Some really good News

[Bugsy]

The Original Muppet

 

[AnOther]

Hope he's got no plans to retire to France [:-))]

[woolybananasbrother]

He would be perfect here. When I was in Bangor they all slept in their cars.

At least if the Welsh assembly took over giving orders, there would no longer be a crime of sheep shagging. Or, to be PC, being shagged by sheep.

[woolybananasbrother]

The word "shagging" seems to be allowed then? I love software and underwear and outerwear and nowhere and .........

By the way, I saw a Tata crow today. One of the best.

[tegwini]

Yes,   Bugbear I quite agree!

Interesting that he can afford to retire earlier than most, boat and all.   Many policemen manage this  'on the sick' with a better pension than most of us.  (Doubtless someone will moan about this comment!)

We have strong feelings about speed cameras - OH got caught at 50 on a relatively empty dual carriageway, 3 points & a large fine too, more than I recently read of someone getting for GBH.    And,  in southern Wiltshire they seem to close for the night, and even at weekends.  And we rarely see them on the beat in Salisbury - or anywhere else.

Something to do with priorities ?    Or, are motorists easy game ?

Tegwini

To  Wooly - perhaps the 'censor' is still in the era of 'shag-pile' carpets ? 

[Boiling a frog]

Just jealous

[tegwini]

Yup BAF

Probably am- wish I was his age too

Regards

tegwini

[plod]

Most police officers (including retired ones like me) get fed up with the ("they retire so early on a massive pension") jibes from you. The reason we do retire earlier (after 30 years) is that our pension contributions are set at 11 per cent. We don't make the laws, neither do we prosecute anybody, including motorists. The penalty your "OH" got was presumably dispensed by a magistrate, not by a police officer. Oh and I can assure you that most police officers have not the slightest interest in traffic offences.

[Ron Avery]

Tegwini wrote "We have strong feelings about speed cameras - OH got caught at 50 on a relatively empty dual carriageway, 3 points & a large fine too, more than I recently read of someone getting for GBH".

Apart from the fact there is no fine and 3 points deducted for GBH, if your O/H got a "large fine" wasn't that because the speed he was doing was excessive for the road and a danger to the public?

[Will]

I knew him when he was a muppet. Studying for a degree in entomology.

Once he has retired, I imagine I will be free to tell some stories about him in his student days that he would probably prefer not to be aired now. [:D]

On the other hand, plod, there is a certain breed of police officer - the subject of this topic being the prime example - with a disproportionately high interest in traffic policing.

[Frederick]

Tegwini..............You are not the only one to have Police thin on the ground.....its not only Wiltshire that cant afford to recruit Police it seems ...recently when I called to report a gang of kids who were kicking off the keep- left bollards in the village our local bobby never came at all...The following day when I did see him he told me he had 49 square miles to cover.....on his own .  he just cant cope with it .

[plod]

It's a fact that patrolling police aren't very visible; but then back in 1985 when I started I was amazed how few of us there were, especially night duty, to cover a large area of SE London. We were pretty snowed under by paperwork then, but it got worse. Now the police have to record everything. In a diary one officer calculates that a simple theft of a push-bike used up 20 hours of his time - as he says, two and a half shifts. Incidentally, he also agrees with a lot of front-line officers that there are too many squads, office workers etc. When you are patrolling you want to be able to call back-up if you get into trouble. In the Met there is always plenty at hand, but imagine rural Wiltshire, a PC getting a shoeing in some village in the back of beyond might have to wait 15 minutes for assistance. But then we retire early with a large pension, boat etc.

[tegwini]

Ron

The 'excessive speed' was 50mph on a  2 lane  rural dual carriageway - hardly a 'danger to the public'!  The fine was £30, which I think is a lot- relative to fines imposed on real crooks.

What is interesting is that the amount collected in Wiltshire has increased from £453 k in 1997 to over  £3.087 million in 2006. Similar increase in Dorset where he was trapped.   Motorists are easy game in the UK & the authorities show no respect for them when they close or dig up roads, & allow pot-holes & unnecessary cones to inconvenience motorists  for months- even years. 

Roads supposedly funded by  VAT & fuel duty ??

Is this a form of highway robbery??

tegwini

[plod]

I detect the sanctimonious bleating of the middle class here for whom only the lower orders should have to have dealings with the police. If they break the law then they are responsible about it and shouldn't have to face the judicial consequences. I am reminded of those people who, despite being asked to wait for an announcement, go to the car deck on the ferry and climb into their Volvos or BMWs before it is given, because they are responsible people and it doesn't matter if they break the rules.

[Jonzjob]

I take it that the road had a 30 limit on it?

I so it doesn't matter a jot that it's empty, middle of the night or on the moon, 30 mph means a maximum speed of 30mph.

Unless I am msunderstanding something here?[8-)]

[tegwini]

No J-J

40 mph & dual carriageway outside Bournemouth-   a famous  & profitable spot for the local fuzz.   £30 fine would have been much higher had it been in a built up area and a 30 mph. 

I note another post from Plod complaining about sanctimonious people- not us Gov - no BMW etc  here.  Hope you don't ever get caught speeding- not difficult these days. 

tegwini

[plod]

My wife has, twice, and I hope I would just accept that I was going faster than I was allowed.

[Ron Avery]

"3 points & a large fine too"

£30?   £30?  Is that all?  When was this, 1962?  Its been £60 for a fixed penaly speeding ticket for donkey's years, O/H didn't elect to go before the beak and come before an old school chum or a mate from the funny handshake brigade did he[6]

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="tegwini"]

40 mph & dual carriageway outside Bournemouth-   a famous  & profitable spot for the local fuzz.  

[/quote]

So he thought he'd drive along it at 50mph?  [blink]

 

[tegwini]

No SD-

 he didn't see the sign - he one of those seriously law-abiding types- in his latter years in fact, had become a bit of a boring old f**t 

 

Ron,

Cynical, sad to say, and what a silly idea !    he's never been a member of the funny handshake crew.

tegwini

[Boiling a frog]

Hardly seriously law abiding.

He was speeding.

It is no ones fault but his that he did not notice the 40mph sign .

Perhaps he also does not know the highway code.

 

[josa]

The problem that I see in concentrating on speeding by camera enforcment and not people, is twofold -  firstly, given that there is no perceived discretion with the use of cameras then the people being punished, in their view cynically, become antogonistic and less supportive towards the Police generally, and the concept of the civil police in the UK being part of the community they serve, and work with the consent of that community is eroded, to everyones disadvantage. People usually do not hold "grudges" except when a feeling of unfairness exists, and there are too many examples of unfairness in the use of such techniques.

Secondly, where the concentration is on speeding enforcement by way of such cameras, to the detriment of "real" traffic policing, the result is that fewer dangerous but non-speeding drivers are not caught and deterred, and in fact the roads actually get no safer in the long term, again to everyones detriment.

By way of example, my wife was driving us from the Dover Ferry a couple of months ago - we came up the A2 about 8.00pm with a speed limit of 70MPH. We saw advance warnings signs showing "50MPH through Road Works" - no problem. As we continued we did see cones etc, all pulled well over up the embankment at the side of the road as the road works were closed down - no-one working and no limit or hazard on the carriageway - ie no road works!!. Everything removed from the road..............except the cameras - she was going at 62 MPH and so received a fine and points - paid up with no argument as she accepted the punishment.

The next day I was riding my Motorbike to work, when a car (with child going to school) just pulled straight from a side road on the right, and across my path, nearly totalling me!! The car then continued in front of of me, with the driver throwing banana skins out of the window, failing to negotiate a clear road by drifting over the white line several times causing an oncoming bus to swerve and brake, and finally failing to negotiate a left turn without having to stop and reverse back into the busy main road and more oncoming traffic. This lady could easily have caused a number of accidents (not least to me) and clearly could not control safely the vehicle she was in, but no police was there to see it - we did however go past two safety cameras!

I am not excusing my wife and nor is she feeling hard done by, but the two incidents do seem to show there needs to be some balance involved, with common sense applied more and with less reliance on machines - more police doing the job, not camera watching.   

Of course, if they were concentrating on stopping kids knifing and shooting each other I could accept their choice of priorities............................... 

[Sunday Driver]

Perhaps we do need to re-evaluate the balance of enforcement.

Everyone seems to agree that there should be more police traffic patrols available to enforce non-speed related bad driving.  On the other hand, common sense dictates that it is more cost effective to deal with speed offences by way of automatic cameras rather than by 'expensive' people. 

So, why not just treble the number of automatic speed cameras to generate additional fines income, then allocate part of that income directly to the police, thereby allowing them to refocus their enforcement priorities.

That way, speeding would no longer be a police priority and because their fines were being used to fund something that they actually wanted, people wouldn't need to become antagonistic and less supportive towards the police.

Unless they themselves get nicked for talking on their mobile....[;-)]

 

 

 

 

[Keni]

My OH has just been fined and got 3 points for jumping a red light - he could not see the lights as his view was impeded by the big artic in front, so when it started off, he followed.

They were behind him and said he has jumped a red light - but they did not stop the lorry!

They knew he could not see the light and just followed the truck. Ok, as he says if he jumped it, he was wrong, but why stop him and not go for the truck?

[Keni]

The OH says if he had seen it was red he would have just stayed put, but in Worcester where he was, there are two low bridges by the lights coming up to Shrub Hill Station on a funny bend and he is adament the light was not red when he passed it. But, you don't argue with the law round here, nearly as bad a Manchester.