hedgehog

24 hours worth of motorist persecution **** ups from just one news source:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/a...A00?version=1#

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/l...8379?version=1

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/l...8394?version=1

Jap2Scrap

WTF is going on?

NCP have always been highwaymen but you don't expect stories like this day after day.

hedgehog

I would say I see at least 10 - 15 similar stories per week, they are so common now I don't even keep a record of them. Some only involve one individual, others involve literally thousands such as the Folly Bottom incident.

Then I see stories like this and consider that something, somewhere, is pretty rotten:

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/di...sNodeId=124522

Fifty-nine Derbyshire police cars were caught speeding by cameras - apparently without showing a blue light last year.

But in every single case the force decided not to prosecute.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Evening Telegraph has learned 59 marked police cars were sent notices of intended prosecution in 2004, after they were photographed speeding but apparently not showing an emergency blue light.

Any emergency vehicle is allowed to speed past the cameras if they are showing a blue light.

After the officers' own divisional commanders and the head of the force's criminal justice department looked at the incidents the 59 cars were attending, they decided none of them should be prosecuted.

Royston Smith, head of Derbyshire police's criminal justice unit, said: "Every case accepted the vehicle being used was for operational police purposes in circumstances where it was necessary for the speed limit to be exceeded in the course of their duties."

Or even the following from Paul Smith:

PR198: Reaction to another acquitted high speed cop

News: For immediate release

Safe Speed has learned from Johanna Burch, court reporter with the Derby Telegraph, that another Police officer has been acquitted following accusations of driving at very high speed in an urban area.

The case again raises the issue of an extraordinary and unacceptable double standard.

Paul Smith, founder of the Safe Speed road safety campaign
(www.safespeed.org.uk) said: "The public anger expressed over last week's case (where PC Milton was acquitted following his 159mph jaunt) was astonishing and frightening. This week we're going to see much more of the same. It's another nail in the coffin of the once great Police / public relationship."

"The underlying problem here is that the Police are responsible for enforcing the speed limit laws against the public with excessive zeal and insufficient intelligence. The vast majority of the 10,000 speeding tickets issued each day go to responsible motorists who know that they were driving safely at the time. It's not surprising that resentment is building up. The root of the evil is speed cameras. They stand by the roadside threatening the livelihood of responsible members of society, they make the roads more dangerous and they seriously undermine vital public confidence in the Police and the judicial process."