Cycling UK Forum

thirdcrank wrote:There's a quote in the link from a North Yorkshire Police traffic PC. Once upon a time, West Yorkshire was a leader in traffic policing and North Yorkshire was something of a joke. That's now completely reversed. Travelling from Leeds, it's only necessary to cross the boundary into North Yorkshire (in broad terms formed by the A1 and the River Wharfe) to notice a big difference in terms of active traffic policing. I assume it's different priorities decided by the respective PCC's.

the only difference is wherever they (the police) are allowed to hide behind the "so much paperwork" and doing their job. That's according to a police officer who is a former rather than a latter!

Tizme wrote:A few years ago a lady my wife worked for went to court for a series of traffic offences (mainly speeding I believe) and received a 12 month driving ban. When she left the court she promptly got in her car and drove home, and continued to do so for the next 12 months!

Did you report her to the police?

I have to admit I did not, but, and this is not a dig at A&S Police (I work closely with them on occasions, I know how stretched they are and how low moral appears to be at the moment), the chances of a unit being around when she drove would be almost nil. I can imagine how easy it is for banned drivers to carry on driving in Somerset without getting picked up by ANPR. On the one occasion I rang 999 to notify the Police that I had been threatened by a passenger in a car, being driven by someone who appeared to be drunk, I was informed that there was only 1 unit covering the whole of the north half of the county. I suppose that if I had reported her an officer may have visited her for a chat, however I do not think for 1 minute that it would have stopped her, she was a law unto herself!

Tizme wrote:... When she left the court she promptly got in her car and drove ...

Once upon a time when police officers spent a lot of time at court, one of the reasons we had to do it round here was when a case was at court where the driver might be disqualified, so the conviction could be proved if they were prosecuted for ignoring the ban. IME the beak always stresses to a defendant that the disqualification starts immediately and that if they've driven to court they must not drive home. I've personally nicked a couple who have done just that right outside Leeds Town Hall. On another occasion, not a disqualified driver but somebody who had never passed a test, came out of court wanting an argument and the court clerk asked both of us who had been witnesses to see him out, so to speak. He continued to argue all the way to his car outside and was even more indignant when I reported him for a repeat of all the offences he had just been up for.

When he went to court again for that, to avoid reference to his previous conviction, my evidence began "I had reason to believe he had no driving licence........." which triggered another outburst. Anyway, second time round in as many weeks he was disqualified and got the warning that his disqualification began immediately. He had learned at least one lesson because he had brought another driver with him. All a long time ago.

thirdcrank wrote:....
When he went to court again for that, to avoid reference to his previous conviction, my evidence began "I had reason to believe he had no driving licence........." which triggered another outburst. Anyway, second time round in as many weeks he was disqualified and got the warning that his disqualification began immediately. He had learned at least one lesson because he had brought another driver with him. All a long time ago.

One area/road I ride down is an approach to a major Police station (that is big enough to always have at least 10 Police cars parked outside, manned and open 24/7, loads of Police in local supermarket at lunchtime buying their sandwiches, etc.). And riding on the less that less than 1 mile to the Police station you can pretty well be guaranteed to see at least one or 2 drivers breaking the highway code/law. When I was young and just passed my test we knew where all the Police stations were and understood that you get more Police (and Police cars) closer to Police stations so were always very careful about speed and driving standard as we got near any Police station. Yet these days people seem so confident they will not be caught (even if observed by the Police) they don't bother.

Same as your offender without a license getting in their car to illegally drive away from court having been "done" for the same offence. They were just confident they would not get "done".

It all further illustrates to me how lax road enforcement has got these days and why we (cyclists) so often see so many breaking the rules e.g. mobile phone use).

Ian

Tizme wrote:I have to admit I did not, but, and this is not a dig at A&S Police (I work closely with them on occasions, I know how stretched they are and how low moral appears to be at the moment), the chances of a unit being around when she drove would be almost nil. I can imagine how easy it is for banned drivers to carry on driving in Somerset without getting picked up by ANPR. On the one occasion I rang 999 to notify the Police that I had been threatened by a passenger in a car, being driven by someone who appeared to be drunk, I was informed that there was only 1 unit covering the whole of the north half of the county. I suppose that if I had reported her an officer may have visited her for a chat, however I do not think for 1 minute that it would have stopped her, she was a law unto herself!

IMHO you really should have reported her. The cops could have hovered near her home and caught her red-handed, she might then have gone to prison, the whole could have been in the papers..

One of my hobby horses is the collapse of traffic policing. Thanks to twitter, the BBC national news website has this

Van without brakes, tax and MOT stopped on M6

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-st ... e-43427247

Well I never

Hold the front page!