Adam Blair of BTST writes to say that police in various parts of the country are using some pretty underhand tricks to extract money from motorists.
In Essex they are using new types of cars with the apparent intention of tricking motorists in to believing they are broken down by the side of the road, when they are in fact operating a Mobile Speed Trap. Several different BTST members have noticed unusual cars operating Mobile Speed Traps around Essex, including silver Vauxhall vans complete with roof-racks and bumper stickers, and silver and purple Mini Coopers. Reports mention the A130 road in particular.
Adam himself was recently driving up the A14 north of Cambridge and noticed what appeared to be an AA breakdown recovery van parked beside a red Ford Fiesta with the boot open and hazard lights on. He looked more closely as he drove past and saw that there was a speed camera in the boot of the car. He says it was clearly intended to look like a broken-down car and recovery truck, and noted that the red car was sticking out in to the inside lane by a couple of feet.
A more extreme story comes from Glasgow, where a BTST member says "This is common practice in Glasgow - a Ford Galaxy under a bridge with a kiddy's Barbie Bike etc. out and tailgate up, looking just like the family were unloading the car to get at the spare. On closer inspection a camera is set up in the boot."
The GOS has seen similar deceptions in use in Suffolk - in particular an elderly red Astra van and a brown Escort with a sort of plywood box built on top of the boot looking a bit like an after-market spoiler. But these were several years ago, and he has seen nothing similar since. He thinks it highly unlikely that this is because Suffolk Police have suddenly developed a conscience and sense of fair play - it's more likely that they've got some different cars now and he's been lucky not to get caught so far.
There are, of course, many instances of ordinary Talivans being "hidden" in such a way as to tempt unwary motorists - there are some good photographs here, for instance. Presumably there will be quite a few unthinking, head-in-the-sand individuals prepared to bleat the usual nonsense - "Drivers can always just obey the speed limits" and so on. Unfortunately drivers sometimes can't just obey the speed limits without paying far too much attention to their dashboards and not enough to the road ahead. We all have an inbuilt notion, born from our own experience, of the suitable speed for a given stretch of road in the conditions prevailing at the time: if the speed limit differs too much from that notion, the majority of drivers find it almost impossible to comply. The government recognises this in its advice to local authorities, but sadly - and dangerously - many authorities choose to ignore that advice.
What is deeply unsatisfactory though hardly surprising, is that the camera operators - whether they be the police or the local camera partnerships - can no longer claim that the purpose of their work is road safety. By using these cheating tricks they are making no attempt to cause drivers to slow down. On the contrary, in order to boost their revenue they are actually encouraging drivers to think they can speed with impunity, so they can be caught and fined.
We await with interest the first court case in which a motorist claims that the police have used entrapment in order to gain a conviction.
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
This site created and maintained by PlainSite