Separate the Police from the scum...

[idleidolidyll]

Good move!

Nothing damaged respect for real police more than combining them with over officious revenue collectors with radar guns: split them back up and restore the good name of the NZ Police (the unsworn pigs with radar guns will never have respect)

Merging the traffic service with the police force was a bureaucratic bungle, says Garth George.

As all of us who have had dealings with them can attest that the brains of bureaucrats grind exceeding slow. Which is why it has taken Police Commissioner Howard Broad 3 years of his five-year term to conclude that traffic enforcement should be separated from traditional policing.
In the demented "reform" era of the late 1980s and early 1990s, when the police took over traffic enforcement from the almost universally despised traffic cops section of the old Transport Department, it seemed like a good idea. As did the earlier takeover by the Transport Department of municipal traffic departments, which saw the end of the more despised traffic cops who were employed by cities.
But within a short time it proved to be a serious error of judgment, for nothing has so damaged the public's regard for the New Zealand Police as the decision to turn sworn police officers into radar gun operators and ticket-writers.
Mr Broad told the parliamentary law and order committee last week that he was "quite uncomfortable" with fully sworn police being used for road policing, since they were often just "sitting there with their radar gun".


I suspect he's been uncomfortable for a long time, for I well remember him squirming beside his then political mistress, Annette King, back in 2006 while he tried to explain the difference between "quotas" and "performance targets" imposed on frontline police officers.
Mrs King had called a press conference to deny that police had a quota system for the issue of speeding tickets, yet all it served to do was to drive another nail into the coffin of public respect for the police.
There was a time - most of my life, in fact - when the police were held in higher regard than in almost any other country.
That hasn't been the case for nearly 20 years now, and the decline in the public's esteem for the police dates from its 1992 takeover of traffic enforcement.
But now, at last, the powers-that-be have decided that the two should again be separated, although remain under the umbrella of the police. I have no argument with that, but the separation of traffic enforcement must not just be done - it must be seen to be done.
It will not be sufficient simply to recruit and train "transport enforcement officers", dress them in a police uniforms and assign them a car. It will have to go much further than that if the public is to be persuaded that the new traffic cops are not just ordinary cops in disguise.


Continues: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/n...ectid=10615932

[TimeOut]

Totally agree, I used to have the greatest respect for the police not anymore

[Fluffy Cat]

Looks like a case of can't see the trees for all the trees. Traffic cop who is not a cop is still a cop. Just minus a few powers.
It strikes me as strange that this has come up at this time and it appears that many have not noticed the raft of punitive measures that have been introduced or are in the pipeline for motorists. Local bodies are gearing up for their speed cameras as we speak...don't worry they are for accident black spots only.
All this shows us is this things are about to get better for revenue gatherers. The sop to us muggins will be this "but they are not police".
You have been warned....

[The Baron]

First I have heard of this but I agree. And yes it will take some time to repair the damage done to the good police force we used to have so many years ago.
I too have been stopped by a "thug with a badge" who run up one side of me and down the other and it has made me wonder if I would now go to the aid of an officer in need.
It will be interesting to watch this unfold.

[Storm]

I'm all for it. One hopes, somewhat naievely that this means more police able to respond to burglaries, arsons, etc- offenses that require police NOW, not when they are avaiable.
Hopefully, more people will want to join the police once they are seen to be, as you put it, police, not radar gun operators. And that can oonly be a good thing for us all

[CookMySock]

There are plenty of sworn police that are assholes. I reckon start a website up with examples of their stupidity. That will make them think twice.

Steve

[Tank]

There are plenty of sworn police that are assholes. I reckon start a website up with examples of their stupidity. That will make them think twice.

Steve

We have been thru this DB. If you want to get really tough - start a facebook group. That scares the fuck out of them that does.

Still - I guess its only fair - I know a website with over a four thousand seven hudred post by you showing your stupidity.

[Okey Dokey]

I agree that having separate traffic cops and real cops is a good idea. I don't know that all traffic cops should be called scum; I think there were many who were quite good and used their knowledge and discretion wisely. I think the whole 'revenue gathering' thing has evolved since the two were merged.

[SPORK]

There are plenty of sworn police that are assholes. I reckon start a website up with examples of their stupidity. That will make them think twice.

Steve

Take it international.

[awayatc]

yep....worst thing that ever happened to and for NZ police....
Revenue collectors have no respect, nor do they earn it...
Police are held in much higher regard....
But how can you tell them apart?

[martybabe]

Local bodies are gearing up for their speed cameras as we speak...don't worry they are for accident black spots only.

I assume you're being tongue in cheeky there but for those that don't know this is how the disease broke out in the UK but it rapidly went from black spots to any spots. Anywhere and everywhere now, no authoritative body can resist when the money starts rolling in.

The traffic police have all but gone replaced by cash registers on poles, no leniency no discretion no intelligence, Drive like a complete nutter if you want to, there's every chance you'll get away with it but God help you if you forget to emergency brake before you pass one of Kojaks Kodaks.

You think some of your 'coppers' are intransigent, you try claiming clemency from an office girl receiving instructions from a 2 metre pole on the street.

[Renegade]

Take it international.

shit that still makes me laugh

[SPman]

I assume you're being tongue in cheeky there but for those that don't know this is how the disease broke out in the UK but it rapidly went from black spots to any spots. Anywhere and everywhere now, no authoritative body can resist when the money starts rolling in.
The traffic police have all but gone replaced by cash registers on poles,

Interesting that a couple of Constabularies are pulling out Gatsos and putting more police back on patrol - with resulting drop in accident rates.......

[scumdog]

Beware of what you wish for.

IF they do have a 'new' Traffic Department you may well find it is manned by even more zealous types handing out even more tickets for even more trivial offences...53kph anyone???.

[avgas]

the good police force we used to have so many years ago.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?
Sorry but that is BS - the old cop shop was just as bad as the new one. At least the new one can only sit on their arse holding a radar.
The "good - ol' cops" were corrupt, racist arseholes who had dodgey dealings on all sides.
You want to buy drugs - talk to the cops first.

Theft was shocking in the 80's - and the cops knew who were doing it, but wouldn't do a thing about it.

100's of cops abused their power and became rapist and the likes (cases we are only just dealing with now).

Regulations? "Your tail lights lights broken..."

Sorry but at least the current way the police force means that you can report shit. And most of the cops now are good now. I would say 1 out of 10 is a bad egg. But 20 years ago that would have been 6 out of 10.

We had 2 outboards stolen out of a lock-up shed, ended up 'buying' them back through a tip that a cop gave us. Turns out the local drug dealer had taken them.
Drug dealer was not taken in for ANYTHING, and the cops all got a Christmas bonus.

Crims are more dangerous now than then.