helly
FUZZ
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- VE2 SSV Ute Poison Ivy...
Yes Unfortunately, this is the case. Police in probably every state (confirmed) NSW and VIC have an exemption to some road rules, including the use of handheld mobile phones...
While I agree it appears to be double standards, I can't agree that its not necessary at times. I nearly always pull over and take the call, but I have no shortage of parking where I work so its not a problem for me. However, thats not so realistic for many Police.
People have to realise that at times it really might be something that is necessary. We know that many people use police scanners especially full time crooks. So at times a call may need to be made of an urgent nature or not so urgent but necessary, that cannot be put over the air.
When in the city I used to get called on my mobile for nearly every 3rd or 4th job. This was either because of congestion/traffic on the air, or a need for a little secrecy about what we are talking about. Many a time, jobs such as Break and Enters occurring now, would be rung to the car (especially if you were unmarked) so that the crooks had no idea you were on the way. Police radio would then hold off for you to get right around the corner before they broadcast it for other cars to attend. This in a lot of cases resulted in the crooks not getting away...
We also use phones for some jobs to keep the media out of the loop and delay their arrival. For instance a Duty officer on the way to a serious crime scene, i.e. a murder or sexual assault, may not look like he is urgent, I mean he might just look like he is driving along casually, and he probably is, but he needs to organise a lot of other people whilst he's on the way there. If you were the victim, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like to hear from us that we took an extra hour to get things moving because of some phone calls. Detectives don't get notice so often (lack of uniform), but when they get called out to a job like the ones just mentioned, they are on the phone from the time they get called out of bed till when they arrive, getting as much information as possible so they know what is going on hen they walk through the door. This sort of thing can't be communicated over radio as its just not secure. I'd hate the media to turn up across the road from a sexual assault victims house and set up their cameras because they heard it all over police radio. And trust me they would turn up!
Just to put another spin on it. We receive training in relation to pursuit/highspeed driving in which we are required to call pursuits as an alpha unit (i.e. by ourselves) via a 'hand held' radio, giving very specific info to someone else far far away, about what is going, on ie street names, speeds, descriptions (this takes a little more concentration than your usual chat about last night at the pub) and we are usually flying around after some other lunatic at break neck speeds while we are doing this. We are assessed on this and if we don't get it right, and I mean we simply clip a cats eye on the centre line, we fail!
So keeping that in mind, maybe a quick bit of info about the next job we are going to whilst driving isn't really that big a deal, especially if it allows us to do our job more effectively.
As usual, its another long post from Helly... But hey, its much easier to shoot something down in one sentence than it is to briefly explain things that most don't have the vaguest idea about.
So yeah, its perfectly legal for us to be on the phone whilst driving when doing our jobs, and perfectly illegal when we aren't, just like everyone else!
If you don't like it, then join the COPS! :thumbsup:
While I agree it appears to be double standards, I can't agree that its not necessary at times. I nearly always pull over and take the call, but I have no shortage of parking where I work so its not a problem for me. However, thats not so realistic for many Police.
People have to realise that at times it really might be something that is necessary. We know that many people use police scanners especially full time crooks. So at times a call may need to be made of an urgent nature or not so urgent but necessary, that cannot be put over the air.
When in the city I used to get called on my mobile for nearly every 3rd or 4th job. This was either because of congestion/traffic on the air, or a need for a little secrecy about what we are talking about. Many a time, jobs such as Break and Enters occurring now, would be rung to the car (especially if you were unmarked) so that the crooks had no idea you were on the way. Police radio would then hold off for you to get right around the corner before they broadcast it for other cars to attend. This in a lot of cases resulted in the crooks not getting away...
We also use phones for some jobs to keep the media out of the loop and delay their arrival. For instance a Duty officer on the way to a serious crime scene, i.e. a murder or sexual assault, may not look like he is urgent, I mean he might just look like he is driving along casually, and he probably is, but he needs to organise a lot of other people whilst he's on the way there. If you were the victim, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't like to hear from us that we took an extra hour to get things moving because of some phone calls. Detectives don't get notice so often (lack of uniform), but when they get called out to a job like the ones just mentioned, they are on the phone from the time they get called out of bed till when they arrive, getting as much information as possible so they know what is going on hen they walk through the door. This sort of thing can't be communicated over radio as its just not secure. I'd hate the media to turn up across the road from a sexual assault victims house and set up their cameras because they heard it all over police radio. And trust me they would turn up!
Just to put another spin on it. We receive training in relation to pursuit/highspeed driving in which we are required to call pursuits as an alpha unit (i.e. by ourselves) via a 'hand held' radio, giving very specific info to someone else far far away, about what is going, on ie street names, speeds, descriptions (this takes a little more concentration than your usual chat about last night at the pub) and we are usually flying around after some other lunatic at break neck speeds while we are doing this. We are assessed on this and if we don't get it right, and I mean we simply clip a cats eye on the centre line, we fail!
So keeping that in mind, maybe a quick bit of info about the next job we are going to whilst driving isn't really that big a deal, especially if it allows us to do our job more effectively.
As usual, its another long post from Helly... But hey, its much easier to shoot something down in one sentence than it is to briefly explain things that most don't have the vaguest idea about.
So yeah, its perfectly legal for us to be on the phone whilst driving when doing our jobs, and perfectly illegal when we aren't, just like everyone else!
If you don't like it, then join the COPS! :thumbsup:
