Ask a Cop Anything

There is a near-zero chance you will even be stopped for going 2mph over the limit in the U.S.

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I think there’s a 5mph grey area

Here in Florida I think that grey area is more like 15 mph

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Actually it’s 1.86mph, I rounded up to two. I’ve been in the car when my folks have been pulled over and fined over going like 3km/hr over the speed limit. It’s VERY common here

“Sir do you know how fast your were going?”
“40mph?”
“Actually… 42”

hands over 200$ speeding ticket… I don’t get these fines because I don’t speed… Parking fines are the only fines I’ve gotten (all accidental, I’d never purposefully park in a permit/ticket zone).

At least around here, it’s often 40/25(40MPH in a 25 MPH zone), 44/30, 48/35, etc. Wet roads you can probably drop the tolerance a couple of MPH, and some officers have lower tolerances(like 37 or 38/25). Many officers have a 15 MPH tolerance regardless of speed limit(70/55, for instance).

I wouldn’t say this is common, I think you just got very unlucky. In 12 years of driving in WA I’ve been pulled over exactly once. I was a passenger, there were 7 of us crammed inside a vehicle, everyone intoxicated apart from the driver, heading out of the nightclub district on a Friday night. The driver got breathalysed, passed, and that was it.

I have a friend that got done by a speed camera going 30 km/h over the limit during double demerits (i.e. pretty much instant loss of licence) and they deliberately dropped it down to 29 so she got to keep it (though of course with a substantial fine).

Do people in Australia believe that the police have a “quota” or set number of tickets they have to write or fines they have to collect each month? In the US it’s like a widely believed urban legend that cops write more, harsher tickets near the end of the month when their deadlines loom.

Could enforcement vary from region to region? In the US everybody knows that police in the rural southeast are the strictest, with the biggest fines and sneakiest speed traps. Especially with people from out of town.

Vic and NSW are purportedly MUCH worse than WA with the tickets (at least according to Reddit lol). My father has gotten pulled over for going 3-6km over like ten + times. As a matter of fact he just got a ticket for going 5km over like last week, to my knowledge it’s not the first ticket he’s gotten this year either.

Some kid on my campus lost her license, a few incredibly minor traffic offences in the same week (remember P platers only get like five points). If a cop doesn’t pull you over, there are speed traps literally everywhere. I frequently see parked cars with cameras mounted in the back

I’ve never heard of such a thing. I know quotas are set for the drugwipe tests, but mounting data has come out demonstrating the inefficiency of the tests. Within the next ten years I believe we will see records associated with these tests expunged as well as reimbursements for fines paid. Hopefully the technology is replaced with something that actually detects impairment as opposed to “he did this a week ago… 1000$ fine + loss of license!” or at the very least roadside sobriety tests will be a requirement for automatic disqualification of one’s driver’s license.

Imagine if you got a DUI because you drank too much four days ago? Then there’s also the false negatives. Imagine a test that allowed 1 in 5 drunk drivers to get off Scott free… We also have breathalyzer quotas, but these alongside the drugwipe quotas are made public. NSW had and still has a strip search quota, though this has attracted a lot of scrutiny. Aside from this police to my knowledge don’t have fine quotas or anything like that.

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Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?

No, seriously, what are your thoughts about the shooting and video footage currently being discussed in the “George Floyd Riots” thread?

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AUS cop and happy to answer some of these as well.

  1. On all expirations we do have discretion on most things. There are some offences that we’re not allowed to caution for which is decided by government. Whether I issue a fine depends on many factors. Someone speeding by 5km may only get a caution if it’s an empty road, there are no pedestrians, the vehicle is roadworthy etc. Someone speeding by 2km may get a fine if it’s in a school zone and children are present. Its not as simple as there being a set threshold of speed. Technically it’s a speed limit and anything over that limit is an offence…but yeah I always base my actions on what I observe. No quota.

  2. Can only comment on Australia but yes gun control has limited the amount of guns around. I’m not sure how it would translate to such a large country that already has so many guns. There are still plenty of unregistered and home made firearms getting around here

  3. Tough question, I always try to treat people with respect. I go by the motto from Roadhouse to always be nice until it’s time to not be nice. Sometimes people are so hopeless that they just get themselves arrested for some where to stay, and those are the people that I empathise with, but not sympathise. I think it’s an important difference. I do believe we all have choices, but I know the more poor choices you make the deeper that hole gets. But no-one can make the right choices but you.

  4. In terms of reform we are under the microscope from Internal Investigations all the time. BWV is as much for the people as it is for our evidence, which may be frustrating at times but I believe it’s a good thing. If you’re doing the right thing you have nothing to fear.

  5. Unsure about other states, but here in SA you’d likely get a fine or maybe reported. I’ve never arrested anybody for smoking.

  6. It would depend how bad the error I suppose. If you were incompetent enough the matter might get dropped, but more likely you’d just get an ass kicking from the higher ups and have to find the person again and confirm the correct details

  7. Most of those shows are bullshit lol.
    I love interviews though, just depends if people want to answer questions. Those shows tend to show the main character filling in all the roles of general patrols, CSI, detectives, forensics as all doing the one job which just doesn’t happen.

  8. Not sure, never seen them in action. I imagine they would hurt a lot. Thankfully in SA we haven’t had many police shootings in the grand scheme of things so what we’re doing seems to be working.

  9. Pancakes with icecream, berries and a side of bacon

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