Safe Speed Forums

After something I saw today, I'd be very interested to hear peoples views on unmarked police cars. Most of us here are anti camera, in favour of getting police on the roads instead, but are these particular guys a blessing or a curse?

I don't see this having been discussed anywhere yet. I'm reserving my judgement until I've thought about it some more and heard some of the pros and cons.

Where's your stance on this Paul?

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Unmarked cars are fine, brilliant even, so long as they NEVER simply function as hidden speed cameras.

Unmarked car operators should be on the look out for bad driving in all its true forms.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

All policemen go off-duty and know what goes on in normal traffic. The only purposes of unmarked traffic cars must be:

- to catch the occasional "nutter".
- to collect data on driving standards and traffic (speeds?)

They are not required to allow the police see the appalling standards of driving - they know this.

If police on the roads act as a deterrent to breaking laws then they must be clearly visible. If not, then people will complain about not seeing road policing vehicles and the deterrent effect is lost.

Unmarked cars should not be used by the police in the same way as mobile cameras. For example, "We are hiding just round the corner to catch you."

This would be a far worse distraction as, instead of the road, you would watch for the reflective jackets in each Volvo you see in front.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

Interesting, and I agree with you but therein lies my concern: I think catching speeders are exactly what they are more likely to do.

Maybe even goad someone into speeding excessively and pull them over?

Before anyone says it, I know a good driver woudn't be goaded - or would he?

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I had an unmarked peugeot 406 v6 try and goad me into speeding up one night out in the sticks.
Id just passed an anpr setup, went round the corner and accelerated over the limit to put some distance between me and them, (they didnt see me go tho) after which i slowed down as i saw the lights approaching from the rear.
He then proceeded to tailgate me ( i couldnt even see his lights he was that close) and tried to get me to speed up.
I didnt and after a few moments he put his blues on behind the grill, as i pulled into a layby where about 50 coppers were all having a doughnut break.
Pathetic attempt to get a nick just cos his anpr didnt work on my stealthy plate and a pointless bit of stupid driving.

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"Safety" Scamera Partnerships;
Profitting from death and misery since 1993.

Believe nothing- Question everything.

A long time ago I was on my motorbike in the pi$$ing down rain. I was on the M5 when a car drove right up behind me about 3 feet off my tail - no exaggeration!

I thought it was some maniac so I sped up and got off at the next services, less than a mile away. You can guess the rest.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

I can't help but think of some of the video clips from unmarked cars on Police Camera Action. You know, the ones where the police follow a driver for speeding, tailgating, weaving from lane to lane, and then -- before they have switched on lights and siren to identify themselves as a police car -- proceed to do exactly the same things themselves to keep up. Hmmm...... Pot & kettle?

They tried it on with me in a marked car once!
As I had my cruise control set to 68-69 I didn't worry about passing mr. police man but he pulled out after I passed and tried it on. I ignored him and left the cruise control on and eventually he gave up, I pulled in to lane one and he overtook just after entering the 50mph speed limit which I slowed down for and he didn't! I don't think he liked it that I managed to get past him in lane one as he was queueing in lane two for a roundabout...

I would say that it shouldn't matter if they are marked or not. If the law isn't wrong then nobody would matter. But the law is wrong. Get rid of all technical offences and it wouldn't matter.

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Andrew.

They are easily spottable though.

IG's probably the best person to answer on this .. but generally he of the sort who say they have to have good reason to "clobber" someone.

These days - perhaps the in-car video would prove whether "goaded" or not.


Surely

Though my sister Jazz tells me an unmarked tailgated her a couple of years ago. She was in L1 on M6 and pulled in at the services. She noted her tailgater followed her and parked up with the marked police cars .. and the uniformed BiB inside this car then went to the loo. She was not impressed. (Jazz does enjoy a spirited drive She's the "Hammond" to Ju'Ju's "May" style of driving (They do read this site ) But she says this person speeded up.. held back and then accelerated hard again to be an inch from her rear bumper.

She did complain officially as I recall as she had her kids with her. They were actually coming to visit me and I do recall she was pale and uncharacteristically wound up when she arrived. Her complaint got the usual computer generated letter .. until IG made a couple of phone calls and she then received a letter of apology and a pledge to look into the matter. She heard nothing further - and I can only trust IG when he says an internal investigation would have awarded the officer a "stand up interview without coffee/tea or doughnuts and an official reprimand on his cv which would blot his promotion chances for a while"

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I was a victim of that one back in 2001.

It was on the A50, middle of the day, sunny, dry, good conditions. I'd gotten off a basically stationary M6 half an hour earlier, I'd now gotten past stoke and all the other bits of the A50 where people actually live. So we have a 2 lane DC, NSL, HGVs in L1, I'm in L2 and this in an R reg Cavalier is driving right up behind me, backing off, driving right up behind me again.

Eventually I get annoyed with this and plant my right foot (yeah, I know I shouldn't do this. This was back in 2001 remember), once I get above 90mph on come the blue lights on the front of the Cavalier and I'm 60 quid poorer.

Cor at least speed cameras don't tailgate you to make you go faster.

i agree with Paul. they are ok as long as they are doing their job properly

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

tailgating has the opposite effect on me. i slow down to piss them off

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

haha I actually agree with you for once!!! but that's hardly a selling point for cameras i'm afraid "They're not as sinister as dodgy cops!"


Anyone seen "Road Wars" on Sky Three? It follows a few undercover cops. They seem to spend the entire program catching people with dodgy plates, those with kids not seatbelted up, tailgater, lane hogs AND sometimes people speeding

Does anyone else feel that the multiple reports in this thread (from the very small number of readers/users) of police goading motorists indicates that this abuse is much more widespread that you might think?

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

They are also useful to catch the 'incautious' groups who may, for example, overtake carelessly, but not when there's a marked car around.

The problem with marked cars is that they change the behaviours of quite large groups. This may mask risky behaviours from the normal possibility of worthwhile prosecution.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

It is a worry, I agree.

But there are some strong biases in this sort of reporting.

- Such an event, 20 years ago, will stick in the mind and keep coming up.
- People subject to such an event are very likely to post it up.

For the record, I've never been 'goaded' by a Police driver.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

This is what I now do.. "I need a larger stopping distance in front of me because of the guy behind" as opposed to "I need the guy behind to be further away"

Then I leave them for dead at the next roundabout, without breaking a speed limit.

I don't seem to see as many unmarked cars as I used to, meaning either (a) there aren't as many, or (b) my powers of observation are diminishing....

Be careful, such behaviour could be viewed as competitive (aggressive) or racing (unauthorised 'trial of speed' on a public highway) which is an offence.