15 August 2009

Police Wrap - 15 August

| johnboy
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1. Who’s a clever boy then?

    A 19-year-old Chifley man will appear in the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday (August 17) to face charges in relation to 39 traffic offences.

    Police will allege the man was identified speeding by fixed speed cameras at various locations across Canberra on 38 different occasions between April 21 and August 10 this year, including travelling 56km/h over the posted speed limit on the Monaro Highway in Hume.

    The man’s Mitsubishi Magna was not fitted with registration plates at the time of the offences however police were able to identify the driver using other available resources.

    He will face 38 charges of exceeding the speed limit, as well as using an unregistered vehicle and possessing a prohibited substance.

    Superintendent of ACT Policing Traffic Operations Mark Colbran says this should highlight to motorists that deliberate attempts to evade being identified by fixed speed cameras in the ACT will not be successful.

    “Police have a range of tools and resources available to them to investigate these sorts of offences, and such a blatant disregard for traffic laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent,” Supt Colbran said.

2. Mad bombers on the loose:

    ACT Policing is investigating damage to three residential letter boxes in three different south-side suburbs last night (August 13), caused by what appears to be an explosive substance.

    Between 9.50pm and 10.20pm, letter boxes in Theodore, Calwell and Gordon suffered minor damage from the suspected explosions, with small pieces of debris landing up to 40 metres from the incident locations.

    A white coloured four wheel drive was observed in the vicinity of two of the incidents around the time they occurred. The vehicle is described as a Land Rover Discovery or similar, bearing partial ACT registration YII.

    Anyone who may have information about these incidents, or who recognises the description of the vehicle is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

3. A disappointing day for someone in the prison:

    ACT Policing arrested a 27-year-old woman after she was allegedly found to be in possession of drugs whilst visiting the Alexander Maconochie Centre (AMC) yesterday (August 13).

    Police will allege the Gordon woman was attending the AMC to visit an inmate when a drug detection dog at the visitor’s entrance to the facility alerted staff to her. A subsequent search of the alleged offender’s vehicle located four grams of amphetamine type substance, ice pipes and scales.

    A later search of the alleged offender’s home also located another four grams of amphetamine type substance.

    The woman will face the ACT Magistrates Court today (August 14) charged with taking a prohibited thing into a correctional centre, trafficking in a controlled drug other than cannabis, possessing a prohibited substance and possessing a drug of dependence.

4. How not to ram raid:

    A 19-year-old man will be summonsed to court after he was identified early this morning (August 15) driving a vehicle while allegedly ten times over the legal blood alcohol limit.

    The man came to the attention of police around 1.50am when they were called to a motor vehicle collision in Tuggeranong. A vehicle had been allegedly driven into the front of the Sportsmans Warehouse, on the corner of Reed and Scollay Streets, breaking a pane of glass.

    The probationary driver, who is subject to a blood alcohol limit of 0.02, allegedly fled the scene but was located on Reed Street and transported to Tuggeranong Police Station where he recorded a blood alcohol content of 0.203, more than ten times the legal limit.

    ACT Policing’s Superintendent Kate Buggy said this kind of behaviour is absolutely crazy.

    “This is the second probationary driver we have caught with a blood alcohol reading of around ten times the legal limit in less than a week,” Supt Buggy said.

    “ACT Policing and the Canberra community will not tolerate this reckless behaviour. There are serious consequences for drink-driving, these kids could lose their licence, or kill themselves, their friends or other Canberra road users,” Supt Buggy said.

If you can help police contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or via the website at www.act.crimestoppers.com.au.

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SheepGroper said :

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

That said, he seems to have sped regularly and yet didn’t have an accident…

Not one that severely damaged the car, that’s not to say he didn’t have minor crashes – or caused them.

How often have you heard “I have had my licence for 20years (or so) and have never had an accident” This means they are a superior and safe driver ……. (insert wrong answer buzzer here —-> ) Not necessarily true.

He was speeding on 40 occasions and didn’t have an accident, so speeding is safe …….(insert wrong answer buzzer here —-> )

It’s alright VY, I’m not gonna enter into a speeding debate here 😉 lol Besides, 99.9% of “accidents” are actually crashes.

so how many days are there in this period? SO if he drove every day it would seems he is getting off very leniantly indeed. How is it that he was able to drive for so long without even registration plates? Did any law abiding citizen think to ring Crime Stoppers? If so, did they have their reports taken seriously? Way too many qustions about this supposed success of proactive policing.

The world doesn’t need more Police

It needs less assholes

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

That said, he seems to have sped regularly and yet didn’t have an accident…

Not one that severely damaged the car, that’s not to say he didn’t have minor crashes – or caused them.

Why don’t you go and catch some real criminals

Sorry for coming back to the party late..

caf said :

Your definition of “getting away with it” and mine must be different, dvaey. Seems to me that he’s been hauled before the beak for all those offences.

Sure, but as others have said, he got away with it un-stopped for 4 months, and my post was more questioning how many others are continuing to get away with it? Just because youve gotten rid of one bad driver from the road, doesnt mean theyre the only one making the road unsafe. Im sure theres plenty of other cases where the vehicle cant be identified.

Tooks said :

AG Canberra said :

And geez – wouldn’t it be nice to see a cop car patrolling a suburban street –

What, like they do every day and night of the year? People assume because they don’t see many cop cars in the ‘burbs, that they aren’t there.

Think back 10 years ago, how often did you see a police officer with a speedgun on adelaide avenue or other regular hotspots, ready to write out tickets? You cannot deny since speed cameras have come in, the visible police presence on the roads has changed. I have driven pizza delivery for about 6 years, which means driving between 4-11pm on various days of the week, and I can say without a doubt the number of police on the road has decreased since cameras have increased.

This is why its nice to hear stories of police doing active patrols, even if they do pick up a dozen P-platers (who have probably never seen a speed trap before), going back to the old days.

Tooks – you are making my point for me – 6 cars isn’t enough to act as a deterrant.

If a decent political party advocated funding a police presence that acts as a decent deterrent to crims – they would be voted in in a landslide.

I think you’ll find we are happy to pay for results – and what we are getting at the moment is anything but…

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy4:35 pm 17 Aug 09

caf said :

Rubbish, without the cameras he’d have been up on for one speeding fine plus the unregistered vehicle and spliff charges. Instead he’s being done for all 40.

Rubbish, he’s had his car and been able to speed on 40 occasions. If he’d been pulled over and had the wind put up him maybe he wouldn’t have deliberately sped another 39 times. Just because fines were issued, our roads are not necessarily safer.

That said, he seems to have sped regularly and yet didn’t have an accident…

Ozi said :

30-45 km/h over is ~$800, 45km+ is a $1600 fine. His punishment? I’m guessing less than $1000 fine and a 6 month suspended licence.

I bloody hope not. What, the way to get out of fines these days is just to commit more offenses? $1000 would be less than the fine for driving unregistered+uninsured vehicle alone. And why would he care about a license suspesion? If he’s unlicensed when he gets caught driving next time, the courts will probably go even easier on the poor dear.

No, I’ve never been allowed to pick and choose the fines I pay. And taking it up with the courts will normally only result in more costs. I guess my childhood wasn’t bad enough to qualify for the ACT get out of gaol free program.

AG Canberra said :

And geez – wouldn’t it be nice to see a cop car patrolling a suburban street –

What, like they do every day and night of the year? People assume because they don’t see many cop cars in the ‘burbs, that they aren’t there.

It would be great to have more Police in this city, but have a look at reality:

If there’s half a dozen patrol cars on shift in (for example) Woden, then that’s about 33 suburbs in that zone, divided by 6 cars. Most of those cars will be going from job to job during a shift, so that’s even less time to be doing more proactive patrols.

No complaints from me – I’d be cheering and so would the families of those that aren’t killed by traffic accidents. We all know being pulled over by a real live copper is a much greater deterrant to speeding than fixed speed cameras. Geting the fine in the mail two weeks later completely misses the point.

If we drove out our driveways each day knowing there were 100 police cars out on our roads patrolling – I can guarantee the speeding we all see on a daily basis would just about disappear. And geez – wouldn’t it be nice to see a cop car patrolling a suburban street – where the potential damage done by a speeding vehicle is that much greater. We might even see a reduction in break and enters, assaults, vandalism of schools etc etc.

30-45 km/h over is ~$800, 45km+ is a $1600 fine. His punishment? I’m guessing less than $1000 fine and a 6 month suspended licence.

AG Canberra said :

The traffic camera office is operated by ACT public servants – and not very smart ones.

This again shows how cameras DO NOT make the roads safer. If we had a decent police presence on the roads this bloke would have been caught well before now and hopefully locked up – thus removing the risk to the rest of us.

The cameras have done nothing to stop this bloke from speeding.

Yes it has. When his butt is hauled before a magistrate and DPP make a strong argument in favor of making him accountable then we’ll see…. *blink* whoops, my bad, that is just a day dream…

I do disagree with your comments about making the roads safer. I believe that they have made a positive difference where they are. If there were another 100 Police roaming around enforcing road rules you and everybody else would complain.

Rubbish, without the cameras he’d have been up on for one speeding fine plus the unregistered vehicle and spliff charges. Instead he’s being done for all 40.

The traffic camera office is operated by ACT public servants – and not very smart ones.

This again shows how cameras DO NOT make the roads safer. If we had a decent police presence on the roads this bloke would have been caught well before now and hopefully locked up – thus removing the risk to the rest of us.

The cameras have done nothing to stop this bloke from speeding.

Do you know what the difference between a provisional and probationary licence is?

Provisional is age or experience contingent. Probationary is something you get back as part of a scheme of punishment. And yes, they have the same alcohol limit

Provisional not probationary. Probationary paints all young and inexperienced drivers as people who’ve done something wrong, rather than recognising that they’re just simply inexperienced.

If you don’t recognise that the one road rule you should never break is speeding, you’re not mature enough to understand actions/consequences – this is one road rule they policy – and should not be allowed to hold any kind of drivign licence.

I heard them also, second one had a huge flash of light, further up on the hill than Ebenezer near the trig station on the reserve behind the fire track. My friend on the other side of the hill in Gordon reported it to police. 2 explosions around 11.05 last night. A few unhappy dogs afterwards.

Yes I heard them too….very close to Barr Smith. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was in the middle of it.

silvernitrate11:11 pm 15 Aug 09

oh my just heard 2 consecutive BOOMS in Bonython……

stupid idiots

Aha! I was wondering what that booming noise was the other night!

idiots.

process of elimination is probably one way and the cameras don’t just take pics of numberplates. Alternatively they probably caught him in the act of committing the crime, probably why he’s on the drugs charge too.

He must have been SPEEDING chuckle

What a moron. And no, it doesn’t sound like he’s getting away with it at all. I think exceeding the limit by < 15 I think is about $130 and 15-29 is about $200. If we assume the average fine is $160, he’s up for 6 grand in speeding fines alone. Unregistered/uninsured is probably up over $1000 these days. That’s a lot of money for most 19 year olds.

The best part is imagining about how smug he must have been, thinking he was getting away with it.

caf said :

Your definition of “getting away with it” and mine must be different, dvaey. Seems to me that he’s been hauled before the beak for all those offences.

And as for “checks and balances”, the speed cameras operate under the same chain-of-evidence rules that are used in other situations, like when private labs do analysis work on police evidence.

Really depends on how many times he drove past speed cameras in those 4 months. I’m guessing it was probably more than 40 times but they couldn’t clearly identify the driver so he probably got away with some offences. Not that it really matters, he’s about to experience a world of hurt and fines that he’ll probably never be able to pay off.
Personally I think anyone deliberately driving an unregistered vehicle on a public road should spend some time in jail to think about their life. I would also like to see the vehicle crushed and then dumped on his front lawn.

caf said :

Your definition of “getting away with it” and mine must be different, dvaey. Seems to me that he’s been hauled before the beak for all those offences.

And as for “checks and balances”, the speed cameras operate under the same chain-of-evidence rules that are used in other situations, like when private labs do analysis work on police evidence.

+1

Your definition of “getting away with it” and mine must be different, dvaey. Seems to me that he’s been hauled before the beak for all those offences.

And as for “checks and balances”, the speed cameras operate under the same chain-of-evidence rules that are used in other situations, like when private labs do analysis work on police evidence.

Police will allege the man was NOT identified speeding by fixed speed cameras at various locations across Canberra on 38 different occasions between April 21 and August 10 this year,

Superintendent of ACT Policing Traffic Operations Mark Colbran says this should highlight to motorists that deliberate attempts to evade being identified by fixed speed cameras in the ACT will not be successful.

I dunno what his idea of ‘successful’ is, but it sounds like getting away with it nearly 40 times over 4 months, was pretty successful to me. Id be curious, with as many tickets as these flash-for-cash units hand out, I wonder how many snaps they take that dont result in tickets. I wonder how many people really ARE successful in their delibrate attempts to evade police?

Which raises another interesting question, as speed cameras are privately operated, what checks and balances are on these charges?

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