Do we want more road cops or less?

[rastuscat]

Here's what The Press motoring journo thinks. It's amongst his 5 suggestions to improve road safety. He also wants compulsory 3rd party insurance............

"There's a visible on road police presence in Australia.

They're everywhere, even in deepest rural Western Australia, where a colleague lost his licence last year. They have a loophole-plugging knowledge of road policing and as a result every highway patrol officer is respected rather than despised in that large holiday isle to our west.

If you've heard stories of being fined heavily for resting your arm on the window opening in Queensland, or hit with a big one for failing to indicate, or maybee slapped with a citation for not filtering or failing to properly use traffic lanes, believe them. Simply, a policy of booking you for the little things means that you're less likely to try anything more serious. I didn't see a single police car over the holiday in Christchurch, and I live within 7km of the Square!"


http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opi...-safety-record

[CookMySock]

as a result every highway patrol officer is respected rather than despised in that large holiday isle to our west.

Feared is the word you are looking for.

We could take the police out of that equation completely and replace them with gang members on noisy cruisers, or angry rednecks in huge V8 4WDs and the result would be identical.

I'm glad to hear that you somewhat disagree with this journalist, considering your vocation.


Steve

[Sentox]

Aren't we always hearing about police being understaffed for dealing with general crime? The idea of putting more resources into the traffic side of policing seems ridiculous. I'll happily take my chances with the retards on the roads if it means more police to chase down burglars, rapists, and murderers, thank you.

[whowhatwhere]

Aren't we always hearing about police being understaffed for dealing with general crime? The idea of putting more resources into the traffic side of policing seems ridiculous. I'll happily take my chances with the retards on the roads if it means more police to chase down burglars, rapists, and murderers, thank you.

If I was in Palmy, I'd be shouting you a pint right now.

[rastuscat]

Totally agree, but remember that depleting one resource to fund another is a bad idea.

You may have no idea how much resource the Police put into serious crime, as they are not visible, and their work is reactive i.e. wait for the crime to happen, then solve it. Most districts spend significant amounts on murders, rapes etc, it's just not that visible. The road policing thing is to try to prevent offences by high profile enforcement, so they are far more visible, and open to easy criticism. It's also a fact that road policing targets bad driving behaviour, while crime work tends to target criminals. Given that we are all capable of bad driving behaviour, it tends to be the wider public who get the tickets, and who want the police to spend more time picking on the bad people.

Just an observation.

[cromagnon]

I would prefer the police to be more visible on roads, actually patrolling rather than hiding behind some bushes with their radar pointed out the window. Do away with most of the mufti cars they use so much and park in places that will slow most people down. If you know there are police around actively patrolling you are more likely to alter your "bad" behaviour and keep under the speed limits. Giving out speeding tickets in speed traps where the police park just over a crest or behind some bushes puts most people in mindset of not wanting to get caught next time rather than altering their behaviour.

[Usarka]

Cool this has the makings of a good cop bash

slapped with a citation for not filtering

sounds ok to me.

You may have no idea how much resource the Police put into serious crime, as they are not visible, and their work is reactive i.e. wait for the crime to happen, then solve it.

unlike assualts, theft, burglary, etc....

[onearmedbandit]

"There's a visible on road police presence in Australia.

I go to Melbourne about twice a year and am constantly surprised at how few police cars I see on the roads.

[Scuba_Steve]

less P.I.G.s!!!
less P.I.G.s means less scams, less scams mean safer roads!, Safer roads... good for everyone! As the UK MOT tried to suppress, their own study into road policing shows it costs up to 1000 lives a year in the UK alone.

[Swoop]

I'd prefer to see decent driver training + testing that educates road users up to a decent standard. Perhaps then the police would be able to release resources to combat the "genuine" crime.

[onearmedbandit]

Unfortunately that's a vote killer.

[Skyryder]

Prior to the Traffic cops merging with the Police Christchurch driving was in most cases relatively law abiding. While there was not the number of traffic lights that there are now ‘running a red’ while not unknown was nowhere near as common as it is today. Road users actually stopped at compulsory stops. By far the majority do not do so today. In fact it's a rareity now. These are the two most noticeable offences, other than speeding, that in my many years of driving in Chch that stand out. While there are many excuses for inappropriate driving, time restraints, congestion etc. I am of the firm opinion that running reds and failure to stop at compulsory stops are a direct result of the merger where for a considerable period there was no ‘policing’ of traffic to any degree of seriousness. I believe that much of the indifferent driving we see today is a direct result of this.

[CookMySock]

Road users actually stopped at compulsory stops. By far the majority do not do so today. In fact it's a rareity now.

I was working in my front yard, and three police cars in single-file rolled clean through the compulsory stop. There is no rush, no lights on - just general police work, yet at same intersection another cop will hide behind the trees all afternoon and snap people for exactly the same misdemeanor.

There's lots more.... but this isn't a bash the police thread.

Steve

[onearmedbandit]

I was working in my front yard, and three police cars in single-file rolled clean through the compulsory stop. There is no rush, no lights on - just general police work, yet at same intersection another cop will hide behind the trees all afternoon and snap people for exactly the same misdemeanor.

There's lots more.... but this isn't a bash the police thread.

Steve

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[Ixion]

"There's a visible on road police presence in Australia. They're everywhere, even in deepest rural Western Australia, where a colleague lost his licence last year. They have a loophole-plugging knowledge of road policing and as a result every highway patrol officer is respected rather than despised in that large holiday isle to our west.

has teh author ever BEEN to Australai? or is he just swallowing the complacent PR of the Oz cops?

Australian police respected ? Yeah right. Like a Great White is respected, maybe (Note how carefully I avoided the analogy of the Brown Snake)

Feared, perhaps. But also loathed despised and avoided. The Australian police are universally acknowledged to be totally corrupt , in both the monetary and the "power corrupts" sense.

More importantly, their attitude that "the law is what this gun says it is " has seriously damaged respect for the Rule of Law in Australia. When the police atttude is "might makes right" inevitably the public will adopt the same philosophy. If you're powerful enough to get away with it, it's legal.

The Australian policing model is a VERY BAD one , which we should avoid. If we want to copy someone else (But why ? ) then copy Pomgolia.