On the front of todays Sunday Times.

Members of the public are being recruited as informers to mount roadside patrols that clock over-hasty drivers.
Volunteers will be kitted out in fluoresent jackets with radar guns that will brandish electronic scoreboards that flash up the motorists speed.
West Yorkshire police say the experiment is based on a Canadian project to act as a deterrent.
The scheme is expected to be launched in Shipley West Yorkshire within the next few weeks, but may later be adopted accross the country.
Although the volunteers will have no powers of prosecution, they will occasionally be backed up by police officers.
Blatant speeders will have their number recorded and a warning letter could be sent by the Police.
A police federation spokesman is less than overjoyed, 'they are not trained for this job and could be a danger to themselves and other road users'. 'This is policing on the cheap to make up for a shortfall in officers.'

Great, your local 'do gooders' could now be after you aswell as the Police!

Kevin.

 

[
Where do they get their pointy heads and bad attitude from traffic wardens got hats with badges see what happend to them never mind Yellow jackets and radar guns

 

If I remember rightly there was story in the press a little while ago about a policeman using a radar gun who had been deliberately run down and killed by a speeding motorist (on the south coast somewhere I think?).

How long do you think the scheme will last before this happens? For once, it would appear that we are in complete agreement with the police. This is a ridiculous and dangerous idea.

Chris

[This message has been edited by Chris L (edited 21 January 2001).]

 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR><B>From PS John HARRISON (Chairman of the national Federation's Sergeants Central Committee:

Police officers may as well retire and let volunteers from the community do the work. In the light of the recent death of a Kent County Constabulary officer killed while carrying out speed checks , the inititive raises concerns for the safety of people who are not trained as police officers.[/quote]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR><B>From Ch. Supt. Stuart HYDE:
This is an outdated view for the Federation to take. Policing the streets is, and always has been, as much a responsibility for the community as it is for the local police. Providing people with the facility to reduce speeding offences in local area releases officers for more crime prevention and serious matters.[/quote]

Make up your own minds.........

 

I saw this ... I am going to start a vigilante group to report f*ckwits that hog the middle and outside lanes. We will patrol the motorways and A-roads of Britain muttering to ourselves and eating sweaty cheese sandwiches from tinfoil. We will wear yellow jackets and stupid little badges and we will grow little Hilter moustaches.

But seriously, as soon of the first of these tinpot little busybodies gets injured the scheme will be dropped and forgotten.

 

surely this would encourage the - hey the cannot prosecute me, i'm going to go back and see if i can't give the radar gun an "overflow" error!

anyhow plod are on a recruitement campaign - ads on television at the moment - so they shouldn't need johnny dogooder sticking his oar in!

 

This a fine idea in theory. BUT what's to stop the civil volunteer using the radar gun on people he does'nt like. It's wide open to misuse and it would put the volunteer at risk.

I agree with Stuart. Combating crime is a duty of every responsible citizen; but I for one would rather have volunteers patrolling the streets on the lookout for burglers etc etc than aiming radar guns around with the power to do nothing about anyone they catch except give them a good ticking off by letter.

Will they be able to give formal warnings to the little jerks who run out in front of cars and assume they have right of way?

It's unclear what powers they will have. If all they can do is send a snotty letter then it *may* do some good, but not as much as responsible citizens keeping an active eye out for all crime.

Just my 2 euro's worth.

 

I have seen such a thingin place in Cheltenham, run my Mummies and Grannies. I have seen things at the end of road saftey documentaires about "Doing a Speed survey in your area"

When I drove past at my nomal urban 25mph they diddnt even look at th car. Does that mean they recorded me as a slow drievr or did they only write down results if the car was speeding? making meaningless statistics.

It would be A LOT more constructive to ask them to use thier home video camereas to VIDEO a junction or streach of road to catch people on the Phone, Not signaling, Swerving, Road Rage, Too busy looking at the kids in the back, bring stupid etc etc etc.

 

Once again they concentrate only on speed. Now if you placed old busybodies at traffic circles to watch out for other old busybodies that get confused by the "Right of way to the right" rule, then maybe we'd have something constructive.
I havent had any real probs due to speed, but everytime I drive, you can be sure some idiot is going to cut you up, not stop at a circle, pull out of a side road, or do some other stupid LOW SPEED manouver that neccessitates me having to take avoidance action.
These are the people Id like to see start getting all the fines, pioints and problems, bad drivers, not just fast drivers.
"So Mrs Bucket, how many speeders did you catch today?"

 

You may have heard of these 'Drive a Ferrari', 'Be a racing driver for a day' presents that companies do.
Apparently they have just launched a new one 'Try Your hand at being a murder detective' ...

 

I always said, if there are other road users about, failure to indicate should b a 1 point offence.

People would soon start to learn.

robski

 

... or should that be defective ?