Fair or Foul?
This sign is guaranteed to strike fear, loathing or even possibly caution into most drivers on the UK road system at the moment.
Some police forces are getting ever more devious in their attempts to catch speeding motorists. We’ve all seen speed detector vans parked at the side of the roads, usually they are in sections of road which have signs displaying the presence of speed cameras. If you see a stretch of road with these signs & don’t see any fixed cameras, it’s probably because they use detector vans in that area.
Derbyshire Police have been using this van for speed detection work:
They appear to have their very on version of a makeover show because the van appears to have ended up like this:
You might not be able to make it out at this scale but the index numbers are the same, the ‘workman’s van’ appears to have a towbar added. It’s even got authentic rubbish piled up on the dashboard.
Derbyshire police denied the van’s dramatic makeover was a disguise to snare unwary road users.
In North Wales they’re using a horsebox from which to catch speeding drivers:
You can see video footage of the horsebox in action below.
So, what do we have here, a useful tool in the battle to reduce road fatalities & improve road safety or a cynical ploy to catch more speeding motorists & increase revenue?
I’m not sure, to be honest; part of me thinks that if you’re out there & breaking the law, then you can’t complain if you get caught, but then part of me thinks that if we’re going to prosecute motorists we should do it fairly, openly & without recourse to devious tricks to ‘out-whit’ the motorist.
What do you think?
If you’re interested in further reading the ACPO Code of Practice for Operational Use of Road Policing Enforcement Technology can be found >> here << (it’s a 110 page PDF file!)
Plodnomore says:
I retired a little time before RIPA came into force so I may talking out of my backside, but if covert Police vehicles are being used for surveillance and the detection of crime then don’t the RIPA rules come into force? Not so in sunny old Oz where, driving along the Princes Highweay (I think) to Melbourne we were approaching the town of Colac and noticed a 4×4 with a caravan parked in a layby. Thinking no more about it, we continued into Colac and stopped for a coffee where we overheard two blokes talking about “those bastards down the road with a caravan at one end and a speed camera at the other.” I wonder if anyone from Derbyshore or North Wales forces have visited Oz recently and brought back a ‘cunning plan’?
May 11th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
NARPO_grumps says:
I for one am firmly against such subterfuge. Plodnomore is right, if this were a major drug dealer a RIPA would have to be in force, One has to ask why parliament decided that RIPA was necessary for major crime, yet allows ‘covert’ for Joe Bloggs whose only ‘crime’ is speeding. Yes, we have to enforce speeding as it is in my mind a significant cause of death on our roads. But do we have to be seen skulking in a horse box?? It is little wonder when reading Honest John in the Telegraph, listening to various motoring commentators on TV and Radio and to my friends cosntant moans, that a job so much in need of public support, and with a public that generally does offer support for many policing activities, suffers such a bad negative image from activities carried out in this way.
Yes, I know Parliament recently changed the rules, but the only reason i can see for them doing this was to allow even greater money generation from the motorist. Seems like a change is needed in government if this image of policing is to change.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
some bloke says:
” speed detector vans ” no no no. Road Safety Partnership Vehicle.
“This sign is guaranteed to strike fear, loathing or even possibly caution into most drivers,/i>”
Disdain and contempt more like, not your fault but there you go, good post btw.
No points on my License.
May 11th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
ted says:
Don’t speed, no tickets. Simple.
I’m not perfect. I speed sometimes. Like most people I exceed 70mph on a quiet motorway. I don’tI exceed 80mph (talking true speed as opposed to indicated here).
Around town? Pretty much at the limit. Speeding only gets you to the next set of lights or slow moving vehicle quicker anyway. Most urban roads have too many hazards to drive safely much above the limit anyway.
If I got a speeding ticket I’d be annoyed at myself, shrug my shoulders, and pay it. Hasn’t happened yet.
Don’t break the law and there’s nothing to worry about.
May 12th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Grumpy Old Biker says:
Speed Cameras do absolutely nothing to improve Road Safety.
There’s a saying, ”We make important what we can measure because we can’t measure what’s important”. And for the last decade or so, that’s what’s been happening in this country to the detriment of all other road skills.
Ted says:- “Don’t break the law and there’s nothing to worry about.”
That’s a great sentiment, but if someone goes to Court on a speeding charge, he can almost guarantee that everyone in that room, from the Magistrate down, has broken the Speeding Laws. The defendant is the unlucky one who was caught. And almost certainly he wasn’t driving at an inappropriate speed for the conditions.
May 12th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
PCSO Bloggs says:
You’ve obviously not heard about the New ANPR ‘Average speed’ camera.
“SPECS Speed Cameras
SPECS average speed camera systems utilise state of the art video system with Automatic Number Plate Reading (ANPR) digital technology. Consisting of a minimum of two cameras each fitted with infra red illuminators fitted on gantries above the road, so they can work day or night. SPECS speed cameras work out the vehicles average speed, given the time it takes to drive between the two camera positions.”
Basically you can thrash past the first camera dong 110mph then slow right down to 40 before you hit the next camera so you average speed is 70 or lower.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7048645.stm
http://www.speedcamerasuk.com/SPECS.htm
Something like 80,000 motorists caught the fist day it was introduced on one particular stretch of road.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Civ_In_The_City says:
On the one hand the official line is “… a racist incident is any incident that is perceived to be racist (by absolutely anyone within a stones throw of the ‘incident’)…” (I paraphrse again of course.
On the other hand when any sane person ‘perceives’ the resprayed van to be a disguise to allow the speed (sorry ’safety’) cameras to be more ‘effective’ the response is “No, no you`ve got it all wrong, it`s just that the white vans need cleaning more often so we`ve painted them blue so it cuts down on the water bill, it`s actually greener, for the environment like.”
As for the horse box there`s more the whiff of bull-sh*t about that than horse-sh*t.
It`s another example of the police being pushed into ever more creative ways up getting their stats rate up under pressure from government. The same government that we are told today is routinely reducing 7 year-olds to tears because of all the SAT tests.
About par for the course in Tony Brown/Gordon Blairs world.
May 13th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
blueknight says:
It looks like it would be directed covert surveillance which would need RIPA authorisation
May 14th, 2008 at 12:17 am
» Kwik Hits - Entropic Memes says:
[...] The lengths police departments will go to to catch speeding motorists. (”Honey, I’m home… after spending nine hours in a horse trailer, doing traffic enforcement. Don’t ask. And yes, it was a used trailer, why?”) [...]
May 14th, 2008 at 4:58 am
ted says:
PCSO Bloggs said - “you’ve obviously not heard about the New ANPR ‘Average speed’ camera.”
One of the first SPECS systems was put up on the A77 in Ayrshire. A road well known for having a high number of serious road accidents.
The cameras have resulted in a big reduction.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7063527.stm
And regardlewss of what the stats say the road is far more pleasant to drive now. Everyone drives at the limit whereas before there were many drivers doing 90mph plus.
SPECS? I’m all for them.
May 14th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Random says:
“Don’t speed, no tickets. Simple.”
I am happy to stick to the law but it is getting harder, in some places it’s seems the law is a bit of a secret or even covert - I drive a lot and find I have to default to 30mph regularily in unfamiliar roads as the speed limit is not signposted or in some cases ambiguous. The A259, westbound between Newhaven and Brighton - an unrestricted sign post at an angle contradicts the 40mph limit - how do I stick to a law which is not visible?
If I get hit four times by one of these cameras, I lose my job, my income and so on. The idea that someone is deliberately out to achieve this is the bit that grates the most.
I think visible speed cameras have made driving a lot more chilled as it gives weight to the majority who don’t rag it around recklessly - the idea that speed cameras, covert or not, will affect that minority is frankly childish.
May 19th, 2008 at 10:38 pm