Police are planning...

[Quasievil]

It depends what you were doing in those HP cars. If you mean that you were a HP cop yourself once then I suppose you have a point, although it's strange that you don't make an exception for yourself.
On the other hand if you were sitting in the car waiting for the cop to write out a ticket your jaundiced view would be understandable, even though your statement is wildly exaggerated.
The only other reason for having spent some time in patrol cars that I can think of would be as an observer for some project or research and I find it hard to believe that you spent so much time with so many different cops as to be able to justify your sweeping generalisation.
FWIW the worst behaviour I have met with from a traffic cop was a slightly impatient and somewhat arrogant retort to the effect that I shouldn't try to tell him how to do his job, when I was (politely) trying to explain something to him. Scarcely enough to justify the description "scum".

Youre right Scum is to strong a term, perhaps misguided fools that have the task of screwing every last cent out of ordinary law biding New Zealanders for slight road offences.When the resourse could be better spent elswhere.
I cannot believe that some here think that its not about the money .
As an example ,where do you find speed cameras, at high risk accident spots??? No you will find them where it is normally safest to do "a little" more than the posted speed limit, why???? to make money of course.
If you ever want to find truth in this world about most issues follow the money trail there you will find answers .

[Quasievil]

Obviously we have some police members here on this forum, you should also realise that not all of us have a "get out of jail" for free card like you do,some of us actually pay a fine. I have witnessed two incidence when this has happened, and it does, we even let a guy go cause he flashed a card identifying himself as a prison guard.
So one rule for all huh?? yeah right

[Hitcher]

We must rise up against the Forces of Evil and Darkness, brothers and sisters!!

[DEATH_INC.]

Perhaps the people that pulled out in front of you weren't able to judge the distance between themselves and you because you were travelling well above the speed limit.

The first guy had 'sunstrike'(or so he said) but pulled across the road anyway,the second (a woman with a child in the car) 'didn't see me',perhaps because she pulled a u-turn from behind a truck that had just passed her......
Perhaps it was just poor driving ability......

[DEATH_INC.]

We must rise up against the Forces of Evil and Darkness, brothers and sisters!!

AMEN to that (Oops,that wasn't too religious was it?)

[bgd]

The major cause of accidents is the driver doing something inappropriate whether it be driving too fast for the conditions, not looking, etc. - in other words poor judgement.

So if there is some grain of truth in the above statement to reduce accidents substantially you have to target that poor judgement. And you do that by education. And of course that's not easy. It's not about knowing the road rules and how to drive a car, that bit is covered already. What you require is an attitude shift. Drivers need to recognise that they are fallible and that there are other road users who have the same rights that they do.

Start getting drivers thinking about others and they may be a little more vigilant when doing that U turn.

Plod can target speeding all they like but that accident rate isn’t going to change greatly. It may have some impact but unless you get down to the root of the problem things are going to carry on just as before.

If it’s a quick fix they are after then it’s simple. Build motorways. In the UK motorways are the safest places to drive based on accident rate and number of miles travelled. And the speed on motorways is significantly higher than on NZ roads.

But if you really want to make a difference then change the attitude of drivers.

[jimbo600]

Obviously we have some police members here on this forum, you should also realise that not all of us have a "get out of jail" for free card like you do,some of us actually pay a fine. I have witnessed two incidence when this has happened, and it does, we even let a guy go cause he flashed a card identifying himself as a prison guard.
So one rule for all huh?? yeah right

Actually the HP love catching real cops. I have heard many a tale about HP ticketing another HP car, and ticketing a detective going 100 in a 80 because he was new to the area and thought that it was a 100k zone. Another incident I know of is a HP member being posted down South Is somewhere, and on appointment proceeded to wonder around the station carpark issuing infringements to private cars etc.

Now I am not a cop, but have completed Photography training with a few while I was in the RNZAF.

[Lou Girardin]

I fair question. I'd like to know the answer to that one as well.


Lou is this just your attempt at humor or do you really believe NZ resembles Nazi Germany?

Spud, You should know that I was referring to Goebbels maxim;
If the lie is big enough, and you repeat it often enough, the people will believe it.
When are you going to enter into a debate without personal attacks on anyone you don't agree with? I'm referring to the 'mental issues' comment. It seems that your self esteem is so tightly bound to your job that you can't bear any criticism of that job. Loosen up.

[RiderInBlack]

"Of course its revenue gathering, if not why do they ping you for cash when doing a little over the speed limit, I got done for 114kp/h going down a hill a good conditions, they made me pay $80.00 and took 20 points, DID THEY HAVE TO TAKE CASH?? 20 points is plenty punishment enough for a slight road rule breach.its ALL about the money," Quasievil

I would hope that some of this revenue would find it's way to Hospitals (probably via ACC) as it is very expence to treat patients (the ones that survive) with motor vechicle injuries. Then there is the ambulances and the fire brigade, who all love working shit hours for nothing because they enjoy MVA's so much.

PS: have worked as an orthopeadic nurse and have treated my share of MVA's.

[spudchucka]

No Problem, A old freind of mine got me into helping the police out on night shift at the Ngruawhahia station, at the time they patroled State 1 , I would go out as a volunteer two or three nights a week ,as the cops had to have two cars but only one cop in each, they liked having volunteers to help out.
I relaised after a high speed chase from Huntly to Meremere were a VTR1000 was trying to get away at around 200kp/h (a speed we matched after the chase was called of ,that this is ridiculous and is not a safe thing to do, so I stopped helping out. This event also strengthed my opinion about the mental state of those cops involved. The VTR was doing 94 km/h in a 70km/h sure he made a run for it, but the cops were intent on getting him desipte the risk to themselves the public and the biker. The chase was called off but they turned the lights of and continued. have you been in a cop car doing 200km/h they dont corner to well.
so after this and other events I hold my qualified opinion

No Imnot advocating the use of speed restrictors at all, but the point was that if the government and its police cronies were serious they would advocate and instigate legislation to make them mandatory

Can you imagine the public outcry when the Govt announced that as of today all vehicles on NZ roads will be fitted with speed restrictors?? Who would pay for it? If you are going to knock current policy don't do it by dreaming up some hairy arsed scheme that isn't remotely realistic.

Why judge the entire road policing / highway patrol because of the actions of a few dorks that you have encountered? Sure you have witnessed some pretty sad police practice by a few individuals but don't forget they are individuals, they make their own choices. Judge the people involved not the organisation.

[spudchucka]

Spud, You should know that I was referring to Goebbels maxim;
If the lie is big enough, and you repeat it often enough, the people will believe it.
When are you going to enter into a debate without personal attacks on anyone you don't agree with? I'm referring to the 'mental issues' comment. It seems that your self esteem is so tightly bound to your job that you can't bear any criticism of that job. Loosen up.

As far as I'm concerned its about what is fair and reasonable critisism. If Dr Evil wants to imply that all HP officers have mental disorders then he opens himself up for critisism as well. What goes around comes around, that is one of the laws of the universe as far as I'm concerned.

Yes I am passionate about my job and I am happy to defend the police on issues that I believe are not being presented fairly or correctly. Having said that I am not so blind that I can't see fault in the police or Govt policies, there are heaps of areas that can be improved. The police is an organisation that pretty much every person has an opinion on and thats fair enough. What happens all to often however is that peoples opinions are based on mis-information. Information passed along by friends, relatives, workmates, the media etc and by the time it gets to places like this forum it is twisted out of all comprehension.

If you look back I think that you will see that I have never started one of these threads on police this or that. If people don't want me to tackle these issues then don't bloody post them up in the first place.

As for Goebbels maxim, yes I see your point. I am no fan of the LTSA stat spouting spokespersons either but I resent any inference that suggests any similarity between Nazi Germany and NZ or our police service.

[James Deuce]

As far as I'm concerned its about what is fair and reasonable critisism. If Dr Evil wants to imply that all HP officers have mental disorders then he opens himself up for critisism as well. What goes around comes around, that is one of the laws of the universe as far as I'm concerned.

Yes I am passionate about my job and I am happy to defend the police on issues that I believe are not being presented fairly or correctly. Having said that I am not so blind that I can't see fault in the police or Govt policies, there are heaps of areas that can be improved. The police is an organisation that pretty much every person has an opinion on and thats fair enough. What happens all to often however is that peoples opinions are based on mis-information. Information passed along by friends, relatives, workmates, the media etc and by the time it gets to places like this forum it is twisted out of all comprehension.

If you look back I think that you will see that I have never started one of these threads on police this or that. If people don't want me to tackle these issues then don't bloody post them up in the first place.

As for Goebbels maxim, yes I see your point. I am no fan of the LTSA stat spouting spokespersons either but I resent any inference that suggests any similarity between Nazi Germany and NZ or our police service.

There are plenty of similarities in NZ to Nazi Germany. Restrictions on movement and ethnically based restrictions on property rights (Maori had NZ stolen from under them by force and guile and aren't allowed to point that out without howls of protest from "right thinking" kiwis) to name but two.

[Quasievil]

Can you imagine the public outcry when the Govt announced that as of today all vehicles on NZ roads will be fitted with speed restrictors?? Who would pay for it? If you are going to knock current policy don't do it by dreaming up some hairy arsed scheme that isn't remotely realistic.

Why judge the entire road policing / highway patrol because of the actions of a few dorks that you have encountered? Sure you have witnessed some pretty sad police practice by a few individuals but don't forget they are individuals, they make their own choices. Judge the people involved not the organisation.

I can imagine the public outcry and it would be loud, I couldnt imagine it happening, but with the idiots at ltsa who knows.The govt of course would make us pay for it.
I will knock any damn policy I like, the current one is garbage and is only about money, end of story.
Are you saying that the current scheme is not hairy arsed? are you saying it is realistic? HP have not got a shit show of improving road safety by targeting people doing fractions over the speed limit, all it does do is encourage dis respect for the HP and the police in general. Even non HP police would agree with that, the HP gives the police a bad name with its enforcment tactics. Within Police as a organisation, who gets the nice new cars? the flash warm jackets, the latest in equipment?? the HP does, Non HP members do have an attitude about it.
I personally dont think there is a problem with Road safety generally speaking, it is a no win situation, as long as humans and Cars have a relationship there will always be deaths on the road.The only avenue for improvement is for advances in Car safety and road construction, over empowered under paid "police IRD service" in cars that are designed to extract cash from the public at every opportunity WILL NOT CHANGE A THING EVER.

And you are right, I shouldnt judge the entire HP based on a few indiviuals I should judge it for the organisation it is. A division of the IRD and that is the limitation of the respect I have for the HP who spend months training to scare the living shit out of people (flashing lights etc) for doing stuff all wrong.
"WOW great police work !!!! you showed him for doing 111kp/h "

Now the real Police I have every respect for

[spudchucka]

There are plenty of similarities in NZ to Nazi Germany. Restrictions on movement and ethnically based restrictions on property rights (Maori had NZ stolen from under them by force and guile and aren't allowed to point that out without howls of protest from "right thinking" kiwis) to name but two.

There have been plenty of injustices done in this country but not to the scale of what happened in Europe during the 1930's.

[Quasievil]

There are plenty of similarities in NZ to Nazi Germany. Restrictions on movement and ethnically based restrictions on property rights (Maori had NZ stolen from under them by force and guile and aren't allowed to point that out without howls of protest from "right thinking" kiwis) to name but two.

And the personal ID cards which were sold to NZers as Drivers licenses, which they are on the face of it but being DIGITAL they can be used for all soughts of things, next we will see other information being stored ie, relationship details, educational information,ethnic info, political info we are one step away from this being reality, this is fine no problem, BUT what this does is set a platform for those fools in Wellington to Creep in other things for example, what if the Government decided they wanted an ID card to be presented at all Buses or train stations "to prevent terrorisim" the card is already here, what then if it decided that because of a terrorist threat any one who belonged to a "certain political party" couldnt travel ??
I know this is a bit out there but its only a step away from current situations.

Nazi Germany decided it wanted to be able to identify Jews with the star of david, from this they crept in certain policys to restrict the jews abilities to carry out there lives in the fashion they had been accustomed to, and from there ,well we know the story.
At the end of the day ,I think this is a bit far fetched (like the jews did) but I would prefer not to empower the "political party of the day" with such information on the population.
The age of non privacy is on our door step, we will see this develop over time,
I dont want this happening at all.
So yes there are some similarities, they just arent as extreme (yet)