The Best Excuse

I found out recently that all the Irish registered cars being caught speeding by foreign licenced drivers will have the points kept warm for them. Our police have decided to accumulate them until the EU driving licence & points system become linked. By then it could be possible to have committed several offences over a ten year period but they will all kick in at once.

Our points system is riddles with unconstitutional elements that it would almost be laughable.

The scamera partnerships are most definately NOT run by the police, at best the police are just one of the partners, and to be honest they are quite often ignored by the other "partners".

The police are still free to run their own speed checks, and quite often do, normally after a spate of accidents in a particular area.

Traffic policeman are the worst type for motoring offences, but they seem very reasonable compared to the civvy horrors.

A traffic policeman in the met area, who is a member of the IAM forum, recently found out he no longer has the authority to issue parking tickets ! They are now isued by the "parking attendants" ( council people, the ones who get cars and holidays if they issue the most), and very soon these people, and the new community officers will have the powers to deal with motoring offences too.

Very interesting reading Nigel.

Thanks for the info about the morons in the mobile camera units.  My first encounter with one of them left me dreading the postman for weeks but nothing ever came and that was over 2 years ago now! I think I'm safe.....

My friend is policeman but he's not all bad as he has an E36 328i Sport Coupe and he works out of a local police station.  This local police station operate a couple of marked 530d and 530i's as traffic cars. 

He tells me all sorts of storeys.  Snooker is still a favourite pastime of the night shift!  Off duty officers getting lifts home, to football matches in the back of the traffic BMW's with the lights and sirens going etc etc.

(name of police station withheld, obviously)

Still they do a good there, patrolling a 30 mph section of dual carriageway.  I got cut up by a neddy (chav) boy racer once, you know the type, baseball cap at 45 deg to the forehead, luminous pink Fiat Punto, tinted windows, picnic table spoiler, only side lights and front fogs on at night, lowered, garish alloy wheels, thinks he's hard but actually drives a girlie car anyway round the next bend a marked Series 5 had pulled him. 

Nice one lads.

Mind you when I drove about in my last car a Vauxhall Senator 3.0i 24v policemen would wave at me when they drove past in their patrol cars.  I was filling it up one day and a policeman stopped a patrol car got out and asked me if I was selling it as he loved them as he used to have one as his patrol car. 

Did you ever use one of those beasts as your patrol car Nigel?

Andrew