WA Speeding Fines Recall

[bungarra]

Gotta love this!!!

WAPOL at it again, using equipment that the officers weren't qualified to use.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-...g-fine-fiasco/

WA Police have been forced to cancel or refund about 100 speeding fines handed out over four days in February after two officers used the wrong equipment to catch speeding drivers.

In an extraordinary move, letters of apology have been sent to dozens of people caught in the blitz, promising that their infringements would be withdrawn, fines refunded and demerit points reinstated.

The embarrassing error also forced an urgent audit of hundreds of other speeding fines handed out by the force's Cannington branch over several months.

Police confirmed the large-scale cancellation of fines yesterday, saying that the two officers involved had been disciplined but said there was no indication the problem stretched further than the force's south-east metropolitan district.

A police spokesman said the infringements were withdrawn not because the equipment was faulty but because the officers had used a new speeding gun model which they were not qualified to operate.

"While legislation makes the tickets they wrote out perfectly valid, our own internal policy requires that they have a certificate of competency in the exact model they are using," he said.

The problem was discovered during a routine station check of infringements which had been handed out, coupled with equipment which had been checked out and used by officers.

An internal investigation was carried out but police said there was no suggestion of corruption or benefit by the officers involved.

"They were just doing their usual job but with the wrong equipment," the spokesman said.

He said a subsequent audit of all infringements handed out by the south-east district found no other suspicious fines.

In a letter sent out over the past two weeks to affected drivers, the police say the infringement notices were "not issued correctly according to the Western Australia Police policy on speed measuring devices".

The letter continues: "Although the laser device was found to be operating correctly and within the required specifications, the operator 'police officer' has not followed the correct operating procedures (operator error)."

It was police policy to withdraw any infringement notices issued outside of training guidelines, the letter states.
"Therefore this infringement has been withdrawn effective immediately," it goes on. "If you have paid this infringement notice a refund will be made in full and any demerit points added to your licence will be subtracted."

[csv8]

Silence from the speed camera lovers on this site..No comment Sudzy???
This again proves that not all fines are correct....

[Ben73]

Well the least I can say is its good to see POLICE out there watching the roads instead of just some mindless camera snapping shots or some non police idiot in a camera car sitting there reading the newspaper while the camera does the work.

[SEZ213]

There is one thing...at least they've admitted it...and seem to be rectifying it...WA seems like a better option every day...

[2011G6E]

My thoughts exactly...they've admitted it, amazingly enough.

Someone here in Queensland published a list in the paper (Courier Mail I think) several years ago of the list of pre-setup requirements that had to be done before a fixed radar or camera trap location was used. They included stuff like checking for clear view in both directions, abcence of any reflective surfaces (signs, sheds by the road, armco railings, etc), testing it in both directions a few times, "calibrating" it (not sure how they do this...), and not being at the bottom of a hill or within a certain distance of a change of speed limit area. There were others, but I often wonder how often they actually do every single one of them. Besides the fact that most times they seem to be setup anywhere they damn well like.

[SEZ213]

On the Warrego heading home one arvo I caught a glimpse of a speed camera van; the policeman was measuring the distance from the side of the road to the van...I suppose if they don't follow the rules, people can question their tickets on the offchance the policeman didn't follow procedure...

[kpcart]

gotta question the posters motives, with the first line reading "gotta love this!!"
obviously hates the police.

police cant operate perfect 100% of the time. but why take stupid potshots at them when they make a mistake. at least they admitted it.

they are recalling speeding fines to people that are probably speeding all the time anyway and getting away with it.

[csv8]

Originally Posted by kpcart

gotta question the posters motives, with the first line reading "gotta love this!!"
obviously hates the police.

police cant operate perfect 100% of the time. but why take stupid potshots at them when they make a mistake. at least they admitted it.

they are recalling speeding fines to people that are probably speeding all the time anyway and getting away with it.

The problem is the Police constantly claim the speed cameras are infallible, never wrong..which we all now isn't true. The Clem 7 debacle in Brisbane has proven them wrong and now WA.. Maybe ,they will pay more attention and not treat us motorists as idiots when we complain about the cameras/fines....

[delete94]

I actually commend the Police on their actions. I don’t think many people out in the general public would be too aware of Police internal policies, so would have been none the wiser if they hadn’t withdrawn the infringements. I think it’s good to see and may even help to humanise the Police a little as well.

Also, about a month or so ago, it was reported in the media that there was a “recommendation” put forward by the Road Safety Council of WA, which went something along the lines that demerit points should be issued for any speed infringement, even as low as 1k over the limit. This recommendation was quickly knocked on the head by the Premier who was very clear that his government would never endorse such a proposal. Of course, he was being quizzed by the media, who wanted to know why, and he simply stated he didn’t believe it was right, and it wouldn’t achieve anything. It’s good to see a poli showing some common sense as well.

[bungarra]

Originally Posted by kpcart

gotta question the posters motives, with the first line reading "gotta love this!!"
obviously hates the police.

police cant operate perfect 100% of the time. but why take stupid potshots at them when they make a mistake. at least they admitted it.

they are recalling speeding fines to people that are probably speeding all the time anyway and getting away with it.

kpcart, no I don't hate WAPOL, have many friends who are class 1 drivers for them. I put "gotta love this" as it shows that even the police can get it and wrong and fix it and that Govco aren't perfect, even though they tell us the system allows no errors to happen.

it was actually a WAPOL Highway Patrol officer who showed me the original article and even told me that it happens more often and this was just one of many as they stopped auditing after this one which was the first audit done this year.