Increase in unmarked police cars?

Hasdrubahl said :

If I’m flagged down by a crumbum in a Hi-lux wearing jeans and a checked shirt from Target, how do I know he’s a real cop and not just some gangsta?

Do gangstas wear checked shirts from Target?

As for the original post… Ava, you’re a wanker “aka mobile undercover speed cameras” are you serious?

Deckard said :

What type of car does your mate drive?

Hey Deckard, I think I know that bloke, he drives an ordinary “attack ship”, but last I saw it was on fire off the shoulder of Orion St.

What type of car does your mate drive?

Jeez that Headbonius was a nice guy!!

Dear Ant, please tell me what business you run. I may need your services. It may also provide me with some amusement if your little yappy dog bites me and I can kick it in the head hopefully causing some type of fatal brain aneurism.

as the idiots know the road rules and stop breaking them when cops are around!

…And that’s probably the most frustrating part of it.

Unmarked cars are the only way the cops in Canberra are going to get teh idiots, as the idiots know the road rules and stop breaking them when cops are around!

Saw an unmarked white Rodeo pull over some car on the parkway tonight. Loked like the standard tradies ute from Gungahlin or west Belco!!!

Proud Local… can u tell me why im being followed by undercovers?
could it be that im under surveillance.. lol.. if so yous are wasting ur time???..lol

Fluges, my chihuahuas have got revenge for your dog being threatened, they’ve bitten every policeman who’s ventured onto our place! The last one was just a couple of weeks ago and was a bit below the belt as the cop was a customer. (Dog has taken up biting in a big way, everyone needs a hobby….).

Cops are the same as people fluges, you have nice ones and some real fuc*wits.
Dont judge cops as a whole just because there are some fuc*wits in the force.

When I was driving taxis in the 1970’s, one ACT policeman booked me 5 nights in a row. I made the mistake of arguing with him the first time, so he pinged me for the next 4 nights for imaginary traffic offenses. In those days, there were only taxis and police cars on the roads after 2am, Civic was deserted and it was easy for him to target one particular cab. Once, when he booked me for going through a green light, I had a passenger who argued black and blue with him that the light wasn’t red and the copper threatened to charge him with something too if he didn’t shut up.

Another time, two motorcycle cops pulled me up in Civic and detained me for 2 hours for some alleged offense in Kambah earlier in the evening. While we waited for the Kambah cop to turn up, they spent the whole time menacing me and joking to each other about how fast they’d riden down particular streets. I had to stand up outside the car, I wasn’t allowed to sit down, and when the Kambah cop eventually arrived and said they’d got the wrong bloke, they wrote me a ticket for not wearing a seat belt, even though I had been wearing one.

These incidents have coloured my perception of ACT traffic cops ever since, even though I’ve had little to do with them. More recently, at a random breath test, the copper threatened to shoot my little dog, who was barking at him through the window, as terriers do. That really impressed me too.

suprisingly it’s pretty hard to charge someone with tailgating. Firstly you need both rego’s of the car, they both need to match up, and you need to follow the cars for a decent distance (500m) and know what distance was between the cars.

I dare say there aren’t that many issued. Most of them would be issued at your classic rear end crashes.

If I’m flagged down by a crumbum in a Hi-lux wearing jeans and a checked shirt from Target, how do I know he’s a real cop and not just some gangsta?

he he he…the classic “old styled” coppers are still around but their numbers are dwindling thankfully. And yes they are a little cranky and a bit jaded but 20+ years in the force seems to do that to people. I hope to god I never become that way physically or in attitude. So far so good.

And yes, obviously most people don’t tail gate when marked vehicles are around, only the really dumb ones that don’t look in their rear view mirror. Sometimes I can’t find a traffic offence for love or money but as soon as I drive home from a shift, I see offences everywhere. I understand your pain but we can’t be everywhere.

well, he was tall and big, with a very large stomach. And he seemed annoyed about something. Maybe because we were all slowing down, I thought it was a crash or something, as the whole scene was quite chaotic.

“a large fat cop was angrily waving us on”

Detective Bargearse?

“I’ll have a sh1tload of dim sims with a bucket of soya sauce.”

a large fat cop was angrily waving us on
Tautology, but oh so acceptable in this case

Asians can not say “nice”. Thus “rice”.

Saw a silver cnut car Commydore flashing its lights at a motorbike accident.

add the white camry/aurion that was off somewhere in a hurry this arvo.

I would say unmarked cars are good, the marked cars would serve as a better deterrent though. Might have come in handy for the fool I encountered again forcing his was past 2 cars in the form one lane before the parkway and the even better guy in the vs commodore who actually pulled onto the hard shoulder and road side (on the left) to overtake on sulwood dr, he even had his young son in the car too. we have the best drivers here!

Well, if you were looking for marked or unmarked cops at going home time today, you were out of luck unless you were on the Oaks Estate Road. They were all there! Turning off the main drag onto that back road into Qbn, cars coming towards us were all furiously flashing their lights. And there were heaps of them as you start to descend towards the river. There was a Hilux-y thing in charge of the cones, and then both sides of the road had cop cars in every colour and combo of Police crap on them, and lines of cops breathalyzing the victims. They seemed to be booked out though as a large fat cop was angrily waving us on. So we missed out on joining in the fun.

Mrs Danman saw a circa 85 diesel hilux with the christmas lights in operation on the side of the parkway. Mr plod seemed to be giving a ticket. Unmarked and ununiformed officer.

I think they are a great idea, maybe they could promote their use on local television. Nothing like paranoia to make the masses comply.

As for me, I am like toriness, had a few tix in my time, but all my fault. Revenue rasing blah blah people are just bitter.

I’m not mollified by the information that ONE Canberra driver has been pinged for tailgating in several months! Tailgating is a horrendous Canberra habit, and the buggers know it’s wrong, because when a police car is spotted, they all back right off! When teh car has gone, they creep up each others’ bums again.

Proud Local, good on you! Genuinely. However, since this is RA where cynicism is de rigueur: can the computer system handle it? It would have to be the first tail gating ticket ever issued, wouldn’t it.

I think it’s a good idea to have those undercover cars. I sometime wish I was an undercover police man for just one day.. infact for just the drive to work. In the half an hour drive to work every morning I see a good number of people breaking the law. People speeding, going through red lights, not just amber lights turning red, as in I have to wait for people to finish crossing the intersection even when I have a green light. People driving on the shoulder or bike path to get in front of people or to turn left without having to wait in line like everyone else…

I am not a fuddy duddy , I just cant see why every one else can follow the law except the special ones that think they dont have to.

In my mind the more police cars on the road wether they are undercover or not the better..

Rice???

And yes, they do operate 24/7. Just take a peek down into the Belconnen property office car yard and have a look at all the confiscated vehicles they have down there. The place is heaving with hotted up cars caught doing burnouts.

You must understand though that a lot of the undercover vehicles are NOT out there to sneakily book people. They have other more specific targets and ongoing investigations like surveillance of known criminals or even looking for said criminals. Doing this in a marked vehicle obviously gives them away hence undercover cars needed.

There is a lot more to Policing then just traffic matters although thats the side of the law that most people experience.

And yes, we got a guy for tail gaiting up Northbourne avenue a few months ago. He was right up the backside of the car in front for a good 500 metres so we pinged him for it.

Spotted an unmarked White BA falcon booking someone in Civic yesterday.
I agree, there seems to be a lot more unmarked cars around lately.

Dear Ava, in whose fantasy world are unmarked police vehicles known as “mobile undercover speed cameras” – YOU MORON. There is a world of difference – they don’t take photos, a nice Policeman gets out and lets you know immediately that you have broken a road rule. You don’t get a ticket a fortnight later in the mail a la redlight and speed cameras (fixed and mobile)

Christ some of you people should consider suicide.

If the cops had a problem with tailgating I’d surely have been done for it by now, and I haven’t.

Kidding; of course I don’t tailgate

Did you enjoy your moment on a soapbox toriness? You are completely missing the point of the topic – are there more unmarked police cars on the road, and are they a more or less effective means of enforcement and deterrence.

the only people who complain about “revenue-raising” are the ones who have been caught breaking the law and are bitter about it. end. of. story.

you know who you are. there is no argument against it – road rules are there for a reason and everybody knows why.

for the record i’ve been caught on various traffic infringements and i’ve not blamed anybody except myself because no-one held a gun to my head and made me do the wrong thing.

the roof lights on the kermit falcon must be new, it was fully unmarked the few times i’ve seen it. They must be topping up the numbers, there’s also a fully marked dark blue vz commodore around too. Someone mentioned the silver unmarked falcon ute, I avoided speeding past an umarked commodore in a road works zone the other day too. The unmarked cars aren’t too difficult to spot if you pay enough attention and know what to look for.

its no such a bad idea?

when are they going to do people for queuing across intersections/roundabouts, causing gridlock? Never, yeah. The only time rcently people stopped doing it was when the cops were camped out on the roundabouts…. because of the Important Yanks coming to town for AUSMIN.

Does anyone know of ANYONE being done for tailgating in recent years? I sure don’t.

Do any of the road rules mean anything? Other than speed limits painted on signs. Is that the only road rule?

Apparently theres an anti-rice squad comprised of rice machines (silvias, wrx’s, lancers, etc) driven by undercovers in ACT also. Haven’t spotted personally just heard thru friends. This similar idea used to be a good PR idea WHEN we had a functioning dragstip for the cops in dragified marked falcodores to lineup against the public for a 1/8 mile shootoff.

There’s also a plain jane looking, red BA/BF Falcon sedan floating about. The only giveaway is the slight raising of the reversing lights next to the numberplate to accomodate the x-mas lights.

Got me in December :-\

I am glad that so many of you obey the speed limit at all times and therefore will never be fined for speeding. I agree that marked cars are more of a deterrent for most drivers and the unmarked cars should be used where there is a known incidence of burnouts and bad driving. As we all know it is that one time when you accidentally travel at more than the posted limit that you get caught, although you may well be a model driver at other times.

All well and good Proud Local if they help catch the Morons with their burnouts and reckless driving so long as these cars are on the road at night time/weekends. Anyone any info on when these cars are utilised? Hopefully it’s 24/7 ?

I’m happy with some more revenue raising. Perfectly OK with me for other people to contribute to my government funds to spend on things to benefit me.

I think it is a good thing, and there should be more of them about.

If we really wanted to revenue raise then we would fine drivers for doing 65 in a 60 zone which pretty much every 2nd car does even with a marked Police car around.

It’s only the ones doing 70 plus that get booked, plus if they are doing it with a marked car right behind them, they deserve a ticket as it shows they are not being attentive and looking for all of the cars around them.

Most people that get pulled over who are not going excessively over (i.e.20k’s or more)the limit and have a polite and respectful attitude are likely to get an official caution. Talks of revenue raising from Police is just rubbish and the revenue goes to ACT public coffers anyway, not back to the AFP.

RTA speed cameras? Well, they could be considered a different story.

Unmarked vehicles are very handy for spotting hoons doing burnouts and other reckless driving that most people find unacceptable.

I’ve seen a silver Falcon XR8 ute also.

I used to be reasonably comfortable spotting unmarked police cars – now they are incredibly diverse and could be any car. I like it that way. One of the funniest things I’ve seen is some idiot in front of me absolutely burn past what turned out to be an unmarked police car when an overtaking lane become available. I’m sure you can guess what happened next.

break the law – assume the position. If you cant read a speed sign, then look at your speedo to ensure you are under the number in the red circle you probably shouldn’t drive.

I’ve long argued that the deterence value of having a visible police presence on the roads is far better for encoraging comliance with our often outdated and sometimes stupid speed limits than the off chance that one of your fellow travellers might be a plod. Think about it, who speeds when there’s a cop driving in the traffic with you.

i just dunno about all this discussion everytime police are mentioned about ‘revenue raising’…

sometimes, on a long straight downhill stretch of great highway on a clear fine day, pulling over everyone doing a couple of kays only above the posted limit, mebbe you could cast such aspersions; but where it is on a common road, no excuse if you can’t abide by the traffic regulations.

not knowing where the plain cars were operating, hard to tell, but there are plenty of spots about town – stop signs where lanes cross over the wide median strips, on say limestone or anzac etc. it says ‘stop’, not ‘slow down or just zoom through if you think you make it through a gap in the traffic’. means you have to s-t-o-p… – including school or other heavy pedestrian zones where a more prominent presence would be welcomed…

hopefully these sightings have deterred you, ava?