Metropolitan Police Put In Special Measures

[Hymie]

You may have read recently that the Metropolitan Police have been put in special measurers, I assume from this that someone has realised they are incompetent.

If you burglarise some-ones home, rob a shop or defraud some-one on-line – the police don’t want to know; but drive at 5 miles an hour above the speed limit, and you will feel the full force of the law (and this is everywhere in the UK, not just in London).

The Police like to claim that they police with the consent of the populous – well, they certainly don’t have my consent to hound motorists for minor infractions while not bothering burglars, shoplifters and fraudsters.

To my mind all UK police forces should be put in special measures and instructed to stop harassing motorists and start harassing criminals.

[bobbinwales]

and investigating the most boring looking parties i've ever seen (beergate/Keirgate and birthday cake gate)

[Atheist]

Are you OK, Hymie? Your spelling is all over the place. Have you just been done for speeding? There's a difference between spotting and pullin over a speeder, and responding to a burglary report.

[New Judge]

Speeding is a criminal offence so a speeding motorist is, by definition, a criminal.

[Hymie]

Around 10 years ago, I was nicked for doing an horrendous 7 miles over the speed limit.

For those who have no experienced this – this is how it works; if you elect to take a speed awareness course, you will be offered a limited number of dates at reasonably local venues.
From memory, there were about 20 dates that I could choose over a 3 month period (so they obviously don’t run many of the courses – or so I thought).

On arrival at my chosen venue (a local hotel where the police were running the course at £100 a pop per attendee), I asked the doorman how often they run the courses at the hotel – he informed me that they took place every weekday, both morning and afternoon.

At the hotel they were running two courses concurrently, with each course having 25 attendees.
So this police force is fleecing motorists of £10,000 every week day at just this one venue, given the number of venues offered, that figure must be in excess of £100,000 per day (and that is just one police force) – it is time someone told them to stop this and spend their time catching criminals.

[wolf63]

Maybe if people obeyed the rules of the road they wouldn't have to run these courses.

They also wouldn't have to attend so many fatal car crashes.

[Old_Geezer]

They may have more fatal crashes as drivers become distracted watching the speedometer rather than concentrating on the driving. A police force should have sensible priorities and not have 'low hanging fruit' resulting from minor infringements of a subjectively chosen limit, at the top of the list.

[New Judge]

//So this police force is fleecing motorists of £10,000 every week..//

You need not have contributed to that sum. If you didn't fancy the course you would have been offered a fixed penalty (£100 and 3 points). And if you didn't fancy that, you could have elected to have the matter dealt with in the Magistrates' Court. For that excess you would have been fined half a week's net income (reduced by a third if you entered a timely guilty plea), a "Victim Surcharge" of 10% of the fine (minimum £34) and £85 prosecution costs. You would also receive three points. The money raised from a fixed penalty or the fine if you went to court would go to central funds; the Victim Surcharge to victim and witness support agencies and the costs to the CPS. None of it would have gone to the police.

I take it the prevailing limit was 50mph or less as enforcement does not begin until (Limit + 10% + 2mph).

[bednobs]

my daughter has just started to walk to school by herself. I'm pretty glad the roads are not populated completely by utter wangs like you who dont see any harm in speeding, while she's learning how to be safe

[Canary42]

Burglars, shoplifters, fraudsters rarely kill or maim

Speeding motorists often kill or maim

Not rocket science which should be tackled

[lewisk]

If you have been the victim of a crime that was not investigated then you have every right to be miffed. However, you sound like a whiney brat who thinks they’re above the law - don’t want to get ‘hounded’ don’t speed, it’s ever so simple really.

[FatticusInch]

I agree with Canary.
Ordinarily you wouldn’t shoplift or burgle a property so why do people moan when they’re caught speeding?
It’s breaking the law intentionally, stay within the limit and there’s no sanction, it’s quite easy.

[Hymie]

Every day driving to work along a national speed limit dual carriageway, I encounter many drivers travelling at or just under the 70 mph speed limit.
As the A road encounters a more frequent number of exit/on ramps, the speed limit drops to 60 mph. Most of these drivers travelling at around 70 mph do not seem to realise this, and continue through the 60 mph section at the same speed.

You could consider these drivers to be very bad drivers, or that are just continuing at what they consider a safe speed for the road conditions – occasionally there is a police camera van positioned on one of the over-bridges to catch the speeders.

[bednobs]

^^^ great!

[vulcan42]

\\ I take it the prevailing limit was 50mph or less as enforcement does not begin until (Limit + 10% + 2mph).//
Is this written in law?
I attended a speed awareness course about sixteen years ago and the first thing we had to do was to tell everybody the speed we should have been doing and our actual speed. One young man said 30 and 31. The instructor, who by the way was with the AA and not the police, said that couldn't be right. The young man produced the letter he had received and those were the two figures mentioned.

[ladybirder]

Hymie // A pedestrian hit at 30mph has a very significant (one in five) chance of being killed. This rises significantly to a one in three chance if they are hit at 35mph. Even small increases in speed can lead to an increase in impact severity. The risk of injury increases exponentially with impact speed. \\

Stick to the speed limit and give yourself plenty of time to get where you are going.

[Hymie]

During my over 40 years of driving, I have only been caught speeding on one occasion.

I’m willing to bet that a lot more than 50% of drivers on the UK roads have a speeding record at least as bad as me – clearly our roads are populated with many utter wangs like me.

[bednobs]

yep, so what a good job the police try to make it unpleasant for people to be so

[Hymie]

According to UK government statistics, around 50% of cars exceed the speed limit on motorways (in 2021) – clearly many, many wangs about, they might even be the majority of drivers.

[lewisk]

‘Caught’ on one occasion - not sure if that’s you bragging at not being caught more or if you’re pointing out a failure on the part of the police not to have caught you more often.

[Gromit]

Rob someone’s home when they are out and no one is harmed.
Hit them with your 2 ton SUV being driven at 45mph, and they are dead.
Both are crimes. We should not differentiate one from the other. We should be tackling burglaries, but not at the expenses of turning a blind eye to dangerous driving.