Safe Speed Forums

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Sad thing is that the old RTTM anomaly would probably mean the tories wouldn't have to remove a single camera.

Anyway, how does all this add up for Scamera vans and pigs hiding in the bushes. Give me a gatso anyday over either of the former. For a while I was convinced we need more coppers on the roads instead of PC gatso; but not after my encounter with an ignorant pig at the roadside.

You can deal with an ingnorant pig though. You have trouble fighting against computers and crap policy!

How? What did I do wrong?

I was polite courteous, and did everything by the book, without being groveling and the wanker still stung me for points and a tax.

I dont think theres any way to DEAL with these pigs, just hope you get one on a good day.

Admitadly, if they have done you with a hand-held device then you could be screwed. I hope these will ultimately be subject to the same scrutiny as all saftey camera locations.

On the note of dealing with ignorant pigs though, it's getting to the point where you have to know as much if not more about their job so you don't feel intimidated and pressured if you're stopped! A friend and I have gone through the stages of being polite and civil with officers, even when they are rude and using bully tactics with us. But this incident happened just last night!!!

One of my friends was driving his Audi TT along a 60 limit back road in our area on his way home. It was about 20:00 at night; conditions were clear and dry. As he came round a long easy corner at about 55-60 in 3rd gear, he saw a copper come into view. The copper was stood in the road waving him down. There was also a patrol car, a van and a number of police dogs and handlers milling around the side of the road. He stopped and put his window down I'll paraphrase the conversation [PC=Copper,F=Friend]:

PC: "It's driving like that that gets people killed!"
F: "Excuse me?"
PC: "You were driving well over 60 along that stretch of road. You were horsing it round that corner"
F: "No I wasn't; I was doing 60"
PC: "Do you want me to take it further?"

Now, baring in mind this officer was not operating a safety camera site, he was stood in the road at dusk, wasn't wearing a high-vis jacket/waistcoat and didn't have any sinage up notifying motorists of the obstruction. My friend replied with the following:

F: "How are you going to take it further? Your estimate of my speed is purely guess-work. You haven't taken a speed measurement with any device and therefore have, effectively, no grounds to flag me down. So do you want me to take it further? You're operating a roadside stop when you're not wearing appropriate safety equipment, you're operating it just around a bend with no signs to warn drivers and operating dangerously in the middle of the road - all of which contravene ACPO guidleines. So unless you want me to take it further, I suggest you let me go about my business and you get on with your job!"

Having delivered his lecture the officer was dumbfounded and went bright red. He didn't make any reply so my friend drove off.

Some might say he was a little harsh with the officer. But this is not the first time he or I have been stopped for such an issue. He's has previously been stopped in a Smart car because it "Sounded too loud". That car was un-modified (he isn't a charver!).

You could get nailed by the officer if you get him on a bad day if you back chat like this. But remember, they have to abide by the rules too!

This is, again, an example of how to further damage the already tattered relationship between police and the public.

Most plods I've spoken to have been okay, fairly normal, ordinary guys and gals doing a difficult job. But there's thousands of police so it's inevitable that a number of 'em are officious little turds who only joined up for the ablilty to make other people's lives that little bit more difficult. Got pulled by one of these in Surrey once for absolutely no reason. On the way to work, had plenty of time so I wasn't hacking it, spotted him coming down the slip road, checked speed was legal, fine. Pulled over to lane 2 to let him in and the donut slowed down. 'Please yourself' I thought and pulled back in after the slip road, making damn sure he was a decent distance behind. Then I saw his blue lights come on. Okay, I pull over, but I know I haven't done anything wrong. Clearly this particular plod climbed out from under his stone on the wrong side. Conversation went a bit like this:

Plod: "Do you know why I've stopped you, sir?"
Gatsobait: "Nope."
Plod: "As you passed me I noticed that you don't have a tax disc."
Gatsobait, starting to detect the faint aroma of bullshit: "Er, yes I have, it's just there stuck to the windscreen."
Plod, checking tax disc: "Ah, yes. Must have been just out of view from where I was. Well, since we're here we may as well check the rest of the car."
Gatsobait, overwhelmed by the smell of bovine dysentery: "Be my guest. I've got acres of time before I need to be at work."
Plod checks tyres, lights, yadda yadda yadda, gives me a producer since I don't keep V5 or insurance docs in the car, and leaves looking less than gruntled after finding absolutely nothing he can do me for. I continue on to work thinking what an arsehole he was.

I have to say again that this is the only example of a plankplod that I've come across. I've met more than a dozen others (not all traffic and not all by getting tugged ) who've all been perfectly reasonable. Okay, dealing with the one on the A3 I was pretty anti-police for a while, but gradually I cooled down and realized that he was probably not representative of all police officers. For all I know his colleagues might have thought he was an areshole as well. The same applies to the ones you've had to deal with. There's people like them in most jobs. Binmen who won't empty your rubbish unless you put the bin in exactly the right place; shop managers who won't refund on your TV as it's five seconds out of warranty, even if it exploded and set fire to the cat; taxmen who send out demands for 1p less than the price of the postage on the envelope; and worst of all, the little bastard who drones on for an hour and a half about trivial little details at the end of a meeting because he suffers from the delusion that the boss will be impressed when the boss is as bored as the rest of us.

Deep breath.... Er, sorry about the rant. I just wanted to say that not all coppers are irritating jobsworths, but I kind of lost the thread a bit there.

_________________
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler - Einstein

My job see me working with plod, in trying to convict drink drivers, so I did have a reasonable respect for them.

This incident has dented it severely, as I cant see it getting any better, and all my enjoyment of the roads has been criminalised.

I love the twisties on my bike, but the authorities round here dont think people can be trusted to go round corners at more than 40

I'm now paranoid at getting stung for silly misdemeanours that ultimately threaten my licence.

Its all shite

I have to agree, not all coppers are bad.

My friend in the post above had a set of alloys nicked off his car right outside his house only a few months back. When he was talking to the forrensics team that showed to check his car, even they were slanging the Traffic unit.

There are many police officers out there who don't like the current Road Safety strategy or traffic cops either!

Ooops!

I know the feeling and worst thing is living in brumstonium land makes it even worse... now they've started with the reduction of speed limits everywhere so looks like things are going to get worse

And driving used to be so much fun!