speed camera or not

stingray_316

Driving home tonight l noticed a policewoman/pcso on the pavement about 300 yards ahead, as l got nearer on the other side of the road was a uniformed officer hiding behind a lamp post with a hand held lazer gun. There was no policecar or camera van about . l know they hold video evidence on camera vans but he had nothing with him just a hand held lazer gun. A bit crafty hiding behind a lamp post is this legal and what do you think she was doing just standing on the opposite side of the road. So was it / is this a speed camera, if it is how do they get video evidence as l'm sure this was just checking the speed of the vehicles on my side of the road.

Conor_3

Yes it's legal. They don't need pictoral or video evidence - the word of a uniformed officer is sufficient.

flang

I know that in order to install pedestrain facilities etc local councils need to know speeds in which to design to.
This might be the case... or might not.....

Throbbe

flang wrote: »

I know that in order to install pedestrain facilities etc local councils need to know speeds in which to design to.
This might be the case... or might not.....

Wouldn't have been a uniformed officer though if it were a survey. I used to do speed surveys (among other things) for a living, and you would try to stay out of sight to get representative results.

On one memorable occasion a householder spotted me in a bush waving what looked like a gun at passing cars. Fortunately the armed response unit saw the funny side ...

stingray_316

Conor wrote: »

Yes it's legal. They don't need pictoral or video evidence - the word of a uniformed officer is sufficient.

So a lazer gun and the word of a uniformed officer is enough to proscute without evidence. What if ou are doing 35mph in a 40mph zone and they say you was doing over 40mph , how can you prove you was not:huh: Where's the innocent till proving guilty in this.

Conor_3

How could you prove you weren't if you were caught by a speed camera? My lorry has a tachograph fitted which records my speed on a chart but even that's inadmissable as evidence in court.

You are still innocent until proven guilty. The officer has to prove their case to the court.

bargepole

Conor wrote: »

How could you prove you weren't if you were caught by a speed camera? My lorry has a tachograph fitted which records my speed on a chart but even that's inadmissable as evidence in court.

Your tacho records are admissable. In 2001, trucker Steve Daniel was given a NIP for doing 55 mph, even though he was crawling past the camera in a slow moving traffic jam at the time. He was convicted by the Magistrates, but it was overturned on appeal to the Crown Court, who accepted the evidence from the tacho that his actual speed was 2 mph. A police spokesman admitted there may have been a fault with their camera.

Conor wrote: »

You are still innocent until proven guilty. The officer has to prove their case to the court.

This is true in a "proper" court, but unfortunately not in the Magistrates', where they will unfailingly believe anything a uniformed officer says, unless you can provide compelling evidence to the contrary - and even then, they may still convict you, and leave it for a proper Judge to sort out in the appeal.

Hintza

This is the old fashioned way of doing it. They would normally then stop you on the road show you the reading and issue the ticket. For those that tried to do a runner they would normally have a car further down the road which could stop you if necessary.

In this instance they might have just been monitoring speeds after a complaint?

Conor_3

bargepole wrote: »

Your tacho records are admissable. In 2001, trucker Steve Daniel was given a NIP for doing 55 mph, even though he was crawling past the camera in a slow moving traffic jam at the time. He was convicted by the Magistrates, but it was overturned on appeal to the Crown Court, who accepted the evidence from the tacho that his actual speed was 2 mph. A police spokesman admitted there may have been a fault with their camera.

Thanks for that. I'm going to look that up because there's been a few drivers prosecuted for exceeding the limit despite tacho charts showing otherwise and a legal precedent would help people immensely.

Sadly the new digi card ones don't record speed at all.