Taking my daughter to the riding stables tonight, we decided to take the scenic route. A lovely leafy road going down to Chester le Street and the big roundabout that would take us onto the Motorway.
Halfway down this lane, out pops Mr Plod with his camera. Pointing it straight at us. Luckily I was doing slightly less than the required 30. Got my daughter to look at the speedo too and yes, less than 30. The road is very twisty and turny.
When we drove past where Mr Plod was, there was 5 of them in this little secluded area Must have been taking turns to check everyone. 3 of them were chinwagging and the other 1 looked like he was having a cuppa. 5 cars there, parked up.
Bear in mind, this is not a busy road and as far as I am aware has never had an accident on it. Smacks of desperation to get more money out of the motorist at any cost. Must be lovely to spend a working day like that

 

The answer is in the title - obviously they haven't.
Sack the lot of them and stick a camera there methinks.

 

cster, if they put a camera there it would be a cash cow. Nothing to do with safety.
I wonder why they did not bother sitting near the roundabout to the Motorway, they would have got a great near miss by an *** in a BMW. Nearly took out some poor motorcyclist

 

Is that past what was once a safari park, near Penshaw monument?

 

No I came the other way. I went past that after I dropped her off
The "was" safari park is now the stables where she has her horse. Lord Lambtons land

 

Yikes, that's a bit close for comfort! The GF lives in Pelton!

 

Does she!!!!!! You'll have to call in for a cuppa next time you are up.
Make sure you take a different route though, Mr Plod may be having a picnic again

 

We saw the aftermath of an accident just by the A1 roundabout a few weeks ago, A vectra ended up on the triangle island bit somehow! In fact I think the GF got bumped in to on there too! Will deffo take more care next time!

 

The day after I passed my driving test I hit a pheasant on that road along by the Lion park, it made a right mess.

You used to be able to get a beast of a mixed grill in that Bourmour cricket club further along the road from it.

 

Its ok, there is a very probable answer.
If there are a group of officers on a speed check site then it will be training, either officers that are still in there basic training or officers being trained to use the speed guns on there own in the future.
They have to practice somewhere.

 

Watch it, a sensible reason for plod doing their job will only get slated round here

 

There should have been a notice saying "practicing plod"

Joking aside, thanks for that. Would make sense now

 

Lee send them a nice letter telling them to vacate here as we have none and i am always breaking the ***** on my mountain bike

 

That's too sensible an answer for me to believe

This is how we do it in Notts....

Get a speed gun/camera van.
Pay to train civilians to use both of the above and employ them to only do that job instead of employing cops who can do various roles.

Don't bother calibrating the speed gun.

Train a load of cops. But not on speed guns/camera vans.

Who says Notts is a failing force farce?

 

Reminds me of the coppers in "Last of the Summer Wine" They always make me laugh.

Have you noticed they usually come out with the speedcams in the nice weather?

Les

 

Well i think they do a very difficult job and i would never want to do it....
Easy to slag them off but its all red tape and political correct ness ...
Could any of you lot do it ? Or want to?

 

Well i think they do a very difficult job and i would never want to do it....
Easy to slag them off but its all red tape and political correct ness ...
Could any of you lot do it ? Or want to?

 

Don't recall slagging them off

I did think 5 Plods on a quiet safe road was extreme, but Tim has explained

 

That, and a number of other reasons, is why I call my Traffic colleagues velcro *****.

Plus, there's the old story about a good cop never gets wet

 

LOL love that thanks

 

If i had a cow,it would have to be a cash cow,much better than them milking cows..

 

I do do it.

But I prefer to put some effort in to it.

This morning I got an uninsured driver, simply by planning my patrols to cover the area where he lives.

Checked his car out as I followed it. Confirmed to be uninsured and without MOT. Gave the guy a chance - and he dug himself a big hole.

I then phoned the insurance bureau, who check policies there and then, as PNC can sometimes be a few minutes out.

Contemporaneous note interview in the back of my panda, then Rustproof (confiscate) his car. Job done.

In the morning, I'll be plotting up on a drink-driver who I know will be picking his baby up from nursery. I've got the info I need that has led me to know where he'll be, what vehicles he could be in, where his baby goes to nursery etc.

As for using speed guns - it's not exactly challenging policing.

No messing about with speed guns.

Maybe they should go out on response!

 

People who drive uninsured or under the influence deserve to get caught and to get hammered for it. Glad to see you are doing something positive about it.

Les

 

Imagine that. They will be eating food next.

 

How dare they

 

B4stards!

 

Like that one!

Go on then-whats the story?

Les

 

Yesterday I caught an uninsured driver who does not even have a provisional licence picking up two very young children from nursery.

She clearly has never had a driving lesson or licence as she overtook a guy on a ride-on lawn mower who was over taking a parked car at the time! She was on the opposite side of the carriageway travelling head-on at another car. Luckily he performed an emergency stop and avoided her.

 

Thats incredible. Do people just ignore the law now and take a risk of getting away with it?

I think its a sign of more speedcams and less traffic cops who are the only ones who pick up that sort of dangerous behaviour. Goes for not MOT'd dangerous cars as well!

Les

 

I'm thinking someone reported her to the police for being an obvious danger. Unfortunately, there are many others out there, at least without insurance, who are not an obvious threat. So the conversations that may have lead to this woman being reported are less likely to happen.

It'd be interesting to know how, for driving offences at least, how much the police rely on "information received".

J.