I've read of scamera vans using "civilian" operatives to catch people speeding, and automatically send out fines/points ect...

now correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the home office regulations state (on use of laser speed guns) that a qualified police officer must first judge that a car is speeding before using the gun to take a reading?! a civilian cant simply sit there pointing the gun at every motoris who passes.......

thanks in advance....

Correct , however not all camera vans have a man inside pointing a tripod mounted laser out the window.

Some are fully automatic systems that work in a similar fashion to a gatso or truvelo camera so the operator is there to park the van in a sensible place (or not as is often the case) and turn the system on.

I'm sure there are vans that have civilians with tripod lasers just pinging every car that comes past and in all honesty that's just what the police do anyway.

It's a fairly pointless technicality that should be abolished IMO.

Neither Police, nor a lawyer, but IIRC one motorist tried to use this as a defence a couple of years ago, and was found guilty anyway.

There was a loophole regarding hand-held guns - that they were required to be operated by Police - that he (and his smart lawyer) were trying to wriggle through, but the court held that the fixed equipment set up in vans or on motorway bridges etc. did not fall under this.

Sadly, support officers that run them are classed as serving officers of the police force, so can operate handhelds and talivans.

Bro-in-law does this for a living

You let your sister marry someone like that?

Correct , however not all camera vans have a man inside pointing a tripod mounted laser out the window.

Some are fully automatic systems that work in a similar fashion to a gatso or truvelo camera so the operator is there to park the van in a sensible place (or not as is often the case) and turn the system on.

I'm sure there are vans that have civilians with tripod lasers just pinging every car that comes past and in all honesty that's just what the police do anyway.

It's a fairly pointless technicality that should be abolished IMO.

They have some of these van in KENT (for info ) They have a dome on the top ( Not to be confused with air con) once the offence is detected, the details go to DVLA (as I understand it ) and the ticket is issued.

you could try and use the terms "fishing" as it sounds like he is pinging every vehicle for a bite instead of making a judgement of the speed first.

you could try and use the terms "fishing" as it sounds like he is pinging every vehicle for a bite instead of making a judgement of the speed first.

Its irrelevent really... if the car is speeding its speeding... therefore if youve got a camera pointed at a road it should scan all cars.. not just ones the copper thinks might be speeding.. as that could add the element of bias..

the reason I ask though, is that a "safety" camera should be just that... If a trained policeman judges you are driving "unsafely" and then uses his equipment to prove this and prosecute you then fine... if its a "scamera" van manned by a civil servent, then its simply there to raise money, and nothing to do with road safety......

(and before the flaming for "if you brake the law you deserve to get done" starts, I'm talking about instances like I saw on the A66 recently, a van parked JUST after a dual carrigeway, 70 mph limit, pointing at cars JUST as they are comming into one lane,60 mph limit, and fining Mr and Mrs average who simply lift off the gas to reduce speed, and would be at 60 a very short time after the van has caught them, but were still a little over as the two lanes closed to one, and so get fined and points...... this isn't "safety" this is theft..... surely a trained policeman wouldn't waste his time for the sake of 300 yards, but a civil servant there to collect money will..... SO, if the home office regulations state a trained officer should "judge" the speed first, then only people who are really going too fast would be done, but a civilian operative would "do" everyone.... ergo..... any tickets issued by a civilian should be contested and cancelled.....)

You let your sister marry someone like that?

Who else can I ask for van locations and to divert any NIPs to the shredding dept?

In return I offer shelter from when sis goes menstral, and the OC (or other girly crap) is on at the same time that the F1's on