Coppers and traffic enforcment

[MikeL]

1) Car broken into - cops 'couldn't attend'
2) Car broken into a 2nd time - cops 'couldn't attend'
3) House broken into - cops 'couldn't attend' for 3 days but 'don't disturb the scene'
4) I go thru a YELLOW light - 7 cops ticket me !!!!!


I guess my going thru a yellow light was a much more serious offence ?

Interesting set of responses to your post, crunch. I have to say that in your position I would feel aggrieved as well. You're not complaining about being caught breaking a traffic law (do some people deliberately misunderstand these things, I wonder??) but about the misplaced priorities. And you get one cop replying that the 3 property crimes that you were a victim of were unavoidable! How's that for cynicism? Only bettered by another cop's post that was meant to be facetious but just reminds us all why the police have lost so much respect... "Arrogant" would be a masterpiece of understatement.

Incidentally, the topic of loss of respect for the police came up the other day at a genteel ever-so-upper-middle-class-but not-trendy-lefty dinner that I was at. Most people had complaints about the HP and speed cameras as you would expect and that has clearly diminished the image of the police but what surprised me was the level of bitterness and mistrust that came out time and time again. There were the predictable stories about lack of response to property crimes, and of course all the scandals and cock-ups that have been in the news recently were brought up, and the farce that is the Police Complaints Authority, but the shocking thing was the accounts by parents of how their teenage and young adult children had been treated - stories of hassling, harrassment, bullying, threats, etc., often associated with traffic enforcement but also for supected minor drug and alcohol infringments and other matters. Now I know that you have to take what kids tell their parents with a grain of salt, and of course even kids from respectable families can get out of hand, but when you consistently hear stories of blatant injustice and illegal actions by the police from parents who a generation ago would have cuffed the kid over the earhole and told him not to tell lies about the fine upstanding police-force, you begin to wonder what is happening...

And all the while the police refuse to admit they have an image problem, and that it's just us whingers who should take a reality check and then shut up, and let them get on with the job, the support and respect they don't acknowledge that they need continues to ebb away. Do you guys need someone to explain what "arrogant" means?

[scumdog]

Why have cops SUDDENLY screwed up so much lately? why have they ONLY made mistakes in the last 4-5 years at most?

Why is it the same dudes doing the same job year-in-year-out all of a sudden start to make mistakes?

Why NOW do people complain if those mistakes have been made throughout history? :spudwhat:

And as I've said, the way the Govt. sees it: ONE fatal crash prevented is more than equal to the monetary cost of 10 burglaries or similar crimes.

-And it's money that counts when it comes to what counts with the Govt.

[Stevo]

Why have cops SUDDENLY screwed up so much lately? why have they ONLY made mistakes in the last 4-5 years at most?

Why is it the same dudes doing the same job year-in-year-out all of a sudden start to make mistakes?

Why NOW do people complain if those mistakes have been made throughout history? :spudwhat:

And as I've said, the way the Govt. sees it: ONE fatal crash prevented is more than equal to the monetary cost of 10 burglaries or similar crimes.

-And it's money that counts when it comes to what counts with the Govt.

Hmmmmmm. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We still think of General Custer an idiot............. but maybe he too was misinformed.

[spudchucka]

but the shocking thing was the accounts by parents of how their teenage and young adult children had been treated - stories of hassling, harrassment, bullying, threats, etc., often associated with traffic enforcement but also for supected minor drug and alcohol infringments and other matters. Now I know that you have to take what kids tell their parents with a grain of salt, and of course even kids from respectable families can get out of hand, but when you consistently hear stories of blatant injustice and illegal actions by the police from parents who a generation ago would have cuffed the kid over the earhole and told him not to tell lies about the fine upstanding police-force, you begin to wonder what is happening...

There was a time parents supported the police and were quite happy for their little brats to get a bloody good frightening.

These days they have no respect, no fear of consequences, all the rights and none of the responsibilities, its always somebody elses fault, they tell their teachers to get fucked with no consequences, the parents don't back up the schools when they try to discipline their kids and then they do the same thing when their brats are older and coming to the attention of the police.

Ask yourself who is to blame? The air-headed parents who live in la-la-land.


Seven cops to hand out one ticket for an orange light? He was either stupid enough to do it in front of 7 cops at a check point or its the usual exagerated bullshit that idiots keep chundering up with monotonous regularity. Call it arrogant if you want.

[ManDownUnder]

There was a time parents supported the police and were quite happy for their little brats to get a bloody good frightening.

These days they have no respect, no fear of consequences, all the rights and none of the responsibilities, its always somebody elses fault, they tell their teachers to get fucked with no consequences, the parents don't back up the schools when they try to discipline their kids and then they do the same thing when their brats are older and coming to the attention of the police.

I'm happy for my kids to get a rark up from a cop (they're only 5 and 2). My problem is that every time they climb out of their seatbelts there is no cop to be found. I'd love for the long arm of the law to step over and have a quiet word.

Adding to your comments about "no responsibility" there is the added pressures of encouraging people to do bad stuff through vidieo games and videos etc. I know the majority of people are not likely affected/significantly influenced by them, but for the one or two that are...

Teaching kids to shoot people, drive fast and run people over, beat the crap out of people etc etc can not be a good thing for them. Then they go do it for real (and I can't wait for generation of 12 year old X-Boxers to hit the streets)... smoke a little pot (as kids often do - lets face it).

Yeah - not a good combo.

... bit I digress... rant over!
MDU

[Biff]

You're not complaining about being caught breaking a traffic law (do some people deliberately misunderstand these things, I wonder??) but about the misplaced priorities.

And he has every right to be aggrieved. But there just so happened to be 7 (?) police officers that were there to witness him jumping the orange light, and there were no police sitting outside his home waiting for it to be burgled. A deliberate misunderstand on your part perhaps?

I believe what this example, and all the others we see commonly being posted here demonstrates is that the time has now come to amalgamate the H.P with the wider police force. If there is a serious crime, of which I consider gun theft to be, then the nearest available police officers should attend, irrespective of whether they're H.P or otherwise. I know this is supposed to happen today, but from what I read here and see in the press, it isn't.

Why have cops SUDDENLY screwed up so much lately? why have they ONLY made mistakes in the last 4-5 years at most?

It's probably more to do with a general backlash from the public. They're pissed of at what they deem to be a heavy-handed approach by the H.P and the apparent revenue generation policies set by the government.

I doubt that the public would mind paying the odd speeding ticket and quit moaning as much if they saw some tangible improvements in public service as a direct result of the money being ploughed back into road safety, the police force in general and wider public services.

[Sniper]

I'm amazed that a theft of guns didn't bring a speedy result. btw - it may not be traffic duties. Police have a finite resource. Criminals don't seem to suffer the same shortages.

Have they been yet?

Paul N

ps - were the guns in a gun safe?

I dont know, the cops up here in Marlborough use........ wait for it..........

9 cop cars and 15 police officers to do a warrent and rego check on a Rural road, thereby effectivly reducing the number of cars on the road and police on the beat to 2 patrol cars and 4 police officers at which 2 have to stay at the station.

I think they should fire their resource consent manager.

[Sniper]

Hmmmmmm. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We still think of General Custer an idiot............. but maybe he too was misinformed.

Yea but he also said before he died was........ "They were only just singing and dancing a minute ago" :spudwhat:

[toads]

The thing that seems logical to me, is to go back to the original system of each gun having to have registration for itself and can only be sold by a registered gun trader, the chances are most crims won't have a gun licence and will find ways around purchasing ammo etc. Our guns are locked in a cabinet that would take a real effort to break into, and the bolts, and ammo are elsewhere, and would take years to find, having been burgaled in the past I know stolen property can be recovered years down the track, if you have good descriptions of the items taken.
Sounds like these people knew where to look to find the items, and it was a specific targetted theft. So therefore you need to find out who has been in the home known or unknown to your family in the previous few weeks, then see which of them has a previous conviction for theft.

[hobdar]

I think that it is important to have police dedicated to traffic patrol, in my opinion if the police were actually harder on the minor offences i.e. traffic other problems in society would be less.

BUT if there is an incident involving harm to an individual then the closest unit should respond regardless of what they are 'tasked' with.

In my experience with police i have always had a good response time, for 5 + incidents at various times of day and night, sometimes with 5+ cops + dog unit showing up within a few minutes where i have reported people attempting to bash someone or break in my house while we were there...


We need to remember that the police force is only human and that the media lives for bad news not good, we hardly ever see the cops getting praised for doing there everyday job.or even doing things beyond their job description....

And before we criticise them we should take the time to walk a day in their shoes and arrange a ride along to see what they have to deal with every day...

[Sniper]

The thing that seems logical to me, is to go back to the original system of each gun having to have registration for itself and can only be sold by a registered gun trader, the chances are most crims won't have a gun licence and will find ways around purchasing ammo etc. Our guns are locked in a cabinet that would take a real effort to break into, and the bolts, and ammo are elsewhere, and would take years to find, having been burgaled in the past I know stolen property can be recovered years down the track, if you have good descriptions of the items taken.
Sounds like these people knew where to look to find the items, and it was a specific targetted theft. So therefore you need to find out who has been in the home known or unknown to your family in the previous few weeks, then see which of them has a previous conviction for theft.

Thats what they do in SA and it seems to work there, so why not here?? What happens if someone breaks into a house with 40 odd rifles??

[idb]

I think that it is important to have police dedicated to traffic patrol, in my opinion if the police were actually harder on the minor offences i.e. traffic other problems in society would be less.

BUT if there is an incident involving harm to an individual then the closest unit should respond regardless of what they are 'tasked' with.

In my experience with police i have always had a good response time, for 5 + incidents at various times of day and night, sometimes with 5+ cops + dog unit showing up within a few minutes where i have reported people attempting to bash someone or break in my house while we were there...


We need to remember that the police force is only human and that the media lives for bad news not good, we hardly ever see the cops getting praised for doing there everyday job.or even doing things beyond their job description....

And before we criticise them we should take the time to walk a day in their shoes and arrange a ride along to see what they have to deal with every day...

This demonstrates my point of yesterday.
You are combining discussions about the police force as a system and cops as individuals.
The Police Force is not human but the cops are.
So what is the conclusion? Do we not criticise the Police Force because the individuals do a difficult job? :spudwhat:

I agree that we shouldn't criticise individuals because we think the system sucks but a lot of people have difficulty seaparating the two.

[spudchucka]

I'm happy for my kids to get a rark up from a cop (they're only 5 and 2). My problem is that every time they climb out of their seatbelts there is no cop to be found. I'd love for the long arm of the law to step over and have a quiet word.

I had a father march his son into the police station to get a telling off for continually taking his seat belt off. Apparently the kid, (about 6 years old) thought it was a big joke. In a very stern voice the young fellow was told in no uncertain terms that he absolutely must wear his seat belt in the car. The poor kid was in tears before he got into the station and was bellowing his lungs out when he left.


Bet he wears his seat belt from now on though.

[idb]

I had a father march his son into the police station to get a telling off for continually taking his seat belt off. Apparently the kid, (about 6 years old) thought it was a big joke. In a very stern voice the young fellow was told in no uncertain terms that he absolutely must wear his seat belt in the car. The poor kid was in tears before he got into the station and was bellowing his lungs out when he left.


Bet he wears his seat belt from now on though.

The only problem with that Spud is that he will be posting on this forum in a few years complaining about what pricks cops are and how he has experienced shit that we can't understand - where is WINJA anyway?
Maybe you should have a separate wee office where someone poses as God to tell these kids off?

[ManDownUnder]

I had a father march his son into the police station to get a telling off for continually taking his seat belt off. Apparently the kid, (about 6 years old) thought it was a big joke. In a very stern voice the young fellow was told in no uncertain terms that he absolutely must wear his seat belt in the car. The poor kid was in tears before he got into the station and was bellowing his lungs out when he left.


Bet he wears his seat belt from now on though.

I think my kids would respond to the mere presence of authority but those words coming from the police would work... I might see if I can arrange something with the local cops...