$30 speeding ticket - camera deployment info

Last couple of days I have seen police at the bottom of hills in Tauranga with their radar guns. If this isnt purely for revenue gathering then Ill eat my hat.
Why would they purposely be sitting at the bottom of hills!
If it was outside schools I could understand.

bit like one of the crashes overnight, as told on the news. one killed, one serious injury. the driver had the wrong licence. both were not wearing seat belts. don't thing the type of licence has a lot to do with the crash.

He's 15, and the minimum age has been 16 for over a year. So either his friends are telling porkies and hes unlicensed completely, or he's actually 16.
Him being unlicensed might not have caused the crash, but it is certainly relevant.

nahBMw 328 coupehewas parkedbut turned aroundwhen i came into range.

And he was set up at the begining of Mataroa road near the petrol station and was ticketing the traffic travelling north along Mataroa, correct me if i am wrong but there is over 700m until the speed increase.

Covert speeding operation in an area where higher speeds are obviously safe!

Great way to alienate the motoring public.

I like NZ police, always found them fair, helpful and honest but this constant propaganda led, low level anti-speed nonsense against everyday motorists is doing more harm than good whilst people are dying as a result of ineffective training and driver education.

Excellent Question!

Road Policing is self funding,
(actually I think it even makes a considerable profit but I don't have the figures to prove that, so we will be conservative and say its self funding)

If my understanding is correct they are directly funded from fuel tax and then of course they have the 100 Million dollar a year infringement revenue target which goes back to the Government who employs them. To put it into perspective I seem to recall the Road Policing program costs about 200 Million a year.

So, what I think is happening is the Road Police setup is great for any Government. Funding is no issue and they provide a really visible and pro-active presence, which the public naturally perceives as being representative of the Police as a whole. They even provide an excellent basis for those Police propaganda programs like "Motorway Patrol" and "Crash Investigation" which further reinforce how wonderful our Police must be. This keeps voters happy and creates the social pressure needed to make people disregard periodic first hand accounts of Police ineptitude.

This is of course is really important when you have real issues with the rest of Policing in the country. (as we do, such as serious crimes not being attended at all, mismanagement, poor systems, poor priorities and an uncomfortably high percentage of inept staff)

If a Government were to change things, potentially the house of cards comes down. Not only do you lose a key aspect of what's required to keep the facade of effective Policing alive, you would also have to backtrack and admit to running the scam and there is a lot to admit too.

Everything from miss management of resources, intentionally deceiving the public, not having safety as the primary objective, the terrible state of the Police in general. potentially it would all come undone.

On top of that you would lose a considerable income stream (say 50M in infringements if they dropped by half) and there would be pressure to reduce fuel tax as well, and if you wanted to increase funding elsewhere (say asthma) that money would have to come out of the general fund which just took a 50M hit.

Just put yourself in the Government/Police's shoes, you have a lot on your plate, its easier to leave sleeping dogs to lie. so why wouldn't you!

BTW, I don't think the Police were intentionally setup to be a deceitful scam. More likely just a case of a little bit of truth bending here and there and leaving things in place that were nolonger required for their original purpose has compounded over time to produce what we now have.

The only way forward I see in terms of fixing not only the Road Police but Police as a whole is if we can some how wake the public up to what's going on and pressure the government into coming clean. Trouble is though, its hard to fight years of social manipulation, prime time advertising etc. We are talking literally hundreds of millions of dollars worth of expertly crafted PR.

Just one extra thought. it is possible that the Government will kill the goose that lays the golden egg and things could come unraveled that way, but the Public are pretty brainwashed so its hard to say.

What I am getting at is that by trying to maintain the 100M revenue target in an environment where the "real speeders" with their expensive tickets are effectively gone is a big ask.

To do it you need to be working on an average of at least one infringement per motorist per year, and to achieve that, realistically you have to be underhanded and catch plenty of people out on technicalities. (bottom of hills, passing etc)

Whether the public will stand for that going foward is hard to say. Especially when you get bankers and lawyers who spend a lot of work time traveling starting to accrue significant points against their licenses. When I was a commercial banker some years ago this was already starting to be an issue (we had one guy that did well over 100'000km a year. no I am not pulling your leg).

None of these guys were intentional speeders but anicdotally it seemed if you did high km's and your patch was in an area where the Police presence was high and tactics were a bit sneaky it was pretty much inevitable. Some of our more "keen" drivers got no tickets at all. but their area's were different and possibly km's traveled a bit less.

Because people are too friggin lazy to control the speeds of their vehicles while travelling down hill. Cars come with brake pedals for things like going downhill - among others.

You miss the whole point that its blatant revenue gathering.

+1

Besides from an environmental and economic standpoint we shouldn't be encouraging people to brake to avoid momentarily exceeding the speed limit by a small amount, unless a true safety risk is present.

Likewise speed change zones, the signs should be placed appropriately to provide a buffer zone so when you see the sign you can just hop off the gas and let the car slow with little or no braking where practical. Without fear that a cop is standing close behind it with a laser.

Once upon a time the Policing guidelines actually stipulated that they were not to take advantage of passing lanes, speed change area's etc unfairly. They even gave specific's as to how much leeway was to be given and how they were to operate. Those rules (and you can probably still look them up) were eroded year by year until almost all common sense and fairness was gone.

Now its pretty much anything goes, just like the speed camera they put down the road from me, right in the middle of the only passing lane for about 50km. It's even partially obscured so the smoothly passing traffic becomes a dangerous panicked mess when they see it. Especially as they like to put it there on the low tolerance weekends.

I find it fascinating how people have become so manipulated into thinking the letter of the law is far more important than the reason behind the law.

Its like when the Doctor was stopped hurrying to a dying patient, it was far more important apparently to deliberately delay him for a minor speeding offense than it was for him to get to his dying patient.

All Police actions should always be judged on whether they are working in the best interests of the community and safety. not upholding the letter of the law at all costs.

Do not know what links your are referring to. I ti s not up tot he police to change speed restrictions on roads but LTSA. And you wont find many supporters including me that agreed with him doing that

BTW, in case you don't know holden95 is generally accepted to be a Cop or other similarly biased person. If you have a look you will see him appear in every thread where Police are being challenged where he defends even the most indefensible actions. I have no problem with that but I think its only fair for people to know what they are dealing with.

Cop or other similarly biased person.haha.sadly-
whilst i may disagree with you on some points Jazz I can admit when actions of officers (when proven and not accusations) are OTP and this is one. (referring to the post I responded too)
I often wonder about people on the message board that go on and on about peoples rights etc and being innocent until proved guilty (often to the point of attacking posters) but that those SAME posters do not apply that same principle to Police, they are automatically guilty and if complaint not upheld then is corruption. Can you explain that

[quote=Its like when the Doctor was stopped hurrying to a dying patient, it was far more important apparently to deliberately delay him for a minor speeding offense than it was for him to get to his dying patient./quote]
It's is indeed a pity you keep dredging up this one, Jazz because it is not as you claim it to be. That has been shown over and over, but still you do it. Why!Not arguing with your philosophy as it is clearly expressed and clearly your opinion and we are all entitled to (at least) one of these!Try and find an example which has not been discredited and your case will be strengthened.Have a good evening

You have succeeded in pointing out that Police employees have opinions too and of course they are entitled to them!Similarly like anyone else they see themselves as possessing private lives and private rights and private freedoms unbounded by their employee groups. Sometimes their opinions willbe based on what they KNOW of a situation rather than what they have heard second and third (and more) hand.Let's continue to allow them the freedom of expression they have and value and let's not stifle it.It is exactly as you say Jazz, so many of us are simple believers in what we are told is right.Stifle someone's freedom to express their opinion and they will gather exactly as you bemoan in the same manner you criticise.Equally, to devalue their opinion by saying they belong to a certain class of the population was something that existed in the 40's in the USA.called McCarthyism.Let's be open-minded and accept that others may well have a valued counterpoint of opinion to that which we espouse. Fair enough!