Unmarked Police Car Procedure

Hiya all,

Haven't posted for a while ....just lurked but something is bothering me.
I'm in WA btw...

Today I got pulled over by an unmarked police car (pretty lights on dash, 3
antenna on back, no uniforms on the 2 guys but they looked and kinda-ish
acted like police)

They sort of incited me to go faster in that I was overtaking so they went
faster so I go a bit faster to pass and so on until I backed off.
Pretty lights come on, I pull over and the convo goes like this:

Do you know it's double demerits this weekend and you was doing 60 over so
you can loose your licence AND bike?

I act blonde..... (sorry but I was shitting meself by now)

Can I see your licence....shit how old are you? (Cheeky bastards, they were
only a few years younger than me)
Essentially they were having a laugh at my expense, let me off (wtf!) and I
rode home suitably slow and sheepish.
They also warned me that they have noted my licence number and that should I
do this again they will dump this one on me (which I know is bollocks)

BUT....a male friend asked if they showed me ID.....They didn't, which on
reflection scares me.

1. What should I do if something similar occurs and I am concerned for my
safety?
2. Does this sound dodgy?
3. Should I buy a lotto ticket?

Sometimes it sucks AND licks being female and NO I did not flash them
anything (but I did have and offer them a smoke).

Karen

 

Ride to the nearest police station in a legal manner and deal with the
matter there.

not as dodgy as your excuse for doing 60 over the limit.

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX

 

Me and another aus.moto member (Wyzl) I were once pulled over for
doing some
ridiculous speed. I don't think the cops presented their id's on that
occasion.
They said they were off duty. They were driving a government car, so
I didn't
question it.

I would say it is highly unlikely that is was a hoax. The antenna
farm on their car
tells you that they are cops.

 

Good to see they let you off with the figurative kick up the bum. The whole
thing doesn't sound too dodgy as there are a lot of unmarked cars around
the Perth area at the moment - but you never know.

If you are concerned about your safety, ride on until you get to somewhere
where there are other people and then pull over. They'll probably get a bit
agro that you didn't pull over there and then but your own safety should be
paramount. If I was a female riding there is no way I'd pull over on some
of the backroads we have over here. If it were a marked car that would be a
little different.

There is nothing wrong asking them for ID. They're in an unmarked car and
not in uniform so it's a fair call. As long as it is done politely you
would think there wouldn't be any agro.

Lottery tickets? Well you never never know. You may just win enough to bail
you out the next time you get caught out )

I must admit that I've been quite fortunate that the couple of times I've
been pulled over for doing something silly it's been by some of our new ex-
pat poms who, after noticing I ride a Triumph, start reminiscing about the
old dart.

Paul

 

I was living in North, Western NSW in 1994 when a friend from work was
travelling in his car to work at his usual 120 km/h - 130 km/h. A car
(either a Commodore or a Falcon) started tail-gating him so he sped up to
rediculous speed, around 170 km/h and the following car matched his speed.
When he pulled into work (which meant he wasn't going to go any faster) the
car followed him in, and the police prosecuter driving in the unmarked
police car booked him for doing 170 km/h.
Before he went to court, I told him that to my knowledge of Police Law, the
Police Prosecuter in the unmarked police car was by law not to exceed the
speed limit without having probable cause, and having either or both lights
and sirens activated so not to put innocent citizens using the same road at
risk.
He told this to his legal council, who told him to forget it and cop
whatever the magistrate gave out. (I believe his legal council was probably
Legal Aid). To my knowledge of Public Solicitors (which I gained watching
Rafferty's Rules on TV) those bastards play golf on Wednesday afternoons
with the Police Prosecuters.
He lost his licence for at least 12 months and paid a substantial fine.
Nowhere was it mentioned that if the Police Prosecuter in the unmarked car
was not tailgating and harassing this workmate, he wouldn't have exceeded
130 km/h.
I am the first to admit that the course of action that the said workmate
took was not foolish and dangerous, but this in no way excuses the Police
Prosecuter from his deliberate and discraceful disregard of the law. I
believe the case should have been thrown out of court and the Police
Prosecuter repromanded. I got the impression from my other workmates that
police in North Western NSW are a law unto themselves.

On a lighter note, I had a stone thrown at my car a few weeks later by
misguided youths which caused a large dint in my rear quarterpanel. I
reported this to the police the next day and was surprised to have the
entire station's attention. I was then informed that Police had been called
to a similar disturbance the same night, and had chased the youths. The
youths crossed the railway line on foot nowhere near a car crossing so the
police in a Holden Rodeo paddy-wagon tried to cross the railway line without
finding a railway crossing. The Rodeo ended up sitting on the tracks on its
chassis with all wheels in mid-air, and the Police trying to push it off the
tracks, just as the 10:30 pm XPT train came around the corner and collided
with the Rodeo.
The Police in question must have been doing paperwork on that for weeks. No
wonder the police were so keen on catching the youths.

Natural justice prevailed.

Max.

1988 ZX10 -> Katana 750S -> DT 175

 

Hi all,

Thanks for your comments/ advice and no , Nev I wasn't trying to excuse
myself. I'm a bit of a rev head I know.

All I wanted to do was pass this car (originally at the speed limit so they
sped up, so did I and so on until I was way over and dropped off but I took
it too far I know)

What concerned me most was my naievity (bad spelling alert) in trusting
these guys. I have since found out there are plenty of people willing to
impersonate a police officer.
On reflection, the conversation was very strange but I do believe they were
policemen.
I think I have learnt a huge lesson here, mostly in what I essentially
preach to my kids (stranger danger etc). I ignored/disregarded this advice.

Would I want to ride to the nearest police station to check after being told
I can get away with 60 ks over....?
I bought that lottery ticket today, fool that I am.
Cheers
Karen

 

Strictly speaking, what the cops did was at least as illegal as what
you did. Good luck proving it though.

 

Strictly speaking, cops can do nothing illegal at all, unless you have a
video recording of the entire event from start to finish, and a couple of
extra witnesses, even then whatever the cops say, if they were cops, is
taken by the courts to be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the
truth.

A magistrate or judge will always believe a cop before a member of the
public


There has been plenty of cases where someone has impersonated a cop even to
the stage of having all the pretty lights, a cop hat on the back shelf and a
genuine looking freddy.
Happened in a town not far from here but the pseudo cop pulled up a car with
a real cop ( off duty ) driving, almost had the real cop convinced until the
pseudo mentioned that he worked in a section where the real cop was an
instructor.

If you start telling fibs, then you have to have a great memory

 

wasnt me ...

 

Yeah. Like I said, good luck proving it.

 

My bet would be they were TRG guys having a laugh. None of those guys would
even know how to write out a ticket.

Fraser