VF SS Police Pack

[Z31na]

This's changed though, hasn't it?
Anyone who's going to book you, ie. Highway Patrol, has been 100% marked for many years - hasn't it? No more unmarked randoms parked in the bushes?

Vicpol will hide in bushes. I've seen the local squad in their black unmarked BMW trying to hide. Stood out like dogs balls on the raised, overgrown entry to an old landfill west-bound. But theres no way you'd see them rounding that bend or in you'r mirrors heading east.

Theres also a constant repeat on 7mate of Highway Patrol where the guys with the camera's are in camo actually in the trees and the plods are parked further down the road ready to pull speeders in. Most of that episode is just a Supra driver sooking that he wasn't allowed to see the reading on the device.

 

[chrisp]

This's changed though, hasn't it?
Anyone who's going to book you, ie. Highway Patrol, has been 100% marked for many years - hasn't it? No more unmarked randoms parked in the bushes?

I suspect that the hidden or unmarked cars to catch someone breaking the law under their own volition would be okay. But, I suspect, that the entrapment or entricement behaviour to allure someone to break the law wouldn’t be acceptable now.

 

[RevNev]

In Sydney we always have had the constabulary rolling in random vehicles, this has been happening since the early 80's when I first got my licence.

SA were pretty much all Commodore's and although most marked and unmarked are ZB's and couple of VF wagons still around , we're getting some oddball stuff like black Kia SUV's, a silver Hyundai I Load van had someone pulled over on the freeway, red and blue lights flashing on the inside windscreen top. Any current model car could be a cop car in SA now and you're taking a risk doing something stupid in suburbia.

 

[lmoengnr]

There are more 'unmarked' cop cars patrolling Victoria's highways and freeways than official HWP BMW's.

 

[Forg]

I suspect that the hidden or unmarked cars to catch someone breaking the law under their own volition would be okay. But, I suspect, that the entrapment or entricement behaviour to allure someone to break the law wouldn’t be acceptable now.

I doubt there's much to stop that, most people won't bother going to court & will just pay the fine; and it's only if you went to court that it'd make ANY difference that the copy-car was tailgating you 'til you drifted over the limit.

Now I don't get around Sydney near as much as @Ginger Beer does, but I've only ever seen cops in general-duties cars, or whatever you call "not Highway Patrol". I've not seen a radar unit on/in an unmarked car for ... probably decades. Excepting the recently de-stickered radar-camera Foresters.

Can the police (NSW particularly) still "estimate" your speed & book you based on that estimate? That's how it was done before radars became commonplace. And the fact they use radars as evidence for that these days is why I thought unmarked Highway Patrol had gone the way of the dodo, 'cos these days you're probably trying hard to get booked by anything without a radar & I've not seen radars in unmarked cars (OK you probably CAN get booked for traffic offences by doing something particularly overt or obvious like doing 100 in a 40 zone or committing the crime of being an under-25 male).

 

[Anthony121]

Theres also a constant repeat on 7mate of Highway Patrol where the guys with the camera's are in camo actually in the trees and the plods are parked further down the road ready to pull speeders in. Most of that episode is just a Supra driver sooking that he wasn't allowed to see the reading on the device.

The cops are very cheeky in that episode. There is no way you would even know there is a radar in the area with the cops in the bushes.

 

[PeteSS]

N


Nah, I do a bit of moving around the Sydney area for work, still a few unmarked cars around, both arriving on site and on the road, I have the "privilege" of seeing some from my area, I deal with some of them with my job

Sneaky peaky cars have been, and will always be around

You're not wrong. I ran out of fuel in my EK Holden on the M5, and this black Golf GT1 with two older gentlemen pulled up behind me. Next thing the blue flashing lights on the dash came on, and they both jumped out to give me a push. Both dressed in casual gear. Wouldn't have picked them as cops in a million years

 

[Skylarking]

I suspect, that the entrapment or entricement behaviour to allure someone to break the law wouldn’t be acceptable now.

It wouldn’t be acceptable but the thing is that police are considered officers of the law thus honest enforcers of the law. You are the defendant

Sadly, police all over Australia at one time or another have been corrupt. At other times just been known to lie, cheat and not follow correct legal process…

Some years back there was a big brouhaha in Victoria for not following the law w.r.t. sworn statements which later put a number of convictions at risk.

So I wouldn’t rely of such an enticement defence unless you have video proof of them tailgating you and even then the judge may take the attitude that you should slow down and let them pass

 

[Stroppy]

It wouldn’t be acceptable but the thing is that police are considered officers of the law thus honest enforcers of the law. You are the defendant

Sadly, police all over Australia at one time or another have been corrupt. At other times just been known to lie, cheat and not follow correct legal process…

Some years back there was a big brouhaha in Victoria for not following the law w.r.t. sworn statements which later put a number of convictions at risk.

So I wouldn’t rely of such an enticement defence unless you have video proof of them tailgating you and even then the judge may take the attitude that you should slow down and let them pass

That's why I run dashcams on the front windscreen and the back window at all times in both cars that we have. Time stamped video evidence can save you so much heartache in any dispute with other drivers or the police. Also good if you are on your own and you have a bingle with the other driver claiming it was your fault.

As to the original topic. I have an Evoke ex-Vicpolice transport wagon (I know it was used to ferry people back and forth to the remand centre, I believe). My mechanic has spotted the bigger brake pads with the extra battery in the cargo bay, the extra sump shield (which, thank God, was unmarked when I got the car) and something that no one else has mentioned in this thread. The car is fitted with blind spot monitoring (it's a VF 1, by the way). Now most of us grew up at a time when you automatically did your over the shoulder head check when taking off from the kerb or beginning to overtake so I have often thought the blind spot monitors were a bit of an overkill, but, strike me down, the things have saved me a couple of times with their cross traffic alert when reversing out of blind driveways. So it will be an option I will tick if I ever buy a new car.

 

[KING46Calais V]

I doubt there's much to stop that, most people won't bother going to court & will just pay the fine; and it's only if you went to court that it'd make ANY difference that the copy-car was tailgating you 'til you drifted over the limit.

Now I don't get around Sydney near as much as @Ginger Beer does, but I've only ever seen cops in general-duties cars, or whatever you call "not Highway Patrol". I've not seen a radar unit on/in an unmarked car for ... probably decades. Excepting the recently de-stickered radar-camera Foresters.

Can the police (NSW particularly) still "estimate" your speed & book you based on that estimate? That's how it was done before radars became commonplace. And the fact they use radars as evidence for that these days is why I thought unmarked Highway Patrol had gone the way of the dodo, 'cos these days you're probably trying hard to get booked by anything without a radar & I've not seen radars in unmarked cars (OK you probably CAN get booked for traffic offences by doing something particularly overt or obvious like doing 100 in a 40 zone or committing the crime of being an under-25 male).

Unmarked highway cars are still around Nd in decent numbers. They are as fully equiped as their marked counterparts.
Highway patrol officers can still estimate your speed if they have to for whatever reason. But they have to justify how they estimated your speed and observations over a bit of distance for the ticket to hold up. While they won't do it often, they still can if they need to.