Report that driver!

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Globalti

Legendary Member
Cut & pasted from the Soapbox:

There are so many threads about motorist aggression on this forum that I thought I'd let you know what I have found out about this. Almost every time the poster has done nothing about it, probably because they don't think it will make any difference if they complain. Well, it WILL. Here's why:

The Police have been given new powers to use the Police National Computer more effectively. Until now they had no choice but to ignore uncorroborated reports of bad driving from members of the public. Now they are allowed to "tag" licence numbers with reports phoned in by the public. If a vehicle receives another report it will be flagged up on the computer as a problem vehicle and after the fourth the owner will receive a visit from the Police and be given a "producer" notice to bring their documents to the Police staton. Don't forget that Police traffic cars also have ANPR technology so any car, which has been tagged will attract attention.

We members of our residents' action group have already used this several times to report habitual speeders in our street. The Police are happy to take the call, after all it's just using existing technology to its best advantage. Recenty we reported a chavvy Peugeot for racing down our street and the officer said "Oh we know that one already". She told me it was a local driver and he would now be receiving the visit. Since most of the people who speed in our road are local drivers who know it's a short cut, this is an entirely appropriate way of protecting our children and our quality of life.

So go ahead, get the non-emergency number for your local Police force and store it on your cellphone. For Lancashire Police it's 0845 1 25 35 45 and for Greater Manchester it's 0161 872 5050. The Police are waiting for your calls.

.....now some PC clever dick off this forum will come along and tell me this is an abuse of criminals' human rights.....
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Rigid Raider said:
.....now some PC clever dick off this forum will come along and tell me this is an abuse of criminals' human rights.....

Is PC Clever Dick the constable answering the phone?

So this is a nationwide thing, not just round your way? Seems like a good idea - is it as simple as ring up and give the details? No, 'come down the station and make a statement' stuff? Not that I'd mind that if I'd felt really endangered, but you wouldn't want to be bothered for every bloody time...

Not to say it abuses the human rights of criminals, bad drivers need to be shaken up a bit, but how long before this becomes a handy way to wage a vendetta against an innocent driver who just happens to have annoyed someone a bit irrational?
 

Christopher

Über Member
Cheers, Ogri! I've put both numbers in my phone.

Arch, the vendetta thing is probably why the police want four reports (presumeably independent) per car before they act.
 

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
If its as good as you say it is Rigid Raider, its a capital idea.

How long has this been in operation for? Any links to this laid out 'officially' for us?
 
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Globalti

Globalti

Legendary Member
I think the Police are keeping it low key for exactly the reason that they fear people could use it for vendettas; they always ask your name and address. They told us about it because we are a residents' group campaigning to get traffic calming in our street. It is nationwide, I had this from a Chief Inspector.

Don't forget also that this bumps up the speeding statistics for your street/town/area, which paves the way for citizens being trained to use speed cameras and report speeders - ostensibly this is for "data collection only". It's all done on statistics nowadys - we can't get traffic calming because nobody has been killed or injured in our street so in a sense we are victims of our own success in keeping our children safe.

You should also try to remember to ask the operator to inform your local beat officer, for similar reasons.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
Frustruck said:
Cheers, Ogri! I've put both numbers in my phone.

Arch, the vendetta thing is probably why the police want four reports (presumeably independent) per car before they act.


Yes, I can see it would probably have to be a dedicated nutter. But there seem to be a lot of them about these days... What about the independent thing Rigid? If your residents association is using this, I guess it might often be one of a small number of people, or the same person ringing. If someone were commuting, they might routinely encounter the same driver driving badly, and need to report them several times...

North Yorks non-emergency number is, according to website:

0845 60 60 247
 
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Globalti

Globalti

Legendary Member
Well in six months I have reported three drivers so if they search on my name I'm hardly likely to come up as a serial reporter. We have also leafletted every one of the 72 addresses in our street about it, so even if only a handful of people take any action that would give a fair spread of reporters for a few habitual speeders.

I'd have thought that it would work well for any driver who is in the habit of abusing other road users.
 

Cab

New Member
Location
Cambridge
Rigid Raider, I'm sending a query about this to our local PCs, see whether or not they're willing to do this. Cheers for the heads up!
 

andygates

New Member
Sounds like a capital idea. I shall bother reporting some of the tractors now. I wonder if a string of reports like this could be used in court when considering a prosecution - clearly they'd suggest that the driver wasn't the squeaky-clean nun-loving golden boy they pretended to be...
 

barq

Senior Member
Location
Birmingham, UK
This is excellent news and thanks for passing it on RR. I just wish I was better at remembering number plates - at least long enough to write them down!

As so many of us have been saying for years (here and elsewhere) driving offences, considering their life-threatening potential, are regarded in disproportionately lenient terms. Contrary to what some motorists might think driving isn't a human right so I'm not sure how political correctness is really the issue. Despite the claims of the motoring lobby, I'm not sure many of us would accept that motorists are a minority/oppressed group in need of protection!
 

Sh4rkyBloke

Jaffa Cake monster
Location
Manchester, UK
barq said:
This is excellent news and thanks for passing it on RR. I just wish I was better at remembering number plates

Am I the only weirdo that remembers number plates by association with the strangest/dirtiest phrase you can make with the letters/numbers...

for example: J937 PRF (my old car) could be:

Juicy 937, Produced Rare Farts :blush:
or
Janet 937 Played with Rachel's Flanges :biggrin:

the worst bit is trying to remember the numbers - once the main parts of the sentence are in your head you can then work on storing the numbers..

It's gotten worse since the change in style of plates (XX51, XX02 etc.)





S'just me then? xx(

I'll get my coat
 

Fnaar

Smutmaster General
Location
Thumberland
Sh4rkyBloke said:
Am I the only weirdo that remembers number plates by association with the strangest/dirtiest phrase you can make with the letters/numbers..
for example: J937 PRF (my old car) could be:
Juicy 937, Produced Rare Farts :blush: or
Janet 937 Played with Rachel's Flanges :biggrin:
You made oi larf! xx(
 
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