I’d like to see the standard of Police driving improve
Sorry to have to say this but can’t stand any of them. Hypocrites the lot and some of the worst offenders I’ve ever come across.
… absolutely zero respect.
Hi,
I think bike theft is one of the obvious and easier things to tackle.
Is it entrapment for the police leave a nice bike in an area with several trackers inside? If so, how about working with random samples of new bike buyers in vulnerable areas to install trackers at discount/cost/free - with police monitoring for rapid response - possibly even multiple well-hidden trackers for extra oomph. The results could be very interesting…
Recently, insuring a bike in London potentially cost me 3-times insuring it in Wales. Bringing down the cost of insurance would be a great result in London.
After that, I’d suggest raising speed limits in some areas. I seem to recall the Conservatives talked about raising motorways to 80mph months ago before the election? Having motorways at over 70mph at night may encourage traffic to even out more. Though having said that, motorways seem pretty lawless (and fast) at midnight with few police around.
However, rather than just raising limits … I’ve thought for a while there could be some sort of “advanced speed license and MOT”. Drivers pay to go faster, with sufficient experience on suitable roads/motorways. 80mph license … 90mph license etc 100mph even etc. A bit more insurance, maybe 6-month MOTs. Potentially even very good for the economy…
I think more than speeding, I see much scarier dangerous driving … people turning tight corners with a mobile phone in neck-crook while doing something with the radio, while eating or polishing nails. Hard to catch I guess.
Finally, a question back to a cop’s point of view 
… what’s it like to be a police officer on a motorway where everyone near you does 70mph. Whereas cars behind you catch up to you fast … and as soon as they get a bit ahead of you … they take off again. I can’t help but think its like a surreal “doppler effect”
Cheers,
Alex
Not entrapment at all Alex and something that has been done before (not just with bikes). Unfortunately very resourse-intensive to have police standing by and therefore often difficult to justify.
Don’t do much motorway driving personally, but tend to stick to about 60-65 so as not to create too much of a backlog behind me. Non-‘traffic’ police shouldn’t be stopping cars on motorways, unless it’s a real emergency and absolutely necessary. Know what you mean about cars speeding up once past though, you can ‘catch and match’ and ‘show yourself’ to them as a bit of a reminder if needed - usually does the trick 
me too, in some cases.
definitely sympathise with your comment, clubfoot. I’ll quite hapilly deal with either where necessary and have done so.
Re. resource intensive:I would have thought for a PR exercise that Datatag or some similar type provider of tagging would be interested in helping to fund this. so would an insurance company and for that matter the biking community. Also, would police have to be ‘standing by’? The whole point of the tags would be to let them think they got away with it.
Coupled with some concealed CCTV I think some really attractive looking traps could be set…
Some really high profile busts, with thieves on cover of Metro etc would be a great result.
I think a lot of the issues are down to how the law has changed and the processes involved which prevent the job being done effectively.
I read a book called “Wasting Police Time” written anonomously by a copper (he has a blog online I think too), which highlighted some of the policies and stupidity that tie up the time a copper has to do their job (of ‘real’ policing).
I’d be interested to know if any police on here have read that and how true it is - some of what he was saying was a truly unbelievable waste of resource.
I would say that common sense sometimes needs to be injected though. Things like having a go at photographers and potentially confiscating gear etc. under terrorism laws. Would a terrorist really go out taking pictures of landmarks with a decent SLR etc and draw attention to themselves when you have google street maps to do all the leg work.
i might buy that you know…
smiled:).
The blog behind that book is Inspector Gadget
Sadly, while he’s very keen to point out issues with policy and problems with the higher ups, he’s also a rabid defender of every bad decision the police make. When he made statements recently that he does not care about or need the respect of the public, I went off of him a little bit.
book arrived from amazon this morning…
gotta say…the first 20 pages so far have entertained me no end…:D…i feel its going to be one of them books i’ll have to re-read again and again…
i received 'a twist of the wrist also this morning…now there’s a moral dillema…
smiled:).
I’d like to see the standard of the public’s driving improve…but that’ll never happen.
bit harsh mate…my son in law to be is plodski and is ok, also met lots from this very forum been on rideouts, socialised etc and each one has been fine even the one who caught me being a tad playful on the M1 wasnt too bad…3 points instead of ban, still its an open forum and your entitled to your opinion
Get caught did ya ? 
Not whilst some police are setting such bad standards! 
The biggest issue I have is;
The near total loss of officer discretion, they just seem to be political robots nowdays. What someone may decree from behind a political desk as a responce to a certain offence may be better servered by the officer using his or her discretion i.e. the person on the coal face as it were.
The police seem to have lost a lot of support from most law abiding people when they are punished for minor infrigements, one of those was when people had only just crept over the speed limit and felt the force of the law come to bear on them and no this does not apply to me. I have had my full licence since 1988 and never had a point added for any reason, thats not to say that I only ever drive at 39 in a 40, far from it, I use the same system as those in the traffic division (i.e. correct speed for the conditions) and it has not let me down yet, shame I didn’t follow it when I highsided at Lydden Hill earlier in the year 