Strathclyde Police RT Initiative

[meatball]

It certainly was far from positive or balanced.

Yeah, I believe your opinion on driving on public roads is far removed from mine. Hey ho, I can agree to disagree on that one! Lol

[flyingscot68]

I wouldn't want to be a Traffic Cop these days, I used to respect them and their opinions, and that was when I was a crazy teenager riding about like life ended tomorrow.
The last few times I've been stopped by them they've been nothing but rude, opinionated and devoid of all personality.

I'd actually like to see a lot more traffic cops on the roads but they need training on how to treat people with respect.

I'm not surprised people on forums (not this one though) are always 'jumping on the band wagon' if most people have been dealt with as I have.

My 2p worth....

[meatball]

I wonder if a thread this balance would be allowed if it was about AMP3 or SLS.... I wonder!

[flyingscot68]

I wonder if a thread this balance would be allowed if it was about AMP3 or SLS.... I wonder!

I'm afraid my acronym knowledge isn't what it should be. So what's AMP3 and SLS? No sniggering now

[Lazydonkey]

For balance.....I got pulled on the m74 a week and a half ago - cops were spot on and much much much more lenient than they could have been.

[Dominic]

For balance.....I got pulled on the m74 a week and a half ago - cops were spot on and much much much more lenient than they could have been.

Was that the guys with the bad eyesight? You know, the ones who said your VX was "nice"?

[Titanium S1 111S (gla)]

I wasn’t having a go at your colleagues, my point was just that things seem to have got a lot tighter in the last little while.

I was on right side of the law but the database showed that I was on the wrong. In those circumstances being pulled over was both justifiable and understandable. I explained the position politely to the officers involved and all 4 were extremely polite back. In fact they were more than that they were friendly, I could not have expected more or been more impressed with the professional approach / attitude. They were all a credit to their force.

The real reason I bothered posting was that being pulled over twice within half an hour shows that there is an elevated police presence / approach to such things. In all my years of motoring I have never been pulled over for not having an MOT on my way to a test.

What I think is sad is that discretion and the exercise of discretion is vital to effective policing. If bean / ticket counting is allowed to get in the way of that then policing will be damaged. The police rely on the assistance / co-operation from the public to a huge extent and they will not get that if every minor transgression is punished. I am not even saying that pulling somebody over and having a word is a bad idea, on the contrary it is probably a good idea, but the police will retain the good will of most people far more if they have a word than if they issue a fine which probably costs as much to administer as it generates and leaves a bad taste.

To illustrate the above, during my various travels in far flung parts of the former USSR I have discovered that most people have a very deep routed distrust of the police and avoid them at all costs. During communism the police were brutal and corrupt. Immediately after communism they were a little less brutal but a lot more corrupt. Things have now moved on and for the most part (except in Ukraine) the police are professional and trust worthy but the deeply held mistrust is still there. As a result nobody ever speaks to police officers and they were surprised when we stopped and asked them for advice or directions. The officers we spoke to were universally helpful and often went out of their way to lead us to hotels etc if we were lost but thought it extremely strange that anybody would ask them for assistance of that type. One officer actually asked me whether it was normal to do that in our country and I explained that it was positively encouraged because the police usually know the area they are working in and are “safe people” to ask, he just looked mystified.

My comment regarding the week in Magaluf was clearly tongue in cheek but if the Chief Constable has told the guys on the street to issue as many tickets as they can rather than to issue them when it is appropriate then he is wrong to have done so. Further if I was a member of the committee which appointed him I would dismiss him for his conduct and look to appoint somebody with a more liberal approach and an eye on the big picture.

[j2 lot]

I'm afraid my acronym knowledge isn't what it should be. So what's AMP3 and SLS? No sniggering now

AMP3 - HiFi / Gadget store that a few of our members are employed /involved in.
SLS - Indi- Lotus repairer that a few of our members are / were involved in.


Any thread involving the Police has potential to become emotive as they have the ability to stop us going about our business in the execution of theirs, but would any of us rather have a world without them?

Thought not. Good and bad in every walk of life , best you can do is treat them with respect and hope that they will do the same to you. Most will

[graeme]

Personally, I don't see plod as any different to any other large sample of humans. As indivuduals they all fit on a bell-curve from muppet to saint. Unfortunately, we occasionally encounter one to the far left of said curve, and wonder why we bother to pay taxes. I think we're probably more often annoyed by policies than the guys paid to enact them.

I'm gernally quite chuffed about the quality of our traffic plod. We must have some of the best traffic cops in the world, surely? Watch a Class 1 in action then watch "America's wildest police chases". It could be a lot worse!

[Shug]

I wonder if a thread this balance would be allowed if it was about AMP3 or SLS.... I wonder!

wow, just wow

No further comment here as clearly I'm hideously biased and everything I say is tainted by whose pocket I'm in.

Unbelievable...

[BiggestNizzy]

Any thread involving the Police has potential to become emotive as they have the ability to stop us going about their business in the execution of theirs, but would any of us rather have a world without them?

Yes, I'm always up to no good.

[tut]

Campbell, I thought you new me, and I certainly did not make a snyed remarks but told it as it is. My son's house was broken into in Aberdeen and burgled, and the police never even bothered to show up when they were called or any time after. What opinion would that give you, even as a cop?

I have 55 years experience of the police since I started driving in 1957, so more than anyone here, I am able to compare now with then. You may know all the rules that you have to work to now, I don't envy you, but we see how it is put into practice and that is what we have to go on. Some things are simple, if you speed, drive uninsured, taxless, on balled tyres, or using your phone, then you get hit and deservedly so. If you hit a speed bump and knock off your front numberplate and put it on the dashboard, when stopped you expect a decent attitude and to be told to get it fixed back on ASAP, not given a lecture and fine by some jumped up uniform. 95% are bloody good at their job, 5% are not. You said that you are not allowed to use initiative any more, if you accept that, regardless of figures, you should not be in the job.

As for my remark that it is easier for a patrol car to sit by the side of the road than go to a crime scene, that is backed up by yourself. You said that you now have to perform to points tables and tickets, so you are obviously going to get more hits that way, than going to investigate a burglary where you will probably not get a result.

Unfortunately that is the opinion of many on here that have had their cars stolen, vandalised, houses broken into etc, a lack of interest when it is reported and normally no result after that.

There is no way that I have a down on the police force, where would we be without them, it is the direction that they have gone in that I find disappointing. Backing that up is my son is a DCI in the Met, my BIL is a police officer, Verian was a policewoman, and I held equivalent Chief Superintendent rank in the good old days.

tut

[robin]

Campbell,

Bias is allowed as people are expressing their opinions and their emotions. Whatever bias you perceive here is the bias that actually exists amongst those members that chose to post on this thread. A lot of the comments have been articulate, interesting and some actually useful. A couple less so, but that's pretty standard for this forum (and much better than most I suspect).

Bias in moderation is something the moderators would hope to avoid, though we're just people with opinions and emotions in the end. So far this thread, like 99% of others, has not been moderated in any way, thus there is no input from the moderators here, one way or another.

So if somebody posted something outlandish I would hope it would be dealt with in pretty much the same way regardless of the topic.

Given the above, could you elaborate on your concerns about bias?

Cheers,
Robin

[tut]

ps:- can not believe that I spelt "knew" as "new'.

Had to jump in before Pete noticed.

tut

[meatball]

Tut,

My answer is that the service was poor.
My point was that no one ever posts up when they have received good service and it was just turning into another thread where everyone with a gripe jumps in.

My post was to clarify how things have changed in the last few years and that it isn't always the fault of the person you are dealing with. I hoped that would give an insight into what is happening behind the scenes rather that everyone is soulless ticket nazis.

PS, I noticed the spelling error old boy!

Robin,

I didn't use the word bias, I mearly mentioned the trend of moderation in the past. It was shug getting all hysterical that brought in the use of bias.
My comments were in reply to shug saying that this was a balanced thread, which it was not.
People have since come in with posts that make it more balanced.