Sussex Police- Operation Crackdown

[Baron Pepperpot]

 

[nomoremithras4me]

**** em, how about getting rid of the ****ing pikeys all over Sussex? Oh sorry, forgot about the 'social' issues!

 

[Lord Bracknell]

**** em, how about getting rid of the ****ing pikeys all over Sussex? Oh sorry, forgot about the 'social' issues!

To be fair to the police, the only involvement they've had in this case is to obtain ownership information about the reported vehicle and to send out a standard letter. Automated office work - a few seconds of data entry. I guess that was done by civilian staff.

Maybe there should be a tag line ... "No police officers were involved in the making of this report or the production of this letter"?

 

[drew]

Cloning is probably what's happened if the alleged driver is being honest. I had to give a statement for s friend recently as she got s speeding tickect in Cardiff yet less than an hour after the alleged incident I was picking up my daughter from her in Burgess Hill!!! I've seen her car and it ain't that fast! As for operation crackdown, nothing wrong with it. I reported one woman for driving through a school drop off point while gassing on the phone and another white van driver who saw fit to tail gate before overtaking too close to a T-junction so that he couldn't get back to the correct side of the road to turn left. In both cases the police said a letter had been sent which is not always the case.

 

[dougdeep]

Similar to the grass line at the Amex busy bodies with nothing better to do will be constantly on the phone.

Can somebody explain this sentence?

 

[wakeytom]

This looks to me to be a continuation of a scheme that started a few years back, in response to concerns by a lot of rural communities that the police didn't have the resources to deal with speeding traffic. Volunteers were trained up to use simple speed cameras to identify vehicles exceeding the speed limit, and set up a warning letter. The cameras don't meet the standards to achieve a prosecution or conviction, but they are accurate enough to identify a speeding vehicle. I was trained to set up and use this kit, but never actually got round to using it for real. The only police involvement was to support the training programme (which was run by the County Council's Road Safety Team, in their guise as members of the Sussex Speed Partnership), and to retrieve vehicle data from DVLA. Warning letters are the worst that a speeding motorist might ever receive.

The scheme now seems to allow members of the Public to report alleged violations for speeding and other "anti-social" driving activity. I guess it might make some folk think about their driving, but it could just as easily fire up the people who love moaning about private parking enforcement not having any basis in law.

It will be exactly this.

In upper Dicker nearly all last week there was a group (although they didnt seem to bother in the rain, just the sunny days!) with what appeared to be a rudimentary speed gun pointing at the direction from the a22 to the a27 taking notes when cars were going too fast it appeared.

 

[Beach Hut]

Can somebody explain this sentence?

The phone line you can ring at the Amex to report unsocial behaviour

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I would be tempted to reply using the Chuter strategy, that somebody appears to be sending possibly fake letters on police headed paper, and see what they have to say to that.

Who knows that this is not a scam?

 

[rdigs24]

The phone line you can ring at the Amex to report unsocial behaviour

If they can get a SIGNAL

 

[trueblue]

As the police couldn't even be arsed to investigate my wife and several neighbours having post stolen, bank cards duplicated, one guy being ripped off for over £25000 & other attempts at fraudulent use, I can't see them doing anything about some old biddy moaning when someone supposedly breaks the speed limit by 7mph even if it happens time and again. Waste of paper.

We even gave them a phone number to ring to get the IP address of the computer the fraudster used and they couldn't be bothered.

 

[Da Man Clay]

As the police couldn't even be arsed to investigate my wife and several neighbours having post stolen, bank cards duplicated, one guy being ripped off for over £25000 & other attempts at fraudulent use, I can't see them doing anything about some old biddy moaning when someone supposedly breaks the speed limit by 7mph even if it happens time and again. Waste of paper.

We even gave them a phone number to ring to get the IP address of the computer the fraudster used and they couldn't be bothered.

IP addresses used by fraudsters are a dead end 99.9% of the time. Often using masking software or Internet cafes that they cannot be traced back to. Unfortunately it's pretty much impossible to solve fraud such as this. Most police forces no longer investigate fraud in any case - it's all dealt with by a central bureau called action fraud. The only Fraud the police investigated is that with a 'local suspect' that is reasonably traceable.

 

[trueblue]

IP addresses used by fraudsters are a dead end 99.9% of the time. Often using masking software or Internet cafes that they cannot be traced back to. Unfortunately it's pretty much impossible to solve fraud such as this. Most police forces no longer investigate fraud in any case - it's all dealt with by a central bureau called action fraud. The only Fraud the police investigated is that with a 'local suspect' that is reasonably traceable.

Fair enough but the guy who lost so much money had 3 separate bank branch withdrawals made on the same day within a mile of each other in London. No CCTV? This was an organised, systematic fraud that involved making keys, stealing personal details, ordering cards... Doesn't sound like a one man band to me. They should be looking into it.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Fair enough but the guy who lost so much money had 3 separate bank branch withdrawals made on the same day within a mile of each other in London. No CCTV? This was an organised, systematic fraud that involved making keys, stealing personal details, ordering cards... Doesn't sound like a one man band to me. They should be looking into it.

When I had my bank card details used to achieve something like 30-40 low-value ATM withdrawals in the space of a couple of days, from South African banks as it happened, I simply contacted my bank, who immediately passed it to their own fraud investigators, stopped the card, delivered me a new one within two days, and refunded all the money that had been fraudulently withdrawn. I have no idea whether there was any police involvement. I guess not.

Don't all banks offer the same standard of service?

40 low value ATM withdrawals mount up to quite a lot of cash.

 

[Da Man Clay]

Fair enough but the guy who lost so much money had 3 separate bank branch withdrawals made on the same day within a mile of each other in London. No CCTV? This was an organised, systematic fraud that involved making keys, stealing personal details, ordering cards... Doesn't sound like a one man band to me. They should be looking into it.

The fact it's so organised, would make me think that they would also be dead ends (target branches which have CCTV that isn't sufficient for any real identification purposes). These sorts of teams tend to move about an awful lot so even if you did get decent enough CCTV then the chances of identification are still pretty slim. In the grand scheme of fraud 25k isn't that much so the time and cost to investigate with pretty much zero chance of finding an offender no longer becomes a 'worthwhile' use of resources. I'd hope your friend was reimbursed by the bank in any case?

 

[Baron Pepperpot]

It will be exactly this.

In upper Dicker nearly all last week there was a group (although they didnt seem to bother in the rain, just the sunny days!) with what appeared to be a rudimentary speed gun pointing at the direction from the a22 to the a27 taking notes when cars were going too fast it appeared.

Thanks for posting. Upper Dicker is where the offence is supposed to have taken place.

It seems to me that some old biddy with a speeding gun has taken the number plate down incorrectly.

 

[trueblue]

The fact it's so organised, would make me think that they would also be dead ends (target branches which have CCTV that isn't sufficient for any real identification purposes). These sorts of teams tend to move about an awful lot so even if you did get decent enough CCTV then the chances of identification are still pretty slim. In the grand scheme of fraud 25k isn't that much so the time and cost to investigate with pretty much zero chance of finding an offender no longer becomes a 'worthwhile' use of resources. I'd hope your friend was reimbursed by the bank in any case?

He got his money back I believe. Whether it's a lot or not overall, 25k is pretty big money and a lot of stress for the person directly involved. It's a bit depressing to think that resources dictate that society may as well not chase criminals who are 'good at it'. And I can't help but think of the routine donkey work in the past that has uncovered much greater crimes. What other illegal activity does this type of thing fund?

Anyway, I get your point that it's not the police's fault. Doesn't make it acceptable though.

 

[Seasider78]

So rather than policing the area themselves or installing a speed camera the police have resorted to issuing speed guns to groups of bored pensioners. Am I the only one who thinks this is highly inappropriate and farcical? Especially given this means of monitoring is resulting in the police issuing letters and keeping records against individuals?

Whoever dreamt up this scheme needs their sanity checking

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I don't think these guns actually capture the frame, they just record speed.

It might be worth enquiring if they also have the make of car detailed as well as the number plate? If it is a wrong digit, then hopefully this would highlight the mistake.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

So rather than policing the area themselves or installing a speed camera the police have resorted to issuing speed guns to groups of bored pensioners. Am I the only one who thinks this is highly inappropriate and farcical? Especially given this means of monitoring is resulting in the police issuing letters and keeping records against individuals?

Whoever dreamt up this scheme needs their sanity checking

The speed camera initiative was originally prompted by Parish Councils throughout Sussex being concerned that the Police were making no great efforts to curb the sort of speed violations that occur all the time in villages. Typically, these are the 37 mph in a 30 mph area - a constant source of moaning from local residents to their locally elected representatives.

The Parish Councils lobbied the County Council to "do something to help" and this idea emerged. Sussex Police were persuaded to co-operate (but not to put much in the way of resources, beyond the bare minimum). The Police view of speed enforcement remains, as far as i know, to target areas where excessive driving speed has caused injuries and deaths. Irritated villagers, annoyed at local traffic speeds, don't warrant the same attention.

 

[bha100]

Some of these volunteers have been subjected to rude hand gestures and abuse

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/10491472.Angry_motorists_abuse_speed_check_volunteers_in_Brighton/