30,000 reports - 13 arrests & 240 fines

[ltd_on20s]

MORE than 30,000 drivers have been reported to police by people fed up with hoon driving.

Since police first appealed for public help in March, 2006, public tip-offs had resulted in the detection of 638 offences leading to 13 arrests, 240 fines and court cases and 385 formal cautions.
Traffic support branch Inspector Stuart McLean said yesterday the figures showed how successful the scheme had been.

There had been 11,866 warning letters sent to drivers and 3453 investigations by police as a result of the 31,375 complaints to the Traffic Watch campaign.

"We are confident this is an excellent opportunity to reinforce our road safety message," he said.

Police Commissioner Mal Hyde this week appealed to South Australian motorists to back police and The Advertiser's Countdown 100 campaign to keep the road toll below this figure.

In the majority of complaints, 15,963, police had insufficient information – such as no or partial number plates – or decided the complaint did not warrant follow-up.

Inspector McLean said eyewitness accounts could be hard to prove.

"If someone says `this wasn't me' when they get the letter, please contact us," he said. "This is not an accusation and we are not taking formal police action. The system by nature is subjective because we are relying on the community."

He said people who see hoon driving such as tailgating, running red lights, speeding or burnouts, should report it to police immediately by calling 131 444 or at any police station to make a traffic complaint.

Inspector McLean said witnesses should note:

LOCATION of the dangerous driving.

VEHICLE details such as registration number and description of the vehicle.

NATURE of the driving behaviour that was dangerous or reckless.

TIME of the incident.

YOUR CONTACT numbers and details.

Police admit there is room for error
POLICE acknowledge some alleged hoon drivers are the victims of mistaken identity or false reports.
Traffic support branch Inspector Stuart McLean said police did not know if drivers had done anything wrong when they sent out the warning letters.

One of the recipients, Stewart McFetridge, of Hillbank, has criticised the scheme as inaccurate and "mischief making" by some informants.

His letter instructed him to "modify your driving behaviour", but Mr McFetridge can prove his car was garaged at the time of the alleged incident.

"Any Joe Public can ring and make a complaint and then you have a letter against your name," he said.

Inspector McLean said Mr McFetridge and any other driver who wanted to dispute the letters should contact police...............

........... Thoughts? from what i know if you are issued with a warning in SA you would have to go to court to have it expunged from your record.... so if you had a warning even if it wasnt proved it would be on police systems if they ever ran your rego one day if they were cruising behind you............

[RAPTOR_XR8]

Its starting to become like communist china or like iraq under saddam hussein's rule.

Also i thought that hooning was speeding/street racing and burnouts, i suppose that you could consider any form of law braking wilst in an automobile to be hooning.

While in theory this was a good idea it FAILS.

They want the community to do there job by dobbing modified car owners in because there too loud ect, ah well everyone buy a camry and everyone will leave you alone.

[Fireblade]

Also posted in another thread of similar content. Not condoning hooning but, my belief is the police seem to be spending more time trying to bust hoons or even worse normal citizens who make a small mistake in going 3kmh over the speed limit, when gang crime, pedophilia and other heinous crimes go unspoken and are probably on the rise, no horrific TV campaign about what rock spiders are doing to children to alarm parents of it, or no anti-gang campaigns and what the law is doing about street shootouts. But people that are into cars and were all tarred with the same brush now, we're all criminals of the worst kind. Come on give me a break, yes there is idiots out there who dont know a time or place for stupid $%^&, but what about the unspeakable crimes people are doing everyday that arent talked of, it is easier for the law to bust car lovers because it is easy to see who loves their car by the way the car looks and they just pull you over. Revenue raising is all it is about, and the police are just like the tax department at the moment with their hand out to every car owner.

[RAPTOR_XR8]

Too true mate too true.

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by F6 FOON

Also posted in another thread of similar content. Not condoning hooning but, my belief is the police seem to be spending more time trying to bust hoons or even worse normal citizens who make a small mistake in going 3kmh over the speed limit, when gang crime, pedophilia and other heinous crimes go unspoken and are probably on the rise, no horrific TV campaign about what rock spiders are doing to children to alarm parents of it, or no anti-gang campaigns and what the law is doing about street shootouts. But people that are into cars and were all tarred with the same brush now, we're all criminals of the worst kind. Come on give me a break, yes there is idiots out there who dont know a time or place for stupid $%^&, but what about the unspeakable crimes people are doing everyday that arent talked of, it is easier for the law to bust car lovers because it is easy to see who loves their car by the way the car looks and they just pull you over. Revenue raising is all it is about, and the police are just like the tax department at the moment with their hand out to every car owner.

I think you'll find police are making significant in-roads into dealing with all of the crimes you mentioned, not just "hooning"...
They have many dept's and most of which prefer to keep out of the media...

[Piotr]

Guys they arn't sending out fines on peoples reports. There is still a legal procedure the follow.

[FPV GT40]

Originally Posted by F6 FOON

Also posted in another thread of similar content. Not condoning hooning but, my belief is the police seem to be spending more time trying to bust hoons or even worse normal citizens who make a small mistake in going 3kmh over the speed limit, when gang crime, pedophilia and other heinous crimes go unspoken and are probably on the rise, no horrific TV campaign about what rock spiders are doing to children to alarm parents of it, or no anti-gang campaigns and what the law is doing about street shootouts. But people that are into cars and were all tarred with the same brush now, we're all criminals of the worst kind. Come on give me a break, yes there is idiots out there who dont know a time or place for stupid $%^&, but what about the unspeakable crimes people are doing everyday that arent talked of, it is easier for the law to bust car lovers because it is easy to see who loves their car by the way the car looks and they just pull you over. Revenue raising is all it is about, and the police are just like the tax department at the moment with their hand out to every car owner.

What you must realise thet the detectives that deal with the serious crimes you mention do not deal with traffic matters, and Highway police do not investigate other crimes, same uniform different job, just like only a small percentage of Telstra workers fix phones, the rest do other jobs..

The highway police deal with traffic matters full time all day every day, that is what they get payed to do, they are specially trained in high speed driving, they drive the V8 powered highway cars. They usually have specialist knowledge on cars with many having a background as mechanics, and most are car enthusiasts themselves ( I know a few of them in my local area) and they are usually the first on the scene to fatal car crashes, they are the ones dragging bodies out of burning and smashed up vehicles, they are the ones dealing with the consquences of the stupidity day in day out. They see first hand what happens and they deal with it day in day out, the only ones that have a worse job are the ambos IMO.

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by Piotr

Guys they arn't sending out fines on peoples reports. There is still a legal procedure the follow.

noted. however you are still receiving a warning on something you may or may not have done...and im pretty sure that does go on your driving record wether you see it or dont.

the main point of me pasting that article in it just seems extraordinarily inefficient, not to mention downright open to abuse.

my mum got one!! and she drives a starwagon! she over took someone doing 50 in the middle lane and he beeped his horn. she took no notice and she recv a letter 4 weeks later warning her about her "dangerous overtaking maneuver".......on a 3 lane road...... the last fine she got was in 1998..... she went down to the station and they advised her that a note will always be on the file that she has been warned before. she had to engage a soliciter to send them a letter stating without any proof of this so called dangerous manuver they had to withdraw the warning off her record. which they duly did....

that leads me to believe that all warnings would be recorded on peoples files.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by F6 FOON

Also posted in another thread of similar content. Not condoning hooning but, my belief is the police seem to be spending more time trying to bust hoons or even worse normal citizens who make a small mistake in going 3kmh over the speed limit, when gang crime, pedophilia and other heinous crimes go unspoken and are probably on the rise, no horrific TV campaign about what rock spiders are doing to children to alarm parents of it, or no anti-gang campaigns and what the law is doing about street shootouts.

Unless you're privy to the inner workings of the Police department, I'd doubt you would know what their current procedures are on the crimes you're talking about. It's not often a week goes by when ninemsn doesn't report on some rockspider getting busted, for instance.

There isn't enough police presence on the road, IMO and I don't blame that on the police but the lack of resources. The powers that be seem to believe they can displace portions of a police force by installing devices that don't police, they just take pretty pictures.

I also don't see the benefit of having an add campaign to attempt to stem gang shootouts, etc. You think it'll make those who participate think twice about it? There's a larger target audience for hooning, i.e, anyone that plans to operate a motor vehicle.

[burnz]

gee this sound's like the american, name your dealer and reduce your sentance, BS.

[balthazarr]

Originally Posted by ltd_on20s

MORE than 30,000 drivers have been reported to police by people fed up with hoon driving.

Since police first appealed for public help in March, 2006, public tip-offs had resulted in the detection of 638 offences leading to 13 arrests, 240 fines and court cases and 385 formal cautions.
Traffic support branch Inspector Stuart McLean said yesterday the figures showed how successful the scheme had been.

There had been 11,866 warning letters sent to drivers and 3453 investigations by police as a result of the 31,375 complaints to the Traffic Watch campaign.

"We are confident this is an excellent opportunity to reinforce our road safety message," he said.

Police Commissioner Mal Hyde this week appealed to South Australian motorists to back police and The Advertiser's Countdown 100 campaign to keep the road toll below this figure.

In the majority of complaints, 15,963, police had insufficient information – such as no or partial number plates – or decided the complaint did not warrant follow-up.

Inspector McLean said eyewitness accounts could be hard to prove.

"If someone says `this wasn't me' when they get the letter, please contact us," he said. "This is not an accusation and we are not taking formal police action. The system by nature is subjective because we are relying on the community."

He said people who see hoon driving such as tailgating, running red lights, speeding or burnouts, should report it to police immediately by calling 131 444 or at any police station to make a traffic complaint.

Inspector McLean said witnesses should note:

LOCATION of the dangerous driving.

VEHICLE details such as registration number and description of the vehicle.

NATURE of the driving behaviour that was dangerous or reckless.

TIME of the incident.

YOUR CONTACT numbers and details.

Police admit there is room for error
POLICE acknowledge some alleged hoon drivers are the victims of mistaken identity or false reports.
Traffic support branch Inspector Stuart McLean said police did not know if drivers had done anything wrong when they sent out the warning letters.

One of the recipients, Stewart McFetridge, of Hillbank, has criticised the scheme as inaccurate and "mischief making" by some informants.

His letter instructed him to "modify your driving behaviour", but Mr McFetridge can prove his car was garaged at the time of the alleged incident.

"Any Joe Public can ring and make a complaint and then you have a letter against your name," he said.

Inspector McLean said Mr McFetridge and any other driver who wanted to dispute the letters should contact police...............

........... Thoughts? from what i know if you are issued with a warning in SA you would have to go to court to have it expunged from your record.... so if you had a warning even if it wasnt proved it would be on police systems if they ever ran your rego one day if they were cruising behind you............

Wow. 31,375 complaints - 13 arrests, 240 fines, 385 formal cautions.

So, if we include the cautions:
638 "successful" actions
15,963 "insufficient info" and
3,453 "investigations"
out of 31,375 complaints...

2.033% successes
50.878% waste of time
11.006% of reports resulting in investigations - 0.3765% of which resulted in an arrest, 6.9505% in a fine, 11.150% a caution and 81.523% an uber waste of time

Yep... really successful. :

And that's before you consider all of the "room for error" and all of the follow up required from people contacting police for being falsely accused.

Make no mistake... I don't condone hooning. But this 'solution', just like cameras, is no substitute for police presence on the road.

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by balthazarr

Wow. 31,375 complaints - 13 arrests, 240 fines, 385 formal cautions.

So, if we include the cautions:
638 "successful" actions
15,963 "insufficient info" and
3,453 "investigations"
out of 31,375 complaints...

2.033% successes
50.878% waste of time
11.006% of reports resulting in investigations - 0.3765% of which resulted in an arrest, 6.9505% in a fine, 11.150% a caution and 81.523% an uber waste of time

Yep... really successful. :

And that's before you consider all of the "room for error" and all of the follow up required from people contacting police for being falsely accused.

Make no mistake... I don't condone hooning. But this 'solution', just like cameras, is no substitute for police presence on the road.

lol and thats just in SA......

[burnz]

maybe if ppl sued the gov on false acusation then it will reduce.

[Jack91]

This system is basically useless. Even if the police come around to my house with the right rego number/colour/model, what proof do they have of me doing it, apart from the bored soccer mum's say so? And me being on p's and a ford falcon I'm guilty as soon as they look at me. Ridiculous. So basically, anyone that hates me now has the power to take my money, license and livelyhood away from me.

[balthazarr]

Originally Posted by 93_eb_fairmont

This system is basically useless. Even if the police come around to my house with the right rego number/colour/model, what proof do they have of me doing it, apart from the bored soccer mum's say so? And me being on p's and a ford falcon I'm guilty as soon as they look at me. Ridiculous. So basically, anyone that hates me now has the power to take my money, license and livelyhood away from me.

I'd be more worried about neighbours that might have it in for me, or people that are jealous of my car, etc.

I worked in the water restrictions team of one of Melbourne's water companies a few years ago... the number of people ringing to dob in their neighbours was incredible... and the venom some of them had towards their neighbours.

I'd repeat some of it, but then I'd just be posting white space due to the swear filter.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by 93_eb_fairmont

This system is basically useless. Even if the police come around to my house with the right rego number/colour/model, what proof do they have of me doing it, apart from the bored soccer mum's say so? And me being on p's and a ford falcon I'm guilty as soon as they look at me. Ridiculous. So basically, anyone that hates me now has the power to take my money, license and livelyhood away from me.

Bottom line, they don't. I don't want to see society decline into an Orwell novel. If I'm 'hooning', I'd accept the judgement by a trained member of the police a lot better than some clown with a pad and pen.

[rodderz]

I witnessed 1 fellow today lose his car because of this. Heard a (surprise) VL commy hooning around all day in an estate, young new P-Plater cap backwards giving it stick at any opportunity. He had the straight through exhaust so we could hear him from 2 miles away, basically from 9.30am till 2pm this arvo. He nearly cleaned up one of my worker's cars after getting sideways around the corner, so he reported it to the cops.

30-mins later, said hoon is walking down the road looking sorry for himself car-less, after being busted doing doughies at the local oval carpark. He looked several sanga's short of a lunch, I wonder if he will learn.... Got us a big laugh though

[damir05]

i think these days police has nothing else to do then send fines to drivers to keep police stations running, maybe they should let some staff off to decrease spendings

[Rodp]

Ninemsn saves the day. Came several hours after my post.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=680097

[balthazarr]

Originally Posted by Rodp

Ninemsn saves the day. Came several hours after my post.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=680097

?????

[S3SR]

Originally Posted by damir05

i think these days police has nothing else to do then send fines to drivers to keep police stations running, maybe they should let some staff off to decrease spendings

and guess whos first to complain when theres no police to come to them when they are being robbed, assualted, etc? the people who complained about them doing their job

im all for throwing the book at people who do 100kph in 60zones or speed through school zones and people who DONT do the speed limit ie 40 in a 60, dont indicate, dont stay in their lanes, but 3km over? or one persons word against someone elses thats just BS and it goes on your record

[Keepleft]

Originally Posted by S3SR

im all for throwing the book at people who do 100kph in 60 zones or speed through school zones and people who DONT do the speed limit ie 40 in a 60, dont indicate, dont stay in their lanes, but 3km over? or one persons word against someone elses thats just BS and it goes on your record

Devils Advocate hat a moment; "Don't Indicate" - where are the Statistics that say 'not indicating' causes crashes vis; - 1) How many, and broken up into, a) Serious injury, b) Injury, and c) No injury.
* When I was 'young' (thousands of years ago), an HWP asked me same. Odd.


You have a right to know your accuser, now - for some 'accused' who may be innocent, a counter financial claim for damages would be a worthy consideration, particularly in these days.

[xccoupe]

Why do we think it’s acceptable to dob in a hoon (spoty faced driver aka your kid my kid), confiscate the vehicle Joe hoon is driving after the three strikes you’re out policy and crush hoon taxi.

Why don't we label all drink drivers as hoons?

If you get pulled over for drunk driving and your over your limit you walk for the night, next day arrange to get car home if you haven’t done so that night. So next day fore mentioned ****ed idiot goes out and starts it all over again until the next time he/she gets pulled over for a RBT or court case is heard and ****ed idiot has licence cancelled.

****ed Idiot knows it against the law to drink drive, why would ****ed idiot obey the law not to drive without a licence!

How funny would it be seeing a booze bus on the side of the road and a mobile car compactor behind, the next morning flat car’s stacked on the medium strip a Cop car, Government car,Corporate spots car, Company car, Mums taxi, Tradeys Ute and a Ricer (because they should be)

I also think that every cop car (no matter what) should be fitted with a driver breath tester. High powered cars + guns + ****ed idiot = a recipe for disaster

My point it’s harder to drive without a car and I know which I would rather share the road with.

Why wouldn’t this ever happen?

Cheers
Tony

[TTXPC]

Guilty till proven innocent, isnt that backwards...

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by balthazarr

?????

Don't know what happened to my other post, it was there yesterday. Basically a reply to someone who suggested that police were wasting time chasing people travelling 3kph above the speed limit and not real crims like rapist, murderers and kiddy fiddlers.

Not a week goes by when they haven't busted someone taking advantage of kids.

[sleekism]

Originally Posted by Rodp

Don't know what happened to my other post, it was there yesterday. Basically a reply to someone who suggested that police were wasting time chasing people travelling 3kph above the speed limit and not real crims like rapist, murderers and kiddy fiddlers.

Not a week goes by when they haven't busted someone taking advantage of kids.

But how many pedos are still out there??

Me, a mate and two girls were gang bashed two blocks away from the cop station. There were plenty of cops around that night but hey were too busy busting "hoons".

I think the argument is distribution of police resources.

[balthazarr]

Originally Posted by Rodp

Don't know what happened to my other post, it was there yesterday. Basically a reply to someone who suggested that police were wasting time chasing people travelling 3kph above the speed limit and not real crims like rapist, murderers and kiddy fiddlers.

Now it makes sense.

Not a week goes by when they haven't busted someone taking advantage of kids.

Aahh... but not a second goes by when they haven't busted someone going 3km/h over the limit.

[Rock ape]

Yep my small business was stolen from my house ($48,000) and the cops didn't even show up. I have no time for them anymore. Real police work is to hard for them.

[Daymoe]

Police need to start doing REAL police work, not sitting behind a radar gun or installing new speed cameras.

People wonder why there is such a low respect for the cops.

[balthazarr]

I take it all back. Everything I've ever said on this forum about cameras.

We need more cameras - on every intersection, every 200m on freeways - EVERYWHERE... because, apparently, even the police on the road don't police the roads.

I was driving along the Monash Freeway, on the Eastlink off-ramp. I was in the leftmost lane, as I was going to head towards Ringwood on Eastlink. The other off-ramp lane was clear. In the leftmost Monash lane (continuing straight) there was an SUV about half a car length ahead of my position, and a police car about 5-6 car lengths behind my position.

All of a sudden, the SUV swerves out of its lane, across the clear lane next to mine, into my lane... requiring me to brake hard to avoid a collision. No indicator, and clearly did not check for other cars (like mine).

What did the police car do?

Sweet FA, is what.

And it's not like the police couldn't safely pull into the off-ramp and 'pursue' - that lane was clear, and they had enough time to enter the on-ramp. I would have gladly pulled over to let them get the idiot.

But no, they just continued on, as if it's normal for SUVs to swerve all over the road and cause other cars to slam on the brakes to avoid a collision. :