Ask The Copper

[helly]

Allocations of vehicle's are different depending on where you work or what you do.

Simple run down...

General Duties Cops, pretty much junior cops get the trucks and the senior ones get sedans. But it depends, I used to get sedans a fair bit when I was newish cos, they new I'd go out and patrol and be seen. Other will just get sedans and asume it means they don't have to work. The trucks get dir4ected to the lock up jobs most of the time.

In Highway Patrol, most of the time you get allocated a car with another guy, so the two of you share the car, ie one has it on day the other on nights. If you work together then you flip as to who drives (usually the senior guy though).

Where I work we just have one HWY car.

Someone else asked me which I prefer a bit earlier. on Page 4

[9C1pack]

Helly,
By trucks I guess you mean the rodeos etc with cages in the tray.
In Vic they don't have those, there are lots of falcon utes with custom bodies in the rear, also there seems to be a few crewman's around with a custom lock-up body also. I am guessing that Holden must have sold them to the force prety cheap as they don't seem to sell too good. How a police officer is supposed to fit in the rear seat of one of those is a joke. A mate had the chance to get one as a company car, but chose a station wagon so his teenagers would have some leg room!

[helly]

Yeaj we refer to the them as trucks... Just cos they have the equivalent turning circle of a Kenworth.

We had a crewman as a trial car in the city before I moved... It wasn't too bad to drive, but it seriously wasn't good enough to justify the loss of space from the Rodeo.

The Rodeo's are really quite good for what they are used for...

At one state they were trialing the Mercedes Transport Vans like the ambo's use now... They were terrible!

[holden#1]

from a coppers point of view, how do you see police staffing levels? are they way off the mark in NSW??
I suppose its no where near so bad in the country.
I bit of overkill wouldn't hurt I spose when it comes to the number of peace keepers(!?)

[helly]

Its all the worse in the country...

Where I work we have 5 in general duties and two in HWY.
1 is hurt and can't be on operational duties (ie is behind the desk)
That means we have one cop on each shift (if that) and we cover 15,000 square kilometers...

In the city the numbers are pretty good. The real issue is not tying up cops with bullsh*t functions. There needs to be a real charter for what police will and won't deal with. My honest opinion is that the RTA (in NSW) should cover traffic enforcement, and that's coming from a HWY guy!!!

However the more the merrier in my books...

[holden#1]

helly,
very interesting....
RTA - Traffic Enforcement. At first thought it seems like a lengendary idea... give them the mundane ticket writing duties for run of the mill traffic offences, freeing up officers to concentrate on more serious stuff like crime. I think there should be that differentiation between 'Minor Offences' and 'Serious Crimes / Felonies'

It would be interesting to know what approx percentage of total police resources are spent on Traffic Law Enforcement. I would imagine it to be around 50%??????????????

more decent(?) blokes like meself, and yeah, it would be merrier!

[helly]

I used to do very little less than 10% I would say... I was just too busy with other things.

But my boss still used to yell and scream wanting us out there doing RBT for an hour at 10am on a Tuesday??? I reckon I have breath tested well over 1,000 drivers at stationary RBT sites and might have nabbed maybe 20 drivers for PCA offences.

On the other hand I reckon I would be in the 200 mark for mobile RBT (driving around pulling cars). My personal opinion and obviously not that of the NSWP is that Stationary RBT is a complete waste of time... But the boss's love it, because it's high visibility... I just hate it when they publish the statistics saying the NSWP did over 25,000 breath tests this long weekend and charged 150 people for drink driving offences... In my opinion it just makes us look so inefficient.

I say give the RBT to the RTA...

[helly]

Sorry, I'm going off

But would you be impressed reading that the other way and putting out a headline that said, "The NSWP this long weekend tested 24,850 drivers who were sober!" Well done what an acheivement...

I just think its hilarious, how much money an time gets spent on trying to show that we are doing stuff rather than just doing it... The reality is that you have say 15 cops doing RBT on the side of the road and they get one bloke with a positive test... Out of say 100 tests. While thats happening two of the best break and enter merchants are walking 3 streets away breaking into cars and houses. That kind of thing only gets stunted by police being out and about. And while we are doing that if we see some driver who is a bit suspect, we'll pull him over for a quick test.

Anyway, I'm better now that's off my chest... CHEERS

[vlv8vic]

If you wonder why the cops don't attend, buy yourself a radio scanner and hear what the cops get involved with! In my quiet part of country victoria (Bendigo) it would seem that the Police are more like social workers, as they continually get called out to jobs such as, "person has taken pills or threatened to harm themselves", plus welfare checks on elderly and ill people who's family have tried to ring them, but they uncharcteristically don't answer their phone, plus all the other things previously mentioned.
Since the governments closed down loony asylums and the well paid mental health people seem only to work 9 till 5, it is the poor old local cop who has to act as social worker. Leaving them less time for the things that concern us, such as being harassed by unsupervised kids on their trail bikes.

same story here mate, old man has one for the CFA and i was amazed at the welfare this welfare that, "old marge didnt collect her paper today so better make sure she isnt dead in the kitchen". all very important, im not debating that but yeah i was just amazed at all that stuff.
Domestics.... sheesh. dont i get sick of hearing about those time wasters (because more often that not they seem to be repeat offenders).

[Julie]

Thought this site may be of interest to some people, Its like an online radio scanner where you can listen to various emergency channels

[helly]

Yeah, I 've checked that one out myself... Not bad really. Not all the channels are always working though. I donl't think they have many city channels as they are all starting to go full digital with encryption.

Then it will be very naughty to listen to police radio as there will be no
moore, naughty people saying,
"Woops, I was just scanning and it came up Sir"

We'll be able to say,
"Oh so you accidentally figured out how to crack 256 bit CMC encryption too, I see..."

[9C1pack]

You can buy scanners that will pickup the new digital frequencies, search on ebay for "APCO 25" they will not however be able to pick up the encrypted stuff, but most scanner sites say that most of the transmissions will be un-encrypted. Only the important stuff will be encrypted ( not sure how true that is). Here in Vic if they have anything sensitive to talk about they ring them on their mobile phone.

[helly]

You can certainly buy digital scanners that will pick up most police channels, however just remember it may be an offence depending on which state you reside to have any police channel locked on or even have possesion of a scanner that is capable of scanning restricted frequencies.

[matrix]

dont forget guys that cops are people too. some of them like fast cars and doing dumb stuff just like the rest of us.
unfortunatly each cop has been told something different about every law there is.
as an eg: I have had a lot to do with weapons law from a collector and instructors point of view every single person I have spoken to- be'it police, government oficial, magestrate (forgive spelling) has been told something different.
just like the "neon" topic some say its legal some say its not, some say if its only able to be turned on when car is off.
point is dont blame the coppers (though its is an easy and satisfying thing to do). if you get some "legit" legal info in writting keep it- and the info on its source on you so if you get pulled over you can say that you are acting "lawfully" in accordance with the information you have been given.

[ClairBear]

Helly:

So true, and thanks for that long read

Years ago I was in a car that was pulled over by under cover cops. They had spotted Paul Stanley's (from Kiss) fire helmet on the back parcel shelf that we had managed to grab at the concert. We were accused of stealing a fire helmet initially. Stood at the side of the road whilst one checked back with base to see if a fire station had been broken into, while we pointed out the sticker on the helmet indicating it came from USA plus the smears of grease paint from Paul to the other cop. Eventually they had to back down as they had no proof of stealing but they were clearly annoyed and were looking for a reason to book us for something.

In the end they defected the car because it had no passenger wing mirror. We drove straight to the nearest police station, where the cop on duty laughed and said it wasn't a defect at all and removed the defect.

It showed me way back then in my teens how one cop can perceive something as a defect, and another disagree.

I have a number of similar stories where one cop says one thing, and another says differant.

C.

[holden#1]

Police officers are granted powers and responsibilities that exceed those afforded to other citizens.
They are a respected person in the eyes of the law / courts.

Unless you have solid evidence / proof they will have you for breakfast every day of the week. theres not a lot you can do in a lot of cases either.

you can write to officer in charge, traffic branch, or whatever, 9 times out of ten they will support their officers descision.

Police have great discretionary powers. I have found this from experience.

I do understand though that their job would be a little too hard if they didn't...

[Just_Ice]

its funny how this thread turned into, negative Police Stories again.........

By the way what happened to our serving member....

[rattattack1313]

When he started this thread, he told me he was working over the Xmas New Year Break...saving us all.......Legendary fellas, cops.. ...he should be back in here in the New Year.......

[holden#1]

I'll chuck in a positive one to even things out... (not that I would post anything negative)

Police for the most part do a wonderful job.

They are granted extra powers over ordinary citizens; job would be a little too hard if they were not.

[Julie]

Actually, don't be suprised if our serving police member does not return. I recieved a pm from him shortly after his last post asking to be 'blocked' from this site due to all the arguements which occured earlier in the thread and in another.

I have not 'blocked', banned, deleted him or anything like that, so if he chooses to return it will be at his own discretion.

[holden#1]

you have to take peoples word on this site as to who they are. it will soon become evident if they are faking.

Serving Police Member was quite harshly talked about in threads. doubts about his identity, brain power etc...

I say that in the future we should take people for who they say they are, We should maintain a certain level of courtesy. It will all come out in the wash sooner or later.

you may say thats being naive. I disagree.

[Shounak]

Actually, don't be suprised if our serving police member does not return. I recieved a pm from him shortly after his last post asking to be 'blocked' from this site due to all the arguements which occured earlier in the thread and in another.

I have not 'blocked', banned, deleted him or anything like that, so if he chooses to return it will be at his own discretion.

Well, I simply find his veracity to be at best dubious.. He made a remark about neons being illegal, when in Victoria they are very much legal.. I'd know, I had them on and crashed into heaps of cops with them..

He condoned spinning tyres on gravel and some other illegal activities and backed it up with, just don't get caught.. He also outlined abuse of his police powers, speeding in a cop car, just because he enjoyed taking the speedo up..

By adopting a screen name of "Serving Police Member", he represents the Police force on the forum. Especially with a "Ask the copper" thread..

Now if he's giving legal advice, he'd better make damn sure that it's right before giving it.. The implications of incorrect advice given by someone can be serious for some people.. Especially, given his ostenisble authority..

I much prefer the comments of the older member Pacey and Ludacris now..

[Grimlock]

Guys’ maybe for your own benefit you should tone it down with the cop bashing.

I'm in the job in Queensland and I can fully sympathise with “serving police member”. I tried to do something similar with a Brisbane based forum club last year. I ended up pulling the plug for exactly the same reason. On one post their members would ask me for help and advice and on the next they would slag all coppers as fat doughnut muncher’s. With all the abuse and criticism that I’m expected to put up with when I’m on duty there was no way that I was going to go looking for it on my day off.

I know that most of you are car enthusiasts, plain and simple. It’s the few young “flickheads” and the ‘rebel against the authority’ attitude that will spoil it for everyone.

The only way we will ever be able to distinguish ourselves as being different and better than the hoon crews ( )is by proving that our professionally enhanced cars are a reflection of our professional driving attitude. We’ve all adapted and personified our cars because we want to be noticed. But that means that everyone will notice our cars more, including the Police.

And remember, no-one would have been able help you more if you’d genuinely been stitched up with a ticket than someone who issues them for a living.

[holden#1]

maybe 'ask the copper' threads need to be moderated.

[Shounak]

Guys’ maybe for your own benefit you should tone it down with the cop bashing.

If you were referring to me at all, then no.. There's no cop bashing in any of my posts..

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for heaps of police.. Although I did have one case of discrimination and mistreatment by a police officer, I was happy with the way it was handled (by other police officers)..

So if you think I have a disdain for the police, you're entirely wrong..

What I don't like is someone saying they're a police officer and then giving incorrect advice..