Police speeding figures

Originally Posted by Baph

but the day I do, I reckon I'll get arrested under section 5 of the public order act

I know what you mean! And if i ever get done for undertaking a string of slow cars in the outside lane that same will happen. "IF there was room for me to undertake there was room for them to pull over"

i think this has mostly been covered off by a colleague, however, just to add that there are things called logs, these are the calls for the day and there are records of them, it you go through a gatso and know it you tell comms, and they add a tag so that it is easer to see which logs gasos were set off on. However if you can say i was responding to this log and this is why i went through a red light or sped, as long as the action was proportional and justifiable no problems.

lik already said, the things the police respond to are wide and many dangerous or very urgent, and it is imperative we get there quickly. who polices us, our supervisors, who polices them, their supervisors till the law gets involved. We have extra training etc which doesn't make us infallible and of course we must always consider our actions but that and the bright car with lights and siren if need be allow us to go faster.

Just remember these guys often put themselves in danger to protect others and do often noble and thankless tasks. torching them over doing their job aint the way to go. I know its natural to not like police, no one likes authority powers but try to see it from the other side, without the police society would be an absolute mess and far more dangerous than the odd cop car speeding to urgent jobs.

cheers and flame away

Andy

Originally Posted by silent

i think this has mostly been covered off by a colleague, however, just to add that there are things called logs, these are the calls for the day and there are records of them, it you go through a gatso and know it you tell comms, and they add a tag so that it is easer to see which logs gasos were set off on. However if you can say i was responding to this log and this is why i went through a red light or sped, as long as the action was proportional and justifiable no problems.

lik already said, the things the police respond to are wide and many dangerous or very urgent, and it is imperative we get there quickly. who polices us, our supervisors, who polices them, their supervisors till the law gets involved. We have extra training etc which doesn't make us infallible and of course we must always consider our actions but that and the bright car with lights and siren if need be allow us to go faster.

Just remember these guys often put themselves in danger to protect others and do often noble and thankless tasks. torching them over doing their job aint the way to go. I know its natural to not like police, no one likes authority powers but try to see it from the other side, without the police society would be an absolute mess and far more dangerous than the odd cop car speeding to urgent jobs.

cheers and flame away

Andy

No flaming, but you like your colleague haven't read the thread properly.

The majority of these speeding offenses occured when there was no incident to be attended, no blue flashy lights, no sirens. They should delt with no differently to the general public (indeed they should be setting an example). This doesn't mean I'm in favour of these policemen getting tickets, but that's because I'm not keen on being hounded like a criminal for exceeding the speed limit myself.

Anyway, the point is, give everyone (including police not attending an emergency) tickets and steal their money or dont. As it is the police are getting away with breaking the law - one which the government/police are particularly keen on clamping down on. This is grossly unjust.

I'm not one to normally defend the 5-0 but I guess for the purposes of balance it's worth pointing out there are instances in which the feds would want to go on an emergency call but not have sirens and flashy lights running, eg. at night you can see flashy lights far off, you don't want to be running them if sneaking up on scrotes mid way through a burglary. Or "if I hear a siren the hostage gets it".

As I understand teh Law, flashy blue lights & sirens are not required to speed / run red lights, an emergency is. The flashy blue lights & sirens are only to warn other road users.

Fully agree with the principle of the post tho Squirrel - if just patrolling around then they should follow the same laws as the rest of us.

nope i have not read the threat properly, for that my bad.

however just out of interest how doo you know that there is no incident to attend. I wasn't aware that our logs were open for public consumption, as they hold sensitive information. only from them can we tell what jobs we have to get to etc.

also remember when one unit goes another may make their way to backup just in case, that isn't always mentioned to comms.

as you say if they are just driving around then yes they should be dealt with the same as any other person, but in my experience there is very little down time in any city station to allow coppers to do this, they are normally responding in some way to some thing.

Originally Posted by silent

Just remember these guys often put themselves in danger to protect others and do often noble and thankless tasks. torching them over doing their job aint the way to go. I know its natural to not like police, no one likes authority powers but try to see it from the other side, without the police society would be an absolute mess and far more dangerous than the odd cop car speeding to urgent jobs.

Did you read my post? I'm told that I have a distinct problem with authority, and my post reflects yours quite accurately

Originally Posted by MiniMatt

if just patrolling around then they should follow the same laws as the rest of us.

+1

Originally Posted by silent

however just out of interest how doo you know that there is no incident to attend. I wasn't aware that our logs were open for public consumption, as they hold sensitive information. only from them can we tell what jobs we have to get to etc.

My opinion is based on the few conversations with emergency services drivers (like I said, not all were coppers) of a long period of time. I've been told to my face (naturally off the record) that they sometimes use the lights/siren just to get back to base to finish their shift on time. That's seriously out of order, and I don't think they liked my response at the time.

Originally Posted by silent

as you say if they are just driving around then yes they should be dealt with the same as any other person, but in my experience there is very little down time in any city station to allow coppers to do this, they are normally responding in some way to some thing.

+1. Although in a more rural setting, such as I am, there's far more time to generally just patrol.

Like I said, if you're on a call, fine. I couldn't give a monkeys about logs etc, if you're on a call, you do whatever it takes to get where you're going safely but quickly. At all other times, you should be classed as a member of the public driving a high powered car with fancy paintwork & aftermarket lights IMO.

Originally Posted by silent

nope i have not read the threat properly, for that my bad.

however just out of interest how doo you know that there is no incident to attend. I wasn't aware that our logs were open for public consumption, as they hold sensitive information. only from them can we tell what jobs we have to get to etc.

also remember when one unit goes another may make their way to backup just in case, that isn't always mentioned to comms.

as you say if they are just driving around then yes they should be dealt with the same as any other person, but in my experience there is very little down time in any city station to allow coppers to do this, they are normally responding in some way to some thing.

Well I don't know about anyone else, but if you expect me to believe that 75% of the time when coppers are caught speeding that they are attending an emergency call with no lights or siren, well, forgive me for remaining unconvinced.

That said, public opinion can often be well off the mark, so if you have any ideas why the above may be the case I'd be interested.

This is not 75% of non emergency calls whilst in police cars, this is 75% of all police caught.
If the police are speeding without blues and twos because its safe to do so, then they can get off my case when my bike takes up a fraction of what a car does on the road (i can't believe buses can do 30mph in town for example!). And my visibility is a hell of a lot better than out of car windows.
As a group of society, most bikers (bar some of the poweranger tools) try endlessly to get on with police, to work with them. So this isn't your usual police-bashing you get everywhere else. However when they're telling you you're a killer for riding above the limit, and they can do what they want its bull****. Remember that case of the copper doing 165mph to 'test the capabilities'. Whether he is trained or not he is not superman, on a bike your awareness and concentration probably exceeds that of a 'trained' traffic officer anyway. If I even slammed on the brakes to 'test the capabilities' I'd be done for that too. It's not right, and as per usual nothing will be done about it.

Baph said "My opinion is based on the few conversations with emergency services drivers (like I said, not all were coppers) of a long period of time. I've been told to my face (naturally off the record) that they sometimes use the lights/siren just to get back to base to finish their shift on time. That's seriously out of order, and I don't think they liked my response at the time."


Sorry mate but will have to disagree with you there. I take it by emergency service drivers you mean ambulance service? I've been ambulance paramedic for 15 years and have never heard of people using the blues to get back to station for shift finish. It just wouldn't be worth it. If you get gasto'd the pic gets sent to ambulance service. Its up to the service to prove that you were on a 999 job at the time and therefore exempt from certain road traffic acts, so if the vehicle reg doesn't match up to call log time then the driver gets its, not only from police/dlva points but also from the service which runs its own mickey mouse courts. Same would apply if using your blues and you had a bump, imagine trying to explain that one, that you had blues on and was tanking it but not on a job. It really wouldn't be worth the risk of losing your job.

[Biker Biggles]

Yes I thought that.
Someones been winding you up with stories of blueing it around for the sheer hell of it.Truth is all emergency vehicles have satnav and trackers fitted,and many have a black box system as well.
What this is really all about as I read it is the Police covering up (or treating with common sense?)minor speeding infringements by drivers just going from A to B like any other employee.Of course it's wrong and gives them preferential treatment but what it also shows is that even the Police have contempt for the law in this area,and bad law needs changing.