browny

The Police Officer might have acted like a ****, but from your story I cannot see a legitimate reason why the said truck driver needed to respond in a violent physical manner (IMO bad attitude, a quick temper and lack of the ability to appropriately respond doesn't equate to legitimate). If the reverse occured then everyone here would be calling blue murder and asking for the Police Officer's balls.

I don't think the problem is neccesarily weeding out the false claims, rather the sheer volume of minor and trivial stuff.

You seem to have marginal comprehension of what the Police powers mean. If they have reason to break the road rules, and they do it with care they are operating within the law. If they break the road rules without reasonable cause or are not careful in the way they do it then they are breaking the law. This is called abusing their powers. I don't think anyone is disputing that Police abusing their powers is wrong (for various reasons, IMO mostly ethical), as is the (apparent) leniency of their discipline system, so I fail to see your point. I also fail to see how you can observe Police actions such as speeding, without understanding the context in which they are acting, and definitively decide that they are acting this way without reason to do so? Wrong, they don't have to use their lights if they see reason not to. Sorry, two wrongs don't make a right.

The problem is sorting out genuine complaints from the general whinging majority. People will whings and complain about everything, and the sheer volume of rubbish spoils it for those that have something genuine to say. The company I work for ran a safety campaign not long ago, a series of innocent cartoon style ads aimed mostly at kids but also trying to raise general community awareness. The company does this sort of thing because it has strong ties to the community (esp regional areas) and it's part of our responsibility as a business. You would think this type of thing would go down well right? Wrong, there were lots of picky little complaints about details of the ads that weren't related to the actual message, a particular emergency service even submitted a written complaint along the lines that we were trying to infer things about them because some of the symbols used were similar to their logo. I have a feeling the ads might have been pulled now.

Re the lights/siren - What if they don't want to announce their arrival? Re paperwork - How would you prevent the paperwork from being overly burdensome? It seems kind of silly to expect an officer to have to remember, justify and report on every single incident where they broke a road rule and I can't really see any value in saying "attended xyz incident, broke some rules on the way". Even if they did have to report on every single time they broke a rule, does it really have any point. I mean is anyone going to bother to troll through reams of records to find out whether that officer they spotted speeding was doing it for a valid reason or not?

Roy, I think you must be a Police Officer as well! Of course it is. I also agree with Roy that in many cases this doesn't matter. But as soon as a Police Officer puts their uniform I feel that they have a responsibility to set a good example. No "i think" about it. They are.

Luke, PM returned. In short there's someone else in Cardiff that I've found very helpful.

Can't see anything at first glance but you can look yourself, it's all freely available info -> http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/rulesregulations...1.html?rrlid=21 I'm not an expert on this! My guess is that a clause like this doesn't exist because then everyone would start trying to get off on technicalities. However I would certainly hope that if I was in that position, I would not only be shown leniency by the Police but assisted as well.

oh noes, don't bring that up, then we will really get OT!

Do you read what is posted up at all? I'm not in law enforcement or anything even remotely connected to it. Thats good coming from someone who posts:

Not involved in law or law enforcement at all. Don't particularly like or dislike Police either. So am I, the reason I am being so blunt with my comments I'm all for informed discussions based on reliable information rather than the heresay and conjecture that usually gets bandied around whenever a topic such as this is brought up. Undoubtedly not, the ruling even specifies they must take reasonable care. We can all argue forever about what reasonable care means though.

Bass So you find it ethically offensive that Police are allowed to break laws, even if given good reason to do so? Certainly an interesting viewpoint. I find it ethically offensive if Police abuse their powers but I also think it is perfectly reasonable that they should be allowed to act outside of the laws if due cause requires.

I don't agree. You are making a sweeping generalisation of the behaviour of Police based on nothing else other than a handful of observations and second hand internet ramblings. Maybe there were legitimate reasons why the Police acted in the manner they did? You simply don't know enough about the situation to make this call. By using these powers for legitimate reasons they aren't "getting away" with anything. You can't "get away" with something you are allowed to do. Exactly why do you think this? Can you not see that there are certain situations where a Police Officer needs to break road rules so they can effectively carry out their job?

No they don't, read the fricking road rules that I posted!!!!! The poor judgement of an individual officer has got nothing to do with whether or not Police Officers as a group are allowed the power to act outside of the road rules. In this hypothetical situation I would suggest the officer in question would be displined accordingly, as they have not taken reasonable care to prevent harm to others. You may rightly question the severity of the punishment that is handed out, but I cannot see how this is at all is relevant to this discussion of police powers. It's a separate issue.

Can you post up what you find out please?

How did you go Dayne, did you get it working?

Is that your opinion or is your statement based on some sort of fact? Please explain your statement using Part 19 Section 305 of the Australian Road Rules as a reference. Based on those comments I expect we will get a really intelligent discussion coming from your end.

They aren't. The laws just recognises that in certain situations it may be reasonable for an officer to break certain rules in carrying out their duty effectively. I bet that most people here wouldn't care if the Police broke a few laws if they were in need of help.

There you go, the exact ruling. Basically they can do what they like if the driver is taking care and the action is deemed "reasonable".

In certain situations Police are allowed to break the normal road rules. So yes, using a mobile phone whilst driving is something that a Police Officer can do. By asking this question you are going to attract a host of bush lawyers that will spout forth all sort of rubbish arguments about what they have seen cops do and that they can only do things if their lights are on and wearing reflective vests blah blah blah.

Actually you have illustrated one thing that concerns me after reading the various discussions on car forums that I frequent. I get this perception that a lot of P platers have the attitude that they are no longer learner drivers as soon as the L plates come off and the P plates go on. Rather the provisional period is just viewed as a token waiting period before a full licence can be obtained. Now IMO a P plater is just a learner that is deemed to have the ability to drive without direct supervision, nothing more. So scottman, good on you for actually realising that you are still learning!

IMO what these laws are more about is reducing the temptation to do something stupid. We as a performance car oriented forum are naturally going to be opposed to something like this, however I can't actually see any negatives for the vast majority of young drivers who can neither afford nor want to drive a 'performance car'. Maybe all it does is reinforces the idea to P platers that they are inexperienced drivers, which is a good thing is it not?

You can do both. There are single phase to three phase converters around, although you would still be limited to the power your single phase outlet can supply. Actually, probably less because the converter will have losses.

Gut feeling is that you would have an interesting time convincing an engineer that it would be safe in the event of an accident, however that only my opinion. You should ask an engineer. Theres a good one in Cardiff.

Personal opinion. Any bonnet thats not the same colour as the rest of the car is posing, regardless of what the bonnet is made of.