to write a complain letter or not. (rant)

**aff-man** · 29th May 2005, 18:03

Right so here is how it went last night.
Was at a mates 21st last night not a really huge party afair just about 40 mates and rellies sitting around having a bit of a gab and only a few of us having a few beers.Most people go home at like 12ish and so at about 1 we head off going to drop people off in onehunga.

So here we are going over the south easter arterial with one of me mates who is a really consiencious (sp) driver. Well anything really cause she doesn't drink either. But anyway so we go through the lights at great south road and i notice she is still at about 63km/h (just coming out of an 80 zone). So i kindly point it out to her saying there are a lot of cops about etc so she looks down and goes whoo[ps and slows down to like 52-53ish.

So as we crest the rise and go through the set of lights by the mcdonalds i see's a police car on the side of the road. So i point at it and say see was i right or was i right. So we continue on and sure enough my pointing has got mr police man all flustered so on go the disco lights and me mate just pulls over and we wait.

SO here is my complaint. The officer comes over and says to us .... going a bit quiock there 84km/h. So me and the guy in the back were like WHAT!!! so she says like she was doing 57 maybe (which was over exagerating anyway) and he is like yeh well it must have been that old van behind you..............But we were the only ones on the road!!!!!!!!

After this though i must say the rest of the stop was handled fairly well he checked her license, WOF and rego and asked if she had been drinking, she said no and so he let us go on our way.

So do i write a letter to the complaints authority. I mean i can understand the whole pull over thing and checking on 4 young people (all over 20) in a car (especially if i pointed at them).
but the BLATENT lying i mean he is a member of the police force those we intrust to uphold and enforce the law and here he was blatently lying about what we were doing. My mate is pretty level headed but being puled over is a stressfull situation and a flustered person might have just apologized thereby admitting to something they didn't do.... would the officer have given the ticket if that is the case i don't know but in a stressfull situation lying about the speed we were doing does not help matters and i find it totaly disgusting.

What are your thoughts am i taking this to personally (cause it has happened to both me and my brother as well) or should i write a formal letter of complaint??

**Wenier** · 29th May 2005, 18:07

I reckon you should complain, he should not be saying a speed like that when you know that ya weren't doing anywhere near that.

**Hitcher** · 29th May 2005, 18:09

Sigh. Write your letter of complaint and post it for critique. You may find it cathartic. Momentarily.

**aff-man** · 29th May 2005, 18:17

Originally Posted by Hitcher

Sigh. Write your letter of complaint and post it for critique. You may find it cathartic. Momentarily.

Yeh i know it won't go anywhere and nothing will happen but i don't know i just think we shouldn't have this sort of behaviour in the police. You don't accept people lying to you in the workplace etc so why should we accept it from the police. It is basically a false accusation. And in a lot of different situations lying and false accusations usually lead to legal action/unemployment.....

**justsomeguy** · 29th May 2005, 18:34

I know what you mean aff-man.

But:

Dear Sir/M'am

Me and a bunch of 20 year olds were heading home after a party at 1am. We got pulled over by a police officer.

He falsely accused me........

See what I mean.

Luckily nothing happened.

If he did ticket you then you could ask him to prove it - and then it would be a different matter.

But I guess he was just trying to be a cop- You know: "I am the law and you are a miserable criminal until proven otherwise"

I understand how your buttons have been pushed though. It's a bloody joke how they get away with these things........

Marty, BikeyCop, Scumdog what do you have to say???

**madboy** · 29th May 2005, 18:39

Mate, I've had cops lie to me as they wrote a bogus ticket, they've lied in court, and they've lied to the police complaints authority. All three separate events years apart. And those are just three examples from my mispent youth.

The one to the PCA was funny, cos the two guys who lied didn't realise we had photographic evidence to contradict them - I took great delight when we got the cheque from the Police after that episode.

Reality is, unless YOU can PROVE it beyond ALL doubt, you're wasting your time. But don't let me put you off having a crack at them.

**aff-man** · 29th May 2005, 18:41

Originally Posted by madboy

Mate, I've had cops lie to me as they wrote a bogus ticket, they've lied in court, and they've lied to the police complaints authority. All three separate events years apart. And those are just three examples from my mispent youth.

The one to the PCA was funny, cos the two guys who lied didn't realise we had photographic evidence to contradict them - I took great delight when we got the cheque from the Police after that episode.

Reality is, unless YOU can PROVE it beyond ALL doubt, you're wasting your time. But don't let me put you off having a crack at them.

only reason they pulled us over was cause i pointed at them. Beeing sneaky hiding in the shadows with all thier lights off.

**Waylander** · 29th May 2005, 18:43

Bit like that one chick that ticketed me on the way up to the north ride. (my letter thingie was denied by the way.) She didn't know what she was gonna icket me for she just knew I was gonna get one. Anything I would have said would have just made the ticket worse. Just have to remember that aslong as people have some power there will be those that will abuse it. Maybe if you have someone older than you like your dad or something then it might get some attention but other than that I have no idea.

**250learna** · 29th May 2005, 18:44

Originally Posted by Hitcher

Sigh. Write your letter of complaint and post it for critique. You may find it cathartic. Momentarily.

your are 100% right, its a sad world we live in

**WINJA** · 29th May 2005, 18:48

YOU KNOW I HATE PIGS BUT SOUNDS LIKE HE WAS JUST TRYING TO FIND DRUNKDRIVERS AND JUST SAID THAT SPEED AS AN EXCUSE TO PULL YOU UP, IF HE WAS POLITE AND DIDNT GIVE YOU A TICKET THEN DONT WASTE YOUR PEN AND PAPER

**Motu** · 29th May 2005, 19:24

I don't see any problems here,I expect cops to be stopping people at random early hours of the morning,it's happened to me plenty enough.One verbal slip up and you want to crucify the guy - hope you need him one day and say thank you...

**Skyryder** · 29th May 2005, 19:59

Originally Posted by WINJA

YOU KNOW I HATE PIGS BUT SOUNDS LIKE HE WAS JUST TRYING TO FIND DRUNKDRIVERS AND JUST SAID THAT SPEED AS AN EXCUSE TO PULL YOU UP, IF HE WAS POLITE AND DIDNT GIVE YOU A TICKET THEN DONT WASTE YOUR PEN AND PAPER

My thoughts entirely. If you ever have to write a complaint to the police make sure it is something with some teeth. At the end of the day his superior will take the officers word over yours and even with witnesses the police are trained so that their word (witnessess) may be in doubt. Did your companions hear all the conversation; had they been drinking; if so then they may have misheard the conversation etc.

Don't often agree with Winj but he's got this one right.

Skyryder

**guzzi_nz** · 29th May 2005, 20:13

I sean to get pull over alot maybe the black bike (GUZZI), black helmet ,black leathers

and straight pipes

but if they dont give a ticket its good dont care for the wanks cops but if they puLL some one up just to check and find a drunk then good
no room on the roads for drunks and if random stops find then good

i would hate to losses one of my sons to drunk drives

**crashe** · 29th May 2005, 20:19

If you are gonna write the letter... did you get his police number on his lapels... or the car number to back you up... cos you will need that as well as he could say that he wasnt there at all. If you do write the letter be specific about what happened and everything that was said.

Were you sober? Did you have anything to drink? Could you have misheard a few words?

Yep I would be a tad peeved off if I was told I was doing a higher speed than I was.
But think yourselves lucky, he let your mate go on her way without a ticket and he wasnt nasty about it.

Have ya rant and let it go... move on.... but in the end its your decision in what you decide to do. We cant make that decision for you.