22,000 New Speed Traps Coming?
Below is an email I received from Adam Blair, if you are a driver, its well worth joining his email list!
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One of my Database Team, Paul, called me last night and told me
to switch on Radio 5 Live.
Richard Bacon was talking about plans by Police to publicly
grant permission to “do-gooders” to operate their own mobile
speed traps in villages and towns around the UK!
Bacon was clearly incredulous about the idea, and with good reason…
Now, this “scheme” has been up and running for a few years,
but it’s only been the most do-gooderish of the do-gooders that
have known about it, because it’s been a bit like a secret
underground alliance between the civilians concerned and the
Police.
Here’s how it works:
Local Residents Groups — ordinary civilians — can set up their
own “Community Speed Watch Group” and be granted mobile
speed monitoring equipment – a laser or radar speed gun.
All they need is 6 volunteers and 200 signatures.
Sounds a lot, I know, but think about it… That’s just 33
signatures per volunteer, which in these days of facebook and
viral emails is nothing…
So what’s the big news, if this scheme has already been running
for a while?
Well, the Association of Chief Police Officers is issuing a
“National Set of Guidelines” for these Community Speed Watch
groups in the new year, which is basically like waving a big
yellow flag from the top of Big Ben to announce it …or perhaps
firing a sequence of fireworks from each of the now 17,690
mobile speed trap locations in the UK.
The presenter Bacon was quite amusing, asking Matthew Lug
from Leicester County Council:
“why not get them tackling burglaries?”!
He made a good point – Mr Lug had said that it was a good thing
that the public were “assisting” the Police by doing their job
for them.
“what sort of people would bother doing this?”, Bacon asked
“people with a lot of time on their hands…” was the general
consensus.
But a more serious issue was picked up by Hugh Bladen from
the Association of British Drivers –
When you use a Radar, or particularly a Laser gun, it is
extremely easy to get the “slip effect” that we have
demonstrated before, and get a reading that’s too high.
He went on to describe the scheme as “vigilantism”.
Can you imagine the tension that’s going to be created between
neighbours who have a grudge against someone else in the
community?
By the nature of these sort of organisations, it could end up
in full blown witch hunts – conspiracies to get a certain person
banned from driving – all outside of the parameters that Police
Officers have to adhere to.
Complete madness, I think you will agree?
Take the poll: http://btst.co.uk/poll3/
All the best,
Adam Blair
Founder, BeatTheSpeedTrap