Police chief 'wants drivers penalised for going 1mph over speed limit'

[McPhee]

lmao, if only world was as perfect and simple as you imagine.

I'd rather drivers spend more time looking ahead than steering at their speedo to not 1mph over.

What's so difficult about driving slow enough that you know you won't exceed the speed limit? You aren't wrong that it would be almost impossible to drive at 30mph and not exceed 30mph. But nobody is suggesting that as a solution. A car with a speed limiter should be fine with the limiter set to 29mph or 30mph (depending on the car). Under manual control, I'd worry a bit if a driver isn't able to control their speed ±10-15% (so aiming for 25-27mph in a 30).

Personally, I don't really agree with the "not even 1mph over" idea. But I do think the current system is too generous. Around here, 10% + 2mph is taken as a given; it's the speed people are aiming for, rather than a prosecution buffer. Get caught going faster than that? Attend a speed awareness course and slow down to the speed limit + 10%. The system needs to change, but not to the extent being suggested. Reduce the buffer to +10%. Ditch the speed awareness course. It's a joke. People will become a lot more aware of their speed if they expect to get a fine and points on their license.

 

[Mr Jack]

The basic problem with penalising speeding is that enforcement is so patchy that it feels completely unfair and arbitrary when you do get caught. Whether enforcement acts at 31mph or 38mph in a 30-limit, the fact is that 99.99999% of the time you can drive at 40mph and not be punished.

 

[Shimmyhill]

Ban car drivers - You'll eliminate 87% of all multi-vehicle crashes involving motorcycles!


What, idiots like the Police themselves?
Not sure if serious.....but it's not the first time this has come up.

"Olly Martins, the police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire has said that he is considering permanently switching on speed cameras on the M1 motorway in order to fund the local force"
That was in 2015, by the way... and I believe has just come into effect.

"The majority of speed fine revenue goes to the government, but Martin's office said a proportion goes to the local force"
So not all of it directly... but certainly enough and I'm sure they'll get more along the way.

It still goes to central government who fund the Police, their budget doesn’t go up and down depending on how many people get caught speeding - there is no direct funding to any Police force from FPN.

 

[Brookert]

I wish the police would focus on knife crime, burglaries, drug crime etc

Instead we have a police force obsessed with criminalising kids sending rude photos to each other, and policing the roads to within an inch of its life.

 

[kindai]

The basic problem with penalising speeding is that enforcement is so patchy that it feels completely unfair and arbitrary when you do get caught. Whether enforcement acts at 31mph or 38mph in a 30-limit, the fact is that 99.99999% of the time you can drive at 40mph and not be punished.

Quite, I was driving down the M5 the other day, everyone doing some, then all of a sudden everyone starts breaking and pulling over to the left lanes like maniacs. As I get to the "reason" see its a convoy of 3 marked police cars.

Let off the accelerator to not appear a complete lunatic, but still cruised past them comfortably, so they knew for sure, but all 3 gave exactly zero *****.

My experience is as long as you arent being a total idiot most motorway cops are more interested in the dangerous drivers rather than those who are over the limit.

 

[TheVoice]

I wish the police would focus on knife crime, burglaries, drug crime etc

They are. Along with everything else they're expected to do with less money and less people.

policing the roads to within an inch of its life.

Hardly. Every force has cut back on its roads policing resources over the years, hence why they have to run campaigns periodically to try to have some impact on public attitudes towards driving offences.

 

[Nasher]

I wish the police would focus on knife crime, burglaries, drug crime etc

Instead we have a police force obsessed with criminalising kids sending rude photos to each other, and policing the roads to within an inch of its life.

Yea they seem to be focusing on petty stuff which are easy wins, but don't really matter in the grand scheme of things :/

Do they really think the public is going to support them putting money and man power in to hounding people going 1 mph over the speed limit, when they don't even bother investigating actual crimes, because they claim they don't have the money?

 

[McBain]

Sigh..... what an utter cretin

Unless I sat everywhere using cruise control there is zero chance I could never exceed the limit(s). I don't even think my cruise control works below 40mph anyway (never been bored enough to find out)

Anyway, what a cretin.

This is surely more dangerous, as people fixated on the speedo to within 1mph isn't good? It's like those motorway roadworks where everyone is looking at the speedo not the narrow lanes..

Completely agree with both of these posts.

 

[Gaygle]

GMP's police federation have put their view forward of the genius chief constable who came up with this:

https://www.polfed.org/gmp/news/201...-alienating-the-public-we-are-there-to-serve/

 

[Gaygle]

I wish the police would focus on knife crime, burglaries, drug crime etc

Instead we have a police force obsessed with criminalising kids sending rude photos to each other, and policing the roads to within an inch of its life.

Ok this is just rubbish. Criminalising kids sending rude photos to each other?! I'm assuming you're talking about sexting and the like, in which police forces are *obliged* to record crimes on this but the agreed guidance is for kids to be educated about the dangers of it and for no action to come of it as this could affect their future.

Where did you get something as sensationalistic as "police want to criminalise kids for rude texts". It's people who write crap like this that perpetuate these stupid hearsay stories that other idiots believe.

Yea they seem to be focusing on petty stuff which are easy wins, but don't really matter in the grand scheme of things :/

Ok and what is your first hand experience of this? Did you report a burglary in progress but the 999 call taker said "sorry, the police are currently all committed pulling over speeders"? If that is your experience, then you have a completely valid point. However, if your "experience" comes from hearing people come up with anecdotal stories and reading cretinous headlines in crap newspapers - then all you have are third party stories.

Do they really think the public is going to support them putting money and man power in to hounding people going 1 mph over the speed limit, when they don't even bother investigating actual crimes, because they claim they don't have the money?

No! But the police isn't suggesting this. One moronic CC has said this. 99.999% of the police force will be saying "What is that chump talking about, doesn't he know we can barely make it to people's burglaries?". Yet this one idiot saying it has suddenly been paraphrased by people saying "the police want to pull me over for doing 1mph omg they are always after easy targets. Omg why don't they find some rapists and murderers"

 

[mrk]

GMP's police federation have put their view forward of the genius chief constable who came up with this:

https://www.polfed.org/gmp/news/201...-alienating-the-public-we-are-there-to-serve/

Finally someone in the scene has some sense!

 

[Nasher]

Ok and what is your first hand experience of this? Did you report a burglary in progress but the 999 call taker said "sorry, the police are currently all committed pulling over speeders"? If that is your experience, then you have a completely valid point. However, if your "experience" comes from hearing people come up with anecdotal stories and reading cretinous headlines in crap newspapers - then all you have are third party stories.

We had stuff stolen at work. They just give you a crime number to claim on insurance and that's it.

 

[Gaygle]

We had stuff stolen at work. They just give you a crime number to claim on insurance and that's it.

So it was a burglary? What leads were there? CCTV? Witnesses? Likelihood of forensics?

There is no bigger critics of the police force than the police officers themselves - but they criticise the things that aren't being done well because they know what these are. This whole notion of "going after the easy targets" is pure crap. Looking back at what used to be done, the notion of sending out a police officer to every job was ridiculously wasteful. It pains me to say this as I can just imagine Theresa May saying "See, I told you so", but its true. There are so many jobs that are going absolutely nowhere. There are little to no leads and instead of flogging a dead horse, they can focus time and efforts on investigations which have legs and then get favourable results.

Sometimes you get really reasonable people who say "to be honest, i know there is nothing you can do, but just reporting it in case someone comes to your attention. Sometimes you get others who cry and whine that you haven't canvassed the entire street doing house to house and put out a public appeal after they've had the strimmer stolen from their shed in the middle of the night. It's then these sort of people who whine about "the police going after the easy targets and people who do 1mph over the speed limit". You get the feeling that in the absence of having an offender to blame and vent at, they choose the next best thing - the police for not catching the offender.

Finally someone in the scene has some sense!

Lol, the irony being that *every* other people on the scene has been saying this, but the one guy who says something moronic unfortunately gets all the air time and makes the front pages. I don't see m(any) newspapers quoting the federation saying how no police officer thinks this is even a remotely good idea. Why? Because that doesn't stir the pot and sell newspapers, which is all they're interested in.

 

[Nasher]

So it was a burglary? What leads were there? CCTV? Witnesses? Likelihood of forensics?

Some expensive (but small enough to fit in a bag) equipment loaned to an external contractor vanished after he borrowed if for a couple of days. He was the last one in the room with it, we knew where he works and his name. No one cared...

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Question
Is it possible that a person I know, but has now got no proof, got fined for doing 31 in a 30?

 

[Gaygle]

Question
Is it possible that a person I know, but has now got no proof, got fined for doing 31 in a 30?

No. It is not possible.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

No. It is not possible.

I quoted the 10% + 2mph but he said it happened during the new speeding laws and he was in the band 1 class.
I looked this up on the AA site and 31mph is in the band 1 class with a fine!

 

[Gaygle]

Being caught at 31mph is impossible because even when using a fully calibrated laser gun, it's accuracy is +/-1mph. Not to mention, CPS would never run it at court.

They list 31mph as a band 1 class fine because they have to. The law states that the limit is 30mph so anything over 30mph needs to have a quoted penalty, so that theoretically, if they could catch someone for 31mph there is a listed penalty. Theoretically.

Its a bit like drink driving. The limit in law is 35microgrammes/100ml breath. This means if you blew 36, you have broken the law and you'd attract the mandatory 12month disqualification...theoretically. In reality, CPS won't run any person who blows less than 40 because of the obvious difficulties when you're dealing with extremely small amounts as low as 1microgramme/100ml of breath and equipment not being sensitive enough to detect this with 100% certainty.

 

[TheVoice]

A bit of clarification from Anthony Bangham about what he said:

https://news.npcc.police.uk/release...onate-but-the-limit-is-the-limit-for-a-reason

In other words, nothing to worry about. But then, at no point was he quoted as saying he wanted people to be prosecuted for going 1MPH over the limit anyway.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Being caught at 31mph is impossible because even when using a fully calibrated laser gun, it's accuracy is +/-1mph. Not to mention, CPS would never run it at court.

They list 31mph as a band 1 class fine because they have to. The law states that the limit is 30mph so anything over 30mph needs to have a quoted penalty, so that theoretically, if they could catch someone for 31mph there is a listed penalty. Theoretically.

Its a bit like drink driving. The limit in law is 35microgrammes/100ml breath. This means if you blew 36, you have broken the law and you'd attract the mandatory 12month disqualification...theoretically. In reality, CPS won't run any person who blows less than 40 because of the obvious difficulties when you're dealing with extremely small amounts as low as 1microgramme/100ml of breath and equipment not being sensitive enough to detect this with 100% certainty.

I did say that extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof and of course he hasn't got any.