Smile You are on Civillian Speed Camera in QLD

[csv8]

CIVILIANS will take the place of police in speed camera vans, with Queensland's Premier insisting officers have no place doing such work.

Endorsing the Keelty Review of police and community safety, Campbell Newman said his government would seek a private company to take over the operation of the Camera Detected Offences Program.

“It is ultimately not good use of highly qualified, highly trained police officers sitting there minding cameras,” said Mr Newman.

“It was a financially rewarding thing for them to do but to have them sitting there minding cameras wasn’t good use of their skills and expertise when they should’ve been out fighting crime.

“I’ll acknowledge they were receiving overtime, but I’ll say something else, it’s my view they are well paid.

“Their pay bears up very well compared with police in other states and I hate to see people doing large amounts of overtime when they arguably should be there with their families and friends enjoying their well-earned rest.”

Transport and Main Roads will now be responsible for the Camera Detected Offences Program and wide-load escorts – currently conducted by police.

Mr Newman said there would still be opportunities for police to earn overtime through “specials” – providing security for major sporting and community events.

The Queensland Police Union is opposed to the outsourcing of speed camera vans and wide-load escorts, saying the move would undermine community safety.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/q...-1226715462928

[Bowser22]

It's been like that in Victoria for years. Can't remember the last time I saw a police car escorting a wide load.

[blackf6]

HHHmmmm bet they use undetectable vehicles too. Like old 5- 10 year old crapboxes not the latest vehicles. When is the next state election? Might see a few accidents with 5 meter plus wide loads. When people don't have radio's and ignore the pilots because they are not the law, why should I stop.

[LG17]

There's plenty of VNs already parked by the wayside - they won't need to buy anything!

[csv8]

Originally Posted by teak81

HHHmmmm bet they use undetectable vehicles too. Like old 5- 10 year old crapboxes not the latest vehicles. When is the next state election?

18-24 months away but Campbell will be back with a reduced majority. Unless Labor can perform a miracle..

[Cuyper]

Originally Posted by Bowser22

It's been like that in Victoria for years. Can't remember the last time I saw a police car escorting a wide load.

Those guys are terrible, I've been rammed off the road a few times by private wide load escorts. Power trippers

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Good for the coffers, bad for the cops, they earn overtime manning them.

As petty as it is I see them more as a 'safety' device with an officer of the law behind them compared to Joe down the road.

Does this mean I can flip them the bird and not get prosecuted? (THIS IS A JOKE)

[4stanger]

Currently, when driving on central Qld. roads, with police escorted wide loads, they always seem to be seriously wide (mining equipment related) and the police practically line you up for a head on crash, just to get you off the road and stop. When there is a private company escorting a wide load, they are not that seriously wide and oncoming motorist can safely move past the not so wide loaded vehicle, without too much drama.
These sought of perceptions will need to change before an accident to happen.

[rancidpunx]

What sucks is that this is one of the first steps into privatising law enforcement. How long before we have a private company running speed cameras for profit. We all know the government already do this but with a big business with big share holders its going to be a lot worse.

[Matty4]

Originally Posted by rancidpunx

What sucks is that this is one of the first steps into privatising law enforcement. How long before we have a private company running speed cameras for profit. We all know the government already do this but with a big business with big share holders its going to be a lot worse.

www.redflex.com

They're already doing this down here.

[rancidpunx]

Originally Posted by Matty4

www.redflex.com

They're already doing this down here.

Exactly, and I believe Maquarie Bank have a large interest in the company.

[jpd80]

What's annoying with organising a wide load permit is that you have to do it at least ten days before hand,
if changes happen and you can't move on the day, it's another application and ten day wait.

On speed cameras, wait until they give private companies a share of the revenue generated,
that kind of incentive will mean even more speed detection and more scrutiny of low range speeding.

[Angeldust]

all good, except that the private organisation will most probabaly be owned by 'friends' of campell nueman.

can i buy my own speed camera van franchise?

[STINKY NINJA]

I havent seen a cop manning a speed camera van in wa for years and years now,cops only use the hand held radar guns these days, and private companies do the wide load/piloting also in wa.
So ive been smiling for years on civilian speed cameras
My opinion is these regular people who man speed cameras are just scum,i always give them a special wave when i see them...
Most of the time they give the special wave back to me

[blueprinted_xr]

Originally Posted by STINKY NINJA

I havent seen a cop manning a speed camera van in wa for years and years now,cops only use the hand held radar guns these days, and private companies do the wide load/piloting also in wa,

Think WA police have 1 or 2 4WD's to move the stupidly big stuff, but even then the private companies are there too doing most of the work. 9 times out of 10 if I see the police escort vehicle, its in the maccers drive through, getting a Mighty Angus meal to escort home.

[MAD]

It's a good idea to get police back to police work rather than sitting in a car reading a book.

The problem with privatising is that there is a another layer added to the wealth distribution and ultimately less ends up going back to the roads.

[JC]

Originally Posted by MAD

It's a good idea to get police back to police work rather than sitting in a car reading a book.

The problem with privatising is that there is a another layer added to the wealth distribution and ultimately less ends up going back to the roads.

Both good points. But Abbott reckons the liberals will build the roads of the 21st century, so he must be paying for that with public service cuts - maybe we can get jobs manning police vans???

[wodahs]

here in wa the mobile speed cameras aren't maned by police as stated in above posts but are civil servants employed by the government so the revenue still goes to the same place and was put in place to apparently free police to do main stream police work (once was suggested to me to get in to but wasn't interested and stayed in transport)
as for police and wide loads there are that many wide loads traveling all the time this would tie up bout all police to escort , the wider the load the more escorts are needed and when they get to a certain stage there will be a few escorts and at least 1 police and wa have more than 2 police pilot vehicles
and yes escorts have the right to force you of the road and report you to the police for not yielding to an over size load over here

[rancidpunx]

Originally Posted by MAD

It's a good idea to get police back to police work rather than sitting in a car reading a book.

They wont be going back to police work. In Qld officers do speed detection work during overtime shifts. The government is just to tight to pay them the overtime. Campbell Newman was on TV saying he thought their time would be better spent at home with the family. BS, it just another money saving measure. Why pay an officer time and half (?) when you can pay a regular citizen $20p/h to do the same thing yet make the same money from fines. Eventually the whole operation will be outsourced so nobody needs to be paid to man the camera but they will still rake in the fines but the private company will want their share as well.

[blackf6]

I can just see it now. 8 meter wide load- few civilian light vehicles smashed on side of road.

[Pedro]

Any camera vehicles I've seen for the last 20 years in Qld are not manned by anyone. The cops set them up then leave them there to collect money.

I did fix one up in the 80's. It was parked on a footpath with a cop in it, so I stopped and parked my car and walked back and started taking photos of it. The cop jumped out and asked what I was doing? I told him I was taking photos of an illegally parked police vehicle and would be e-mailing it to the Police Minister that night. He called me a smart #%*@ and ceased operations and drove the vehicle off. I found out later through a police mate of mine that they threw all pics it had taken that day into the bin.

[ozpacman]

Originally Posted by Pedro

Any camera vehicles I've seen for the last 20 years in Qld are not manned by anyone. The cops set them up then leave them there to collect money.

I did fix one up in the 80's. It was parked on a footpath with a cop in it, so I stopped and parked my car and walked back and started taking photos of it. The cop jumped out and asked what I was doing? I told him I was taking photos of an illegally parked police vehicle and would be e-mailing it to the Police Minister that night. He called me a smart #%*@ and ceased operations and drove the vehicle off. I found out later through a police mate of mine that they threw all pics it had taken that day into the bin.

Actually that's not quite correct Pedro. I believe it's a QPS requirement that all speed camera vehicles are manned for the duration of the allocated deployment.

Oh, and we didn't actually have speed camera vehicles in Queensland in the 80's. Gee you were a lucky duck having email and a digital camera back then too - I could only afford a crappy old 35mm film camera and would have had to fax the images to the Police Minister!

Cheers,

Russ

[The Monty]

Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Spoke to a copper I know last night amd apparently in VIC the speed camera van must have two people inside at all times. One for snapping and one for security. Kinda defeats the savings element of the exercise doesn't it?

[MAD]

Originally Posted by grandpa_spec_F6

Spoke to a copper I know last night amd apparently in VIC the speed camera van must have two people inside at all times. One for snapping and one for security. Kinda defeats the savings element of the exercise doesn't it?

I've never seen two people in a camera car.

[XR Martin]

Originally Posted by JC

Both good points. But Abbott reckons the liberals will build the roads of the 21st century, so he must be paying for that with public service cuts - maybe we can get jobs manning police vans???

Maybe public servants could finally do something and build the roads?

[blackf6]

Originally Posted by MAD

I've never seen two people in a camera car.

One might be taking photo's whilst the other is well.........practicing stick shifting with their face?






















May or may not be based on actual factual events.

[grandpa_spec_F6]

Originally Posted by MAD

I've never seen two people in a camera car.

Ahh that's interesting, I did hear they were having issues with people vandalising the vans apparently. Any truth in that?

[MAD]

What I mostly see are Commodore wagons or Hyundai softroaders.

There were a couple of attacks on operators but I don't remember it being massively widespread.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by Bowser22

It's been like that in Victoria for years. Can't remember the last time I saw a police car escorting a wide load.

In NSW if it's over 5.4 metres wide there will be a Police escort and 2 Pilots

Originally Posted by Cuyper

Those guys are terrible, I've been rammed off the road a few times by private wide load escorts. Power trippers

Probably because they didn't want you to ruin the paint on their load with your Guard/mirror/door !

Originally Posted by Matty4

www.redflex.comThey're already doing this down here.

The same in NSW.

Originally Posted by rancidpunx

Exactly, and I believe Maquarie Bank have a large interest in the company.

About 100% I think.