Ask The Copper

[Sabbath']

Just in relation to Noble Park McDonalds...if i have footage of burnouts, cars racing etc, can the police confiscate my camera as evidence?

 

[Noy]

Today I was driving in a 80zone, I was zoomed out and than noticed I had hit 90.. there was a police motorbike sitting right up my ass. And he didnt pull me over ? and im on my P's which makes it more unbelievable.

My question is can i still get a ticket?

 

[Sabbath']

Today I was driving in a 80zone, I was zoomed out and than noticed I had hit 90.. there was a police motorbike sitting right up my ass. And he didnt pull me over ? and im on my P's which makes it more unbelievable.

My question is can i still get a ticket?

Did you slow down straight away as soon as you saw the cop on the bike?

 

[crazyspoon05]

Just in relation to Noble Park McDonalds...if i have footage of burnouts, cars racing etc, can the police confiscate my camera as evidence?

Probably not the best place to be advertising the fact you have footage as if you can see licence plates on any of the cars involved you may be in a little trouble..

 

[Sabbath']

Probably not the best place to be advertising the fact you have footage as if you can see licence plates on any of the cars involved you may be in a little trouble..

Nah, i have no footage with visible plates. Im just wondering if i was ever there with my camera and they suspected that i might have footage, where i would stand in regards to having to surrender the camera

 

[bjhrfs]

Someone once told me that in NSW they don't let police recruits anywhere near the academy until they swear that they would 'do in' another copper if they were given the chance. But back to the issue:

Not True

 

[helly]

Today I was driving in a 80zone, I was zoomed out and than noticed I had hit 90.. there was a police motorbike sitting right up my ass. And he didnt pull me over ? and im on my P's which makes it more unbelievable.

My question is can i still get a ticket?

Short Answer, NO...

 

[helly]

I drive trucks interstate for living and got fined last week and was wondering if i could get officers opinion here

As you know trucks are limited to 100 km/h and i was merrily going along at this rate around Rainbow Flats near Nabiac in NSW when i got pinned for an under 15 km/h over offence

What happened is i came over a crest of a small hill and felt the truck start to run off by itself on downhill section so i immediately applied jacob and conventional brakes to slow it down back to the limit

100 metres down road i see flashing lights behind me, i look down at speedo and was doing under 100 k's so thought i was getting pulled over for log book check or something similar but no they decided i was speeding and issued ticket for offence

What i want to know is do i have leg to stand on if i take this to court?
Various people have told me they can't book you coming down a hill whatever size - Is this true?

What pisses me is i wasn't actually speeding but slowing the truck down where i felt it was starting to run off

Mate, the guidlines for NSW police using Lidar and Radar have recently been updated. The previous guidlines stated that police would not conduct speed checks on un-suitable gradients, however this has now been removed.

The only time inclination and declination comes into effect now is where police are preccedin against you/owner for specfic speed limiting breach offences,as these can only be done on spcific lenghts of road that have been surveyed, these are gazetted and maps are available from the RTA I believe. So this is for the $1590 ticket (or something like that, never handed it out).

As far as running a bit over on a hill it is now deemed that this doen't matter as far as straight out speed offences are concerned. Thats what brakes are for. Just remember that there is only a 5 percent allowable odometer/speedo error for speed limited trucks. This is of course taken into account, then our instrument tolerance is added on before we start handing out the bungs.

I guess it comes down to this, people need to start getting the idea that speed limits are just that. Thy are not recommended speeds or the speed that the government says you SHOULD drive at. It is an absolute MAX speed.

I myself, drive with the cruise set at 110 and I know my speedo over reads by 2 k's at this speed. Now I know that for a fact, but I don't set my speed to 112 to compensate.

I definately don't set it to 118 or 121 or any other speed thinking that I'll just take a little of the slack that I am meant to be given under the guidelines. Hey I might get away with it. But I dont want to get pulled over and have my time wasted (by me cos it would be my fault) just so I can get somewhere 5 minutes earlier. I pull people over at any reasonable amount over the speed limit, if its just a smidge then I just pull them over to have a chat, do a breath test etc, check the licence... But I ALWAYS tell them that they were speeding.

Sure I only hand out a ticket when its required. But I reckon that just stopping people who are over the limit scares the crap out of them. I explain how the radar works and what speed they werr doing, we discuss how accurate their speedo might be and I advise them to pop on the cruise so they don't have to get stopped by me or one of my fellow officers again.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't imagine driving a long stretch over the speed limit and having to stress every time a car is coming towards me thinking is that a HWP car? Crap do I need to slow down?

Just set it, relax and enjoy the trip and wave (nicely of course) when we drive past you...

Anyway take care out there.

 

[helly]

It is a 2 km/h deduction for laser detected speeds. This is because the laser will get a reading within 2 km/h either way. It might be different for the cameras, I don't know. The only time I see a camera fine is when the vehicle owner comes to the station to have the stat dec witnessed because they're nominating another driver.

Yeah I agree, I think we use the same device, it a Prolaser III. These are accurate to +/- 2KPH as they are a stationary device. Speed camera's have different tolerances depending on model and so forth, what mode they are set up in i.e. approach mode only, both, or receding only.

We still use an across the board +/- 3 KPH tolerance regradless of the device used to make things simpler, aren't we nice? We might actually give you 1 KPH here or there...

 

[shaggerz]

Helly that is the best comment about speeding I have ever read, and my sentiments exactly

Why the hell would you do any amount over the speed limit when you're just going to get caught up at the next set of lights anyway... I see people doing 10 k's over every day on my way home from work and a few take the same route as me... I always laugh when they speed and duck in and out of traffic and I end up passing them later on anyway.

Why oh why would you speed when you have to keep an eye out for cameras or police, stressing the whole time wondering what if I didnt see one? I know I'd much rather just sit back, enjoy driving, and be GLAD to see a police car on the road, as I always am.

Speed limits are exactly that... LIMITS... meaning you can go slower, but NOT faster than that... I hate when people justify it by saying the limits are too low... they MAY be too low but who are you to decide that? Law is law... you can't CHOOSE whether murder is a crime, there is no "I don't think murder should be illegal, so I will kill anyway".

Bah... I could rant forever! Helly is #1 police officer in my opinion!