Cop issues 100 tickets

[wkid_one]

Hmmm - has anyone thought this through.  This article was recently in the paper.

Given the cop works at 8 hour day.shift - that gives him 480 minutes in which to issue tickets - given he issued 100 tickets - he issued a ticket every 4.8 minutes.  Does this strike anyone other than me as impossible???

How is it the police man can issue a ticket every 4.8 minutes - anyone who has been pulled over knows that it takes them atleast 10 minutes to get your name and numbers and radio it through., this doesn't allow for the time to 'gun you', you to pull over, get out of your car etc etc ........this reeks of bullshit to me......

I am sorry but this is an example of 'negative' enforcement of the law and does nothing to portray the police in a positive light.  We now live in a zero tolerance society where the police are mere puppets of higher powers to be.  Bugger being a policeperson today - what an arse of a job.....

400 people are killed on NZ roads - as a proportion of the nz population this amounts to 0.01% of the population - I hardly think this quantifies a statistically feasible reason to redirect the entire efforts of the NZ Police force - I also question when the last time was that someone died from a 'louder than standard exhaust'.

Surely there is a statistically accepted level of road fatalities, where given the number of road kilometres completed by the population, a certain number of fatalities are expected.  I was guess at 0.01% - we would be fast approaching this.

The police are developing a very negative image in the eyes of the NZ public as the goverments primary source of revenue collection.  Surely if the Government and Police NZ are so adament about reducing the roll toll involving speeding - they would simply introduce a law governing all vehicles to a maximum speed of 120kph - this would solve the problem would it not??  Yes - there would be an uproar - but more importantly - a commensurate drop in the revenue collected - surely not the reason behind such a law being tabled? 

The sad thing is - this police was applauded by his comrades and no doubt heralded by his superiors - for what???  Pissing everyone off in his town (Eketahuna), no longer being able to go to the supermarket without abuse, his kids will be picked on at school, NZ now know who he is, giving Police a poor public image.  I still, however, question the 'feasibility' of this ticketing and pass judgement that 100 tickets in 8 hours is impossible - it takes you longer than that to write the bloody ticket out.

My understanding is that the police are to 'work with' society.....anyone who has trained any animal will tell you - negative reinforcement is not the most effective or long term method of training - you ignore bad behaviour.  Whilst in some cases of speeding etc this is not feasible - what has happened to the 'verbal warning' - gone!  As police are now focused on ticketing people.

SO there

 

[MikeL]

..unless what's meant is that he wrote out tickets for 100 separate infringements (multiple offences by individual motorists). Could be possible...

[bikerboy]

Not that I'm into police bashing but recently there was an admission by the police that they are too busy to investigate traffic incidents unless someone is injured.

How then did the police find the resources to assign three officers to investigate and question a young paparozzi for following Mike Hoskins( TV news reader) especially as the police admitted no crime was committed nor any laws broken.

Is this a new policy, only investigate injuries or non crimes?

[wkid_one]

Up to three infringements can be written on the one ticket....so this is counted out.

PS - I am not police bashing - in fact I would hate to be a policeman in todays age.  They have a job to do and don't set the rules.  Some however do have a 'boy in blue' attitude - but that happens in any job/industry/walk of life!

[merv]

Yeah that article was about a cop in Taihape and he thinks he did a great job and his boss has since praised him in the paper. So issuing 100 tickets to poor pricks doing 63 in a 50 zone is seen as far more important than solving any real crime. In most of my travels I would say rarely do I find even a cop car that does exactly 50 or less in a 50 zone. Most people drive to the conditions and sure they slow down if there are crowds of people around like parking cars on the side of the road, but if the road is totally clear and you can see for a long way and there is no risk of people coming from the side at you everyone lets their speed creep up a bit. I'm all for no speed limits but suggest some form of control is probably necessary when driving/riding becomes dangerous. I have always found it hard to understand their mentality about safety - they say speed kills, but if 50 is OK how come instantly 51 or more isn't, or 100 is OK but 101 and above isn't. Like as if some magic metamorphasis occurs - a bit like Cinderellas slippers at midnight.

Do you think a petition to Parliament is necessary or would they treat it like what happened with the fireman a while back i.e. ignored it. How else can we get the limits raised or lifted - by observation on the motorway in the morning it seems to me about 95% of drivers/riders don't like the limit at what it is now. If it came to a vote do they all opf a sudden turn into do-gooders? I don't know, but I do wonder how staff at the LTSA or the Police can live with the decisions they are making.

The furore over boy-racers shows what a vocal group of objectors there are out there, but how many of them really stick to the speed limit. Certainly 100 an hour in Taihape weren't. I must say with this and WOF regulations I am getting sick of how over regulated and bureaucratic our beautiful country is becoming. What the hell ever happened to the pioneer spirit and the freedom to have fun?

[MikeL]

Would you agree that part of the problem is the calibre of police officers entering the force now? I seem to recall a discussion some time ago about lowering the standards yet again... Previously any criminal record meant automatic ineligibility but they were proposing to relax the regulation. Law enforcement in the hands of ex-cons??
Regardless of that, I'm pretty sure that most old-timers like myself think back to our brushes with the law in the 60s and 70s and would have to admit that despite the odd injustice, generally speaking the police and traffic officers were respected for their integrity, fair-mindedness, common-sense and flexibility. Times have changed and law enforcement is no doubt a lot harder now, so that it may be unrealistic to expect those values to have survived unscathed. Still, when we encounter or hear of cynicism, stupidity, corruption, discrimination, criminal behaviour, and other injustices perpetrated by those sworn to uphold the law, it's not surprising that general respect has turned to widespread contempt.

[wkid_one]

Guys - I intend to take these comments and form a letter to the police and my MP - no names will be included other than my own.....so keep them coming

[aff-man]

Well after reading this forum i have some interesting questions:

1) Are the new police policies pushing officers to go to more extreme measures or result in more petty fines to be recognized or get ahead in thier jobs?

2) Do those in power who are making these some what drastic decisions about quota's and such, realize what they are doing to the police/community relationship

3) Is so wise to crack down on "crime" with regaurds to speeding so "savagely" and with the attitude i'll take him for what he has.

Living in howick i have been down to eastern beach (popular boy racer and family hangout) many a time and what do i see?? Police officers inspecting the cars parked up on the side of the road (being shown off of course) for any slight illegal modification.

4) With the apparent lack of officers why the hell are they being used basially as a collection agency and what sort of impression are we meant to get of then because it surley isn't one of repect.

So many questions so little time

 

[SPman]

The thing with negative reinforcement is that, eventually, the animal/person reaches breaking point and if they aren't totally broken,can turn rather viscious.

Has this point percolated through to the powers that be?

I know they are trying to break us all, but some won't break and then god help them, because we won't!

[Marmoot]

Dudes, I heard that Green MPs and Richard Prebble from ACT already called this case as "Abuse Of Power" in the parliament. Maybe it's a good idea to write to them and swamp one particular MP with thousands of letters to make him extravocal and boost him with conviction to fight for the public's cause to sort out policing priorities?

[What?]

It's a shame this country has gotten so damned Politically Correct. Setting ticketing targets, and worse, giving cops "performance based pay" would simply be called "Corruption" in many parts of the world.

The police association admitted not long after the formation of the highway patrol that the cops were getting paid per their performance (read ticket writing). This quite clearly would give them the incentive to write lots of tickets regardless of the infringements relationship to road safety.

It must be pretty bad when ex-cops are disgusted with the way the force is currently acting.

[SPman]

From this mornings Herald

"Drivers to cough up more in ticket blitz

Police chiefs expect officers to hand out 75,000 more tickets this year to motorists caught speeding, driving without seatbelts or committing other minor traffic offences. The figure - a 30 per cent jump from last year - was revealed during scrutiny of taxpayer funding for police at a select committee yesterday....

..

National MP Tony Ryall suggested police were more worried about making money from motorists than solving burglaries and car thefts. He asked Police Commissioner Rob Robinson whether police were operating under a quota system. Mr Robinson said if drivers breached the legal speed limit they should expect to be fined. Police were motivated by a desire to cut the mean speed of drivers and reduce road deaths. "I refute absolutely it is revenue-gathering," he said. "The police do not see one cent of the ticketing fines issued by us." The figures did not indicate a quota system was operating. "It is a prediction of the likely productivity of our actions."  - there's that word productivity again - sounds like a business to me! The commissioner said the average fine being handed out had fallen in the past year from about $80 to $69 because fewer people were being caught at very high speeds. The tolerance level has been unofficially set by police as 10km over the legal limit. ...

Court-imposed fines had remained steady over the past 10 years, but traffic and local authority infringements had quadrupled



Deputy Police Commissioner Steve Long said tickets were issued, in an effort to get people to slow out of fear they would be caught and fined...  aahhh, fear, the first weapon of any civilised society!     ....

* Police expect to issue between 275,000 and 325,000 traffic tickets this year. * Last year, they gave out between 200,000 and 250,000. * Speed cameras will snap between 400,000 and 460,000 motorists. * Last year, between 500,000 and 550,000 were caught. :gob smacked: * New Zealanders owe about $488 million in court, local government and traffic fines. * $315 million is overdue.

 

- and so it goes on & on & on.................