Hi! We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
But as we’re losing ad-revenue from this then why not make a donation towards website running costs?. Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
Joined: Feb 07, 2006 Posts: 616 Location: Midlothian
Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:03 am Post subject:
theripper wrote:
999tommo
Sorry to go off topic for a moment
Could you answer a question for me(hyperthetical)
If I am following a police car that is not on an emergency but exceeding the speed limit can he stop me and do me for speeding
theripper
Well that all depends. If he has blues and twos, then probably not, however he could get someone else to book you, having videoed you. We do have rear facing cameras too.
If he was speeding but not horrendously so, he may be making ground as a secondary resource as I said earlier. You can bet your bottom dollar, if he gets cancelled en route, he'll have you.
Be a dork and try it out. See what happens. _________________ Tommo...
Joined: Feb 07, 2006 Posts: 616 Location: Midlothian
Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 1:19 am Post subject:
theripper wrote:
DennisN
Imagine this
You are driving along a dual carriageway catching up with a slower vehicle, you check your mirrors and see a police volvo in the outside lane with no blue lights on, he overtakes you, you then pull out behind him to overtake the slower vehicle and in so doing you keep pace with the police car who for example is doing 65-70 in a 60 limit.
Can he stop you for speeding behind him? Because I always thought that they had to follow you for a set distance.
theripper
We do have a thing called V.A.S.C.A.R. fitted to most vehicles. This is a glorified stopwatch system measuring a target vehicles time over a measured distance, therefore working out average speed, pretty much like a S.P.E.C.S camera does. It may be that he has been watching you for longer than you have noticed him. He can overtake you during the check too. V.A.S.C.A.R. is not detectable by radar or camera detectors either and the minimum check distance is only .125 of a mile (1/8 mile).
As others are saying it's all hypothetical. If you don't mind risking points or worse, try it out.
We are way off topic now anyway and it's past my bedtime. _________________ Tommo...
Joined: Mar 01, 2006 Posts: 12 Location: Midlands, UK
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:19 pm Post subject:
(Edited due to typo's)
Police let off with speeding tickets.
I've seen various posts on this recently over the past few months or so on this and other forums and I felt it was about time I said my small part regarding it.
For the last 9 years I've been a Special Constable, (Yes, you can call me what you like, a hobby bobby, rent-a-cop, wannabe, I don't mind, I get drunken people saying much worse to me than anyone could say in a thread on a forum).
During those 9 years I've worked the majority of it on 999 Response vehicles and with the Road Policing Unit responding to the daily calls that are made via 999 etc etc and, although only a special I can do pretty much all aspects of the paperwork as good as my regular colleague's do.
In this day and age with police resources being stretched more than ever I really do find it amazing that people feel the need to complain about police vehicles being let off for speeding through Gatso's and their equivalents.
Ambulance and Fire Service also get let off with speeding too if they have their blue lights on and responding to an "immediate" job, nothing is ever mentioned of that in the news though, how come?
In all the time I've been working as a Special (and I roughly work around 16 - 20 hours per week(on top of my 9-5 job)) I have never once seen a police car speed through a Gatso whilst not responding to a job. Unless the blue lights to your vehicle are activated, the traffic laws apply to police as well as everyone else does.
If your house was being burgled at 02:00 and we drove casually around the street to your house and slowed down to go past the 5 or 6 Gatso's that are often en-route to your house then I doubt you'd be best pleased about it.
On another note, I don't think that police officers should be allowed to be doing 150Mph (approx) down a motorway for the purpose of testing a police car, and keeping his driving skills up-to-scratch. I have two bikes which are capable of over 180Mph which are road legal bikes that I use for track days, I know what would happen to my license if I said to the Magistrate "I was testing my riding skills"
It might sound like I'm simply defending the people I work closely with, but really thats not the way it is. What I am defending is the things they are willing to put on the line to help get to you in times of need, it would be much easier for police to simply slow down while on a blue light run through the cameras than it would be to deal with the NIP's that the officers get served with (and yes, they do get NIP's), and I have seen a lot of police slow down while responding to immediate jobs, simply because of the back lash that can come from setting a Gatso off.
(And I say they because I'm not a police driver)
Also, while I'm on the subject of Blue lights, I'll try and clarify why officers sometimes come whizzing past you with their blue lights on then turn them off shorty after..
If there is some sort of disorder taking place, often is the case that more than one car will be dispatched to that job (Providing officers are not committed with some guy in front office complaining about police drivers that is). When the first car arrives, they will usually give a status update and if the disorder has stopped, or the offenders have made off, the job will then usually be downgraded from immediate to early response. Early response jobs do not permit the use of blue lights to get to them, so the officers will then deactivate the blue lights. And you don't have to tell us it looks bad, you should try making progress through a long life of traffic on a dual carriageway and be canceled when you're half way through it, .
Sorry if I've repeated anything that tommo has already covered.
Joined: Feb 07, 2006 Posts: 616 Location: Midlothian
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 12:06 pm Post subject:
Coelacanth wrote:
Unless the blue lights to your vehicle are activated, the traffic laws apply to police as well as everyone else does.
Technically correct. I don't know about your force, but we can respond in a moderate hurry but not with blues and twos (which can obviously spook criminals and make them scarper before you arrive) so we have the option of recording on the job we are allocated to that we have activated a camera. If an NIP comes in, we can trace the job that the car was responding to at the time and providing the camera activation is logged, there is no risk of prosecution.
Coelacanth wrote:
On another note, I don't think that police officers should be allowed to be doing 150Mph (approx) down a motorway for the purpose of testing a police car, and keeping his driving skills up-to-scratch.
Sorry, but I disagree. Advanced drivers are trained to drive at exceptionally high speeds. On the open roads, for the purposes of testing, training or honing skills, I see no problem with using the skills you have and driving at these speeds. I don't however think these skills should be used in built up areas, unless responding to genuine calls. _________________ Tommo...
Joined: Jan 04, 2007 Posts: 2789 Location: Hampshire, UK
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:33 pm Post subject:
I agree with Tommo - if police drivers can't test their cars and high speed driving skills on a motorway or dual carriageway then where and when can this be done?
Would we like police drivers to be driving at 150+mph responding to an emergency if they haven't been trained at that speed or been given an opportunity to drive that car at that speed?
I know of one stretch of dual carriageway which is regularly used to hone police drivers' high speed skills - BUT this is generally done in the early hours of the morning when there are fewer other road users about _________________ Andy
PocketGPSWorld.com supports Help for Heroes - Read here
Joined: 24/06/2003 00:22:12 Posts: 2946 Location: Escaped to the Antipodies! 36.83°S 174.75°E
Posted: Fri Sep 14, 2007 8:35 pm Post subject:
999tommo wrote:
Advanced drivers are trained to drive at exceptionally high speeds. On the open roads, for the purposes of testing, training or honing skills, I see no problem with using the skills you have and driving at these speeds.
Perhaps that's your opinion, but I think it's nonsense. There isn't any skill in maxing out your vehicle, anyone with enough horsepower can do that. By all means, practice your driving, but do it on a race track under proper supervision, not on public roads.
I don't care who you are, no one has the "skills" to safely drive at 150 MPH on public roads, full stop. What if a tyre blows out or some idiot in a Nissan Micra pulls out into your lane at this speed. It doesn't matter how good you are, you, and possibly other people are dead.
Indeed, I don't understand how could a police officer consider that they could go out on an unofficially sanctioned practice run (a "jolly" to the rest of us) and expect to get away with driving in a manner that would quite likely warrant a jail sentence for anyone else?
GPS_fan wrote:
Would we like police drivers to be driving at 150+mph responding to an emergency if they haven't been trained at that speed or been given an opportunity to drive that car at that speed?
I struggle to think of an incident so serious that police would be justified driving at 150 MPH. The risk/benefit trade off just doesn't make sense.... _________________ Gone fishing!
If the police have to practice at high speed, it should be either on a special track, or a closed off section of road, there is so much to go wrong otherwise.
I believe that you do need experience to drive at 150mph, the occasional burst of speed just because you have got horsepower, isn't adequate experience to be in control, but it shouldn't be used on a road that might contain an old granny or nervous person, its too easy for it all to go "pear shaped".
I know that 999tommo you are probably a superb driver and proud of your skills, but as with a lot of accidents, its that driver half a sleep or not paying attention that starts the accident off.
Out of interest 999tommo, how often are you "pushed" to obtain 150mph+ or is it a short burst thing to "close the gap"?
I thought that the new idea was to close the road ahead of the "wanted" vehicle (assuming that these speeds are only required on M or A roads not minor roads) and if there was any chance of a speed "chase" endangering lives, that the police are told to hold back and not force the vehicle to increase speed. _________________ TomTom Go 60
Garmin Nüvi 660, Firmware v4.90
Drive-Smart GPS with Loader v1.4.16
HTC Advantage X7500 MS 6.1 Tchart Speed Sentry
Satmap Active 10, Software v1.16
Fuzion 32 HUD Bluetooth GPS receiver
..............I know of one stretch of dual carriageway which is regularly used to hone police drivers' high speed skills - BUT this is generally done in the early hours of the morning when there are fewer other road users about
I think that that is totally out of order and that section of road revealed to all of us, if only to know where to keep away from.
It sounds as if the police have there own "cruise" or street racing event.
I have been down stretches of motorway in the early hours of the morning with nothing insight (on both sides) but if plod was hiding in the hedges and caught me speeding i would be "nicked".
I wouldn't be able to use the excuse that it was an empty road so i was "honing" my skills, even as a normal driver having the extra practice of fast driving skills can be useful in my driving experience, but i would be expected to go on a track to gain it - away from other road users. _________________ TomTom Go 60
Garmin Nüvi 660, Firmware v4.90
Drive-Smart GPS with Loader v1.4.16
HTC Advantage X7500 MS 6.1 Tchart Speed Sentry
Satmap Active 10, Software v1.16
Fuzion 32 HUD Bluetooth GPS receiver
I struggle to think of an incident so serious that police would be justified driving at 150 MPH. The risk/benefit trade off just doesn't make sense....
Have any of you seen the Police Camera Action Special, where a two car police team rushed a heart transplant organ directly to a hospital in the middle of London. The team were told if the organ was not there by a certain time to abort the mission. These two policae cars reached 130mph on the motorway sections, and still arrived at the hospital with about 8min to spare.
In my opinion the police need practice high speed driving but maybe not to the degree of 150mph. Thats just Joyriding!
Whatever skills you can gain at 100mph can also be used at 150mph. _________________ Dom
HERE LIES PND May it rest in peace.
Navigon 7310/iPhone Navigon&Copilot
Joined: Feb 07, 2006 Posts: 581 Location: Medway Towns, Kent
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 8:11 pm Post subject:
Coelacanth wrote:
In all the time I've been working as a Special (and I roughly work around 16 - 20 hours per week(on top of my 9-5 job)) I have never once seen a police car speed through a Gatso whilst not responding to a job. Unless the blue lights to your vehicle are activated, the traffic laws apply to police as well as everyone else does.
You may not have seen it but as I have posted before I have seen a Met Police car speeding up to a gatso, turn his blue lights on, set off gatso then turn his blues off again.
Joined: Jan 04, 2007 Posts: 2789 Location: Hampshire, UK
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:17 pm Post subject:
...and are you guys who disagree with 999tommo saying that any criminal who drives off above the legal speed limit of 70mph should just be allowed to get away?
Also, if you're saying that 999tommo is driving too fast, where do you draw the line as to what is acceptable?
Bearing in mind that 'Joe Public' may drive in excess of 80mph in a bog standard car without any additional training, are you saying that a traffic cop should not pursue these guys or other dangerous drivers and just let them get away? _________________ Andy
PocketGPSWorld.com supports Help for Heroes - Read here
Joined: 14/09/2002 20:56:18 Posts: 5231 Location: Surrey, United Kingdom
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 9:25 pm Post subject:
GPS_fan wrote:
...and are you guys who disagree with 999tommo saying that any criminal who drives off above the legal speed limit of 70mph should just be allowed to get away?
Has anyone actually said this or are you making it up?
In a live chase, use the skills they have learned and/or been taught. For practice, used controlled environments or simulators.
After all, you wouldn't advocate snipers shooting live targets for practice, in order to hone and maintain their skills, would you? _________________ Tim
Joined: Jan 10, 2004 Posts: 2777 Location: Bonnie Scotland (West Central)
Posted: Sat Sep 15, 2007 11:44 pm Post subject:
theripper wrote:
Coelacanth wrote:
...Unless the blue lights to your vehicle are activated, the traffic laws apply to police as well as everyone else does.
You may not have seen it but as I have posted before I have seen a Met Police car speeding up to a gatso, turn his blue lights on, set off gatso then turn his blues off again.
theripper
[Devil's Advocate]
Given the speed that the cameras flash at, versus the speed at which blue lights flash, what are the chances that the blue light would be visibly on in the either photograph?
[/Devil's Advocate] _________________ Jock
TomTom Go 940 LIVE (9.510, Europe v915.5074 on SD & 8.371, WCE v875.3613 on board)
Posted: Today Post subject: Pocket GPS Advertising
We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?. Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
Hi! We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
But as we’re losing ad-revenue from this then why not make a donation towards website running costs?. Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in for private messages
Log in
.
