Gangle

Catch criminals?? Naaaaaa… I think it’s a myth myself.

Nope, a much more pressing and serious issue, keeping the community safe…yep, a roadside emissions check..

Saw the sign, a big blue one “Police Checks”… wondering …………if they check for tax, insurance and MOT’s???? naa that would be too hard doesn’t generate enough revenue after all….

So, was I surprised to see a Van and three cars?. A Total of 6 florescent motorist persecutors standing around…. Course I wasn’t!

It’s the same old moan, but its really becoming a bit of a joke now, anyone else seen these ridiculously mob handed checks?

DEC14N

Belive it or not as i was driving to work this afternoon on the A1124 i passed 5 yes 5 police vehicles all around one camera! (have no idea if it speed camera or tax one, no signs or warnings)
OVERKILL springs to mind.
I had to laugh really.

Gangle

Maybe its because its take five just to opperate it!
Or they were taking a group picture for Policeman Monthly.

You have no choice but to laugh..

BuRR

Maybe you don't know what they were doing?

jmk

Like everyone else, Police and needless camera's pi$$ me off.

Now if they stopped people with no tax disc, unroadworthy cars, knackerd tyres, no insurance (surely a better use fro cameras and digital technology than checking your speed) etc they'd get my full support. Taking moron's off the road who drive up my insurance must be a good thing. Oh yeah, and if someone's caught with no insurance, it'd be nice if they got a much harsher penalty than someone doing 45 in a 40 (on a 3 lane 'A' road).

thecirsch

JMK

Just a thought, how do the officers know if the car has no insurance, MOT, in poor condition, knackered tyres, etc etc.... without stopping it in the first place?

Perhaps the reason there were so many was because they could continue the road check even if a stop ended with an arrest or perhaps they could deal with more then one car at a time.

Just my thoughts

teeitup

I'm unlucky enough to live in North Wales where we have this *** of a chief constable who's main aim in life is to annoy the f*ck out of motorists... we have the worst real crime clear up rate (6%) of anywhere in the Uk, ever... Shame the rozzers don't catch all the scousers speeding down the *** on day trips to rob us blind... it's a long way to Liverpool to go and watch our T.V's!!!

BuRR

The whole point of the ANPR (Automatic number plate recognition) cameras are to have a group of police outriders with them.

The DVLA/PNC database now contains insurance details against car reg plates, as well as expired Tax details, so when a car passes through the camera's view, a little notification pops up saying "no insurance" or "expired tax"

In the main, the cars that are inunsured or untaxed are not registered to the current keeper, so the only way to prosecute the driver is to follow them, stop them, and report/arrest them there and then.

Its the old cliche, at the end of the day, "If you've done nothing wrong, there should be nothing to worry about"

ChrisB

I'm not a big fan of many of the Scamera vans in use, although the Staff's ones do seem to be used in some decent locations like outside schools.

Thumbs up for ANPR. Hopefully it's taking some of the tax / insurance dodgers off the road.

Question for you Gangle - say you get hit by a driver with no insurance. Tell me you won't moan about the Police not stopping him/her from being on the road...

Chris
Fully taxed and insured

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

I really think you should adopt the method we have here, we have 3 different stickers on our number plates , 2 on the front plate and 2 on th eback plate.

you need insurance to get number plates in the first place and only the government can issue plates you can not get them from a shop.

One sticker tells the police that the vehicle is MOTd and fit to be on the road, the other sticker tells the police the vehicle is insured and taxed, you can not fail to renew your insurance as it is done automatically via direct debit. The 3rd stickers tells the police that the car has passed its emmisions test.

You can also not cancel your insurance except for 1 day a year when your allowed to.

tax is also direct debited or they send you a letter requesting payment, if you do not pay they come round and either remove the plates from the car or rip one of the stickers off the plate.

when you pay your tax you get them back.

this is not avery good explanation but I am sure you get the idea.

Gangle

Reply to Chris B.

It’s true what you say, I would have no problems if they stopped me which they have before to see if my car is stolen, and it’s taxed and legal.
This I have no problems with. I might make people think twice if they knew checks were common place.
I have been hit twice by people without insurance in my last two cars.
But one thing, it’s usually the nice cars that get pulled, and were almost always legal, It’s the ****ters they should concentrate on.

It’s the road side emissions checks that get me, it’s us that would be a ticket for having loud exhausts. IMHO- Not really hitting the problems of the road..

lmsbman

Road side emissions checks are conducted by the DOT Vehicle Inspectorate. However, they have no power to stop a moving vehicle, only the Police/Traffic wardens can do this. The VI have (like most professions) performance targets to meet. What tends to happen, is that they will organise a combined check with the local traffic department. The traffic officers will stop the cars for them. They will do the emissions tests and roadworthiness checks. The Police will do checks for documents, disqualified drivers, seatbelts etc. They will have spotter cars/bikes, who will drive around local roads looking for dodgy motors and escort them to the check sites. These checks aren't done that often, so they tend to be organised well in advance and have a big deployment of resources for them.

Felix.

How do you know a car is not roadworthy unless you stop it first??