered. A very useful way of finding stolen cars with a huge recovery rate.

pslewis

Top idea .... why then do we see untaxed, uninsured (probably), transit vans owned by the local gypos driving their kids to school every day??

I think its because they are NOT registered to ANYONE!

Pete

P1Fanatic

Fair enough if thats the case but its hard to tell - I would much rather they spent money doing driver checks than check for speeding. They had a blue police sign up indicating cameras.

It does make you wonder though i.e. how quickly they would respond to something of a more urgent nature.

Simon.

IanW

It is highly likely that the officers working there would have been from the traffic department, so the normal policing levels for the area from the stations would probably have been un-affected.

Katana

I guess your tune will change once someone crashes into you without having any insurance. You wont be able to claim from them now will you?

BuRR

The signs are there to comply with ECHR and RIPA - the police are not allowed to operate cameras covertly without the appropriate authorities in place.

European Court of Human Rights and Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act for those that don't know.