[He|mut]

Thought i might share quite a frustrating experience I had last night with you all...

Had just been picked up by 3 of my mates in their Tarago (owned by parents) at Hunters Hill. We (stupidly) did a U-turn just past a set of lights and over double lines up the road a bit.

To our complete horror we had done it smack bang in front of a copper who subsequently flashed his lights and pulled us over. Anyway instead of just writing us a ticket for the U-turn offence, he calls ANOTHER cop car.. so now there's 4 of them.

They get us all out of the car, search it entirely, run scans on rego, even do a search of my mate who was driving the car (got him to take out everyhting in his pockets etc etc) and then took all of our details down? Now excuse me, but WHY THE F*CK do i have my details taken for a U-turn offence when i was a PASSENGER??

Anyway, the most amusing part of it was when one of the coppers, who was obviously fresh out of the academy and acting like the biggest hero i've ever seen, finds a few golf clubs underneath some folded up beach chairs in the boot. He starts crapping on saying 'why have ya got golf clubs huh?' and insinuating that we were going to use them as WEAPONS!!

Swear to god I felt like cracking up in laughter. One of my mates says to him "mate, its a family car, can't you see that?" while i try to tell him that we arne't the kind of people who go round bashing others with golf clubs. He then replies "no, it doesn't look like a family car to me?" FFS mate its a TARAGO!!!

Let me remind you all that none of us were being rude in any way to the officers.. One of my mates probably used the wrong tone to ask his questions, but he didn't shout or anything. It was almost an insult for the dickhead cop to suggest we were gonna go somewhere to bash someone with a few golf clubs!!!

Anyway after about 30 mins of them searching the car and doing all kind of bullshit he finally writes the ticket and lets us go. That's 30 mins that the second cop car could have been out patrolling and possibly catching real criminals. When asked why there needed to be a second cop car, the chick cop goes 'because we can'.

I have no problem with being charged with the U-turn offence, either does my mate who was driving. But i do have a problem with arsehole cops trying to be heroes and wasting my time. Anyone else had a similar experience? I gotta say i just wanted to let loose at the lot of them. Idiots.

:rant:

ps. $176 and 2 points... a little harsh for doing a U-turn perhaps?

 

[Dellboy999]

Yes overkill by the cops, but considering that VANS are the best for robbing stores/houses etc, I can some what understand, 3 kids in a van do a sudden U-Turn at lights .......... they just may be up to something, if they caught a gang would we complain ..... NO. ...... we would say what a good job they did :0)

Jason

 

[tx3dude]

it just sounds like you guys were in the wrong place at the wrong time. it gets better as you get older. they dont assume as much. but in the eyes of the law your "more likely to cause trouble"

 

[XRated]

Sounds a little harsh, however I agree with Jason. If you have a problem, make an enquiry to their station... For all you know, there could have been a spate of robberies or gang-bashings in the area, or else they were just being heros.

 

[OED666]

let me guess, you live in melbourne???

i have heard the cops r like that there

 

[Maximus]

I have got off for the moist unbelievable things, you just have to respect thier authority & not be a smart arse.

I got pulled over one night about 5 years ago doing 120kph in a 60 zone.
That was on Forest Road in Fern Tree Gully.
Anyone who knows the road, knows that is way to fast & dangerous.
They caught up to me at the lights on Burwood Hwy.

When I pulled over, I jumped out of the car, as I always do when I get pulled over, & this old copper & a yound female officer approach me.

First of all they ask all the questions.
Can I see your licence please?
Your car?
Where are you going?
Where you been?
Why were you speeding?

Then one that completely shocks me.

Do you have any weapons or drugs in the car?
Back in those days I used to carry a hunting knife in the drivers side pocket, cause you never know who might hassle you in the middle of the night.
So I told the old guy, I have it in their for protection, especially travelling late at night, cause I dont want to be hassled and all.

He ended up telling me that when I get home I should put it in my top draw & forget about it as thats what he was going to do.

I could not believe it. Had he forgot about the speeding fine.
I grabbed my licence, jumped back in the car, drove home at 60kph and when I got home I just had to wake up my old man & tell him about it.

If you show them a little respect & dont piss in thier pockets you should have nothing to worry about.

Geez I need a drink after typing all that.

Cheers

 

[dave_au]

Second cop car was most likely a duty officer's car. As for having 4 cops, its usually against police SOPs to have only one officer per car at night, two is usually required.

As for spending 30 minutes pulling apart your car, well that may come from several reasons:

The cops may have treated everyone as "hostile", hence the search
The cops might have been on the look out for a group of youths in a van etc
The cops might have been showing the probey the ropes of a car search
There may have been an intel file written on the tarago
It is in their power to randomly conduct car searches.

U know, searching a car and finding golf clubs can get mighty boring, I doubt they would have done if for fun. If they were both highway cars, or the youngan came from a highway car, this would be incorrect as all police need to spend 3 years in general duties first.

Certainly, there are a lot of good blokes in the police, and a lot of blokes who got teased a little too much at school. Ive got a few mates in the police force myself, and generally, they do a pretty hard job, especially once a domestic after domestic rolls in, I certainly have respect for them, but this respect has probably be gained more from hearing stories from my friends. Sure I can understand your mad, I dont blame you, but I guess don't let a few incidents, or even hearing about a few incidents on FF direct you to "pig bashing", the majority seem okay, least to me.

 

[carazy]

No that sounds like un acceptable behaviour to me.
Complain to the station.
I would expect to be treated as a crim if wearing hip hop gear and cruising in a beat up old van/car or a jap machine but in a tarago and the only thing they find is golf clubs???
Get your parents to complain as well .

Do you think the situation and your opinion would have changed if the cops had actully explained some sort of reasoning for their actions?

If they said they had reason to suspect some gang was cruising in a tarago I'd imagine you'd be a little more helpful with them.

Cops and the Gov need to realise that pissing off people does nothing but make them more un cooperative in the future.

I have had enough dealings with the cops where I have been perfectly polite and reasonable and still been treated like a to-bit punk.

So now my general opinion of cops.... Well it's not good.

I'll still give indiviual cops the time of day but overall I think they are a pack of dicks.
Eventually there inability to handle the general public in a polite and respectful way results in people like my father.

My father is a perfectly law abiding citizen but has had 2 altercations that have made him the most unhelpful and agrivating person if your a cop trying to talk to him.

1) Averted getting slammed up the arse by a speeding moron by moving out of the way half way on to the road through a red light. The speeding car then slammed in to crossing traffic instead of hitting my dad. My dad (then a nurse) jumps out the car to help and a watching cop pulls him up and gives him a ticket for going thorugh a red light!

2) Getting pulled over for doing 70 in a 70 zone because the cop thought it was a 60.
The cop refused to budge on the matter and wrote my father a fine even though my father offered to drive the cop less than 50 meters away to the 70 sign he had just passed up the road (this was on marion road before the sturt road crossing less than 2 kms from a bloody cop station)
Then he had to take it to court.

Both of these incidents happened when I was a kid but far out don't even mention police in a sentance around him.

So I fully understand your rant and while I believe cops have an important role to play a little social etiquette wouldn't go astray.

 

[He|mut]

Well seeing as tonight is my birthday and i've had a few i'll still try to reply to these posts, even tho its probaby not the best time to!

I live in Hunters Hill (Sydney). To anyone who doesn't know the area, well we have pretty much a ZERO gang situation and in all honesty it'd be bloody funny to think that the coppers would suspect gang activity in the area. Hunters Hill is near Gladesville/Ryde. The majority of local cops i've come across have been good blokes.

To dave_au,

there's no reason to consider us 'hostile'. We all have clean records, and i'd like to think we are all good blokes. Its just the attitude that the mentioned cops seemed to have that got under our skin. The fact that they would spin shit about golf clubs as weapons really got to me. What right do they have to suggest that? They have no records of us in regards to violence or crime, they just spin shit like that to get a negative reaction out of us. And there's always one in the group who will react angrily to such a comment.

I understand what you're saying about not doing the car search just for fun, but if you want my opinion, i honestly thought that the two younger coppers were acting like heroes. All they wanted to do was piss us off. We committed an offence, yes, but the bullshit that went on last night was inappropriate.

And Carazy, YES. The situation would have been helped immensely had the cops just explained WHY they were taking all our details and why they were searching our car. The bottom line is, thats all we wanted to know. We had no problem with getting fined for the Uturn, because we know that was an offence. But instead of answering our questions, the cops took it as an 'insult' for us to be asking questions. I think you all know what i mean when you simply can't say a thing to a copper and expect a decent answer. Its mostly like this for young people. Cops have to fu*kin wake up and treat us like human beings.

All in all though, i agree with you tx3dude. Its gonna be like this till we are a bit older, but still...it pisses me off and this is place where i can let off some steam.

Finally, i'm not pig-bashing. Because i know there are a lot of good cops out there. But when you get a dickhead constable in charge of a few young liutenants.. that's when things get VERY aggravating. Personally, i know how to talk to cops. But when your in a group of mates, there's always one who will blow up and make the situation a bit worse. I think that's what happened last night. Still doesn't change the fact that the whole thing was uneccessary.

cheers

ps. it is now time for bed, as i am completely stuffed

 

[hoon69]

theres my story:
got bored of lapping my home towns main st,and thought "hey lets go for a drive" mind you i lived in the goulburn nsw area,so where did i want to drive to :SYDNEY:
anyways coming into bankstown area (i think) and this cop flys up from behind,me driving a XC with 302 lowered with wheels,im like WTF is the cop up to,i come to set of lights and proceed to go through i turned and touched the white line,and BAM the lights come on,so i pull over,the cop comes over"get out of the car" im like "WTF" so i do it.

put us all (5 of us) onto the footpath and one by one start to be searched,next thing we know i look around and 4 more cars turned up,and the dog squad,IM LIKE wtf is going on.
my mate proceeds to ask them why they are doing this, they say shutup or be arrested,anyways they search the car and what do they find,my kids cap guns they got for xmas,cop shows em to us and says YOU CAN BE CHARGED FOR THESE,i say "what for a piece of plastic your kidding right" he said no i aint,destroy em or be arrested,im said their my kids presents,he said do you want to be arrested,i say no,so on the side of the road he puts em down i had to squash them (2 of em) then he says "your littering,pick it up or be fined" mate i wanted to let rip,here were we at 2 am outside 7/11 ppl standing there,we are just country folk going for a drive yet they make us look like GANGSTERS,anyways he asked why am i 200k's away from home,i said just going to visit rello's in millers pt,he asked what st,whats their name,etc etc etc finally after 1 hr 15 mins we are allowed to drive away,with the warning "dont come back,or expect the same" i drive away with very nasty thoughts about this officer..

they never gave me a fine,nor looked for defects,just decided to do the 101 questions and checks on me and my friends..
cops wonder why they are hated so much,now i know why..

 

[XWGT]

I think on the whole they're all pretty helpfull and straight up, however I have seen them do a few devious things, but this is possibly the worst

Driving across the Bolte Bridge in the XR8, on the way to the airport. Roads are pretty much empty, just crusing on the 100 limit, as had the cruise control turned on, as its speed camera alley.

Next think a black Commodore SS is sitting right up my ass. 3 lanes, I'm in the middle, and hes sitting 5 feet off my rear bumper. This went on for awhile, and it was obvious he was trying to push me into speeding up, but I thought **** it, he can choose one of the other two lanes, and as he's being an ass I aint moving.

Well he gets closer, closer, slows down then speeds up onto my bumper etc etc.

After about a few k's he finally gets bored, pulls into the right hand lane, and takes off hard.

And yep, guess who was in the drivers seat? Highway Patrol officer. Dirty low down scum was obviously trying to harrass me into speeding, and making an ass of himself. Must have been a damn slow day for him.

As they say, your only as good as your last game. And on that performance, they look like total turkeys.

 

[marine1]

.

When I pulled over, I jumped out of the car, as I always do when I get pulled over,

I thought cops get very nervous when people do this.....especially in the US, it will most likely get you arrested or at worst shot.

 

[hoon69]

cops in america like for you to stay in the car,whilst they pull you over,but once to your door they already have their hands on there gun anyways,so yeah they are trigger happy,but you'd expect that from america.

cops here dont like you jumping outta the car,but if your in deep poo with em,they get you out of the car,so if they were to arrest you or whatever you cant flee in your car,also they can see if you have anything to endanger them with(weapons),whilst in a car they cant see your hands or below your shoulders,thats why american cops put hand to gun first,so many get shot and the risk of being blown away at someone door is too risky..
luckily here it doesnt happen as much and we dont have cop guidelines like of american..(thank god)


back on topic:yes police urging motorists to speed up,to entrap them is a pretty LOW act by police,they break the law to enforce it(strange isnt it?).

 

[Freak]

I always get out of the car, it shows that you have nothing to hide... or you've already hidden it. The first question I always get asked is... "this your car and are those plates registered for this vehicle?". Why don't they just say "did you steal the car and/or the plates?".

In my town the coppers are pretty decent. I get pulled over quite often because of the plates and the sticker, but one checks the car for defects and the other normally chats to me. I've never been defected.

On my best mate's 18th, we went down to the beach in his Mum's 3cyl Charade. We got pulled over by the cops and when one of them saw that my mate (who had been drinking) was wearing a nurses outfit with make-up and all, they called for another car. While they did the bretho on me (i was driving) and licence check the other car pulled up and they ordered my mate to step out the vehicle... they pissed themselves laughing and said that they couldn't help themselves and had to get back-up just to see it.

Quite a classic really, at least it got our faces remembered by the local cops and now they don't give's us attitude any more.

 

[Dellboy999]

You should have got a group photo - would have been a classic :0)

 

[-AL-]

Like many of you guys here I've seen the good and bad sides of Police at work, all in all though they have a tough job to do and as Jason pointed out
"if they caught a gang would we complain ..... NO. ...... we would say what a good job they did :0)"
Prolly what some may class as Pro Active Policing.

Easiest way to avoid Police attention is not to give them reason to notice you in the first place i:e dont break the law

 

[back2thefutura]

well i had the unfortunate luck of being involved in a crash yesterday where my EF was pretty well totalled, and I have nothing but praise for the HWP officer who turned up. I was a wreck myself after it, and I did get knocked out cos I hit the wheel before the bag went off, and he made sure I was ok, and let me compose myself before he even asked me what happened - he just went about making sure traffic could get round the cars, and was very nice about all of it. I was expecting a grilling cos I'm a P plater, but he didnt victimise or blame me straight away, he took it all down, and the n last night he called me just to make sure I was ok, and that all the proper arrangements for the car and the report etc had been made.

So not all cops are bad, not all are good either - it'd be great if there were more round like this guy. If you know of a really nice cop, do what Ive done for this officer - send an email to his local branch saying thankyou, cos its always nice to know someone appreciates you for doing you job, and for being a downright decent and helpful human being.

 

[Dra]

I try to take traffic cops, as they take regular road users. Every one is different. You get the good and the bad, and I try to react appropriatly to the copper I get.
I usually give the "yessir, nossir, 3 bags full sir", and be as polite and co-operative as possible, to the bad.
And the good coppers, I act like I've been mates for years. Rarely fails.

Even when I refuse searches (which I always do, now), I do it as courteous as possible, and be honest - "I don't want my interior pulled apart". I've had my car searched once, and he left shit absolutely everywhere. I'm not gonna let that happen again, and haven't had my car searched since I started refusing.
And if they can get a warrant to search the car roadside (highly unlikely), well good luck to 'em, I wont stand in their way.

 

[Starscream]

Now if you were real crims with half a brain in your head you probably have run from the cops- then again since my uncle works in the Qld in the detectives branch its pretty bloody rare for you to ever catch a crime in the act rather what happened afterwards.

Then again it was a nice job by your friendly neighbourhood Gestapo. I have a even funnier story. Me and my mum drove up the road to collect some firewood at the side of the road not far from out house. We had were breaking up to sticks and chopping some logs to put in the boot of the Falcon. As I was about half- a load full a HWP comes racing out of nowhere and out come Senior Constable hero ready to save the day. Hands on his heater he asked us what the hell we were doing. I replied were getting firewood (mumbled various things in my mind but was not rude to the cop)
and opened the boot. The fellow felt like a bit of a goof and quitely withdrew. Perhaps If I was thinking what he was- killing people we would not have done it in broad daylight and loading off from a main road. I suppose branches snapping may somehow remotely sound like bones but anyway. That was a laugh me and mum were laughing all the way home.

Another one happened when me and more dad stopped off in Parramatta by the park and decided to have lunch. Tucking in to our snadwictches after a long day driving two peddie bike coppers saw us and raced past. Next thing we know they were back there and also a paddywagon. They asked us what we were doing I said politely' 'hmm this a pen knife and this is a orange, care to cut it for me and also while your at it the tomatoes and the capsicun could also be cut too if you want'. The lady officer laughed the other one felt like a goof and the other two went back in the paddywagon to ovoid embarrassment. I suppose their doing their job but I don't even think in bloody Soviet Union they were this strict about things...

 

[psycho chicken]

I was expecting a grilling cos I'm a P plater, but he didnt victimise or blame me straight away

Yep, I was too when I smashed the NL up, but the copper was really good about it all. Kinda shocked me to be honest.