There was a policeman with (I think) a tripod-mounted speed camera on a footbridge over the M60 today. Given that it was rush hour, and therefore everyone was only doing about 50-60 anyway (it was before the roadworks), and further that AFAIK mini speed cameras can't handle more than two targets at once, why couldn't this particular constable have been doing something to fight proper crime in an area that's just been in the news as being one of the crime blackspots of the UK?

Obviously Greater Manchester Police are looking to bump up their conviction rates in response to the report by zapping motorists rather than catching burglars and muggers and rapists

sounds like doin spot check to decide on speed cam's or not m8 .... how is manc ( sob sob not gettin homesick honest :( )

Where abouts exactly? Was in North or South of the roadworks? Had a couple of cameras on bridges on the other side near Ashton/Oldham.

I love that. 'He should have been fighting proper crime'.

Brilliantly myopic view there. A crime is a crime.

I love that. 'He should have been fighting proper crime'.

Brilliantly myopic view there. A crime is a crime.

Well OK' date=' point taken. What I was getting at was that the weight of traffic PREVENTED anyone exceeding the speed limit, so there was no point in him being there checking no-one was speeding (if that was indeed what he was doing). And yes, you're right a crime is a crime is a crime, but there's the issue of priorities. This was the first policeman I've seen since the reports came out about the levels of crime in the North-West, and was he out patrolling our streets or chasing after baddies? No, he was manning a speed camera (possibly) on a stretch of road where no-one could have exceeded the speed limit at the time he was there anyway. It says a lot when there's a massive manhunt round here for an absconded serial child rapist that ends with the guy walking up to a copper in the centre of Manchester and giving himself up... It wasn't even as if they'd found out where he was and had him surrounded! No wonder Joe Public doesn't hold the police in particularly high regard.

sounds like doin spot check to decide on speed cam's or not m8 .... how is manc ( sob sob not gettin homesick honest )

Sounds plausible. It's just after a bottleneck where people are quite likely to floor it when the traffic's not so heavy, so quite a few people might speed there given the chance...

As for how Manchester's doing, it's all changed again! I haven't been into the centre for a few months, and all the shops have changed, and there are new buildings everywhere. Going to see the 'Clone Roses' on Saturday - if it was the real thing, it'd be a night of Madchester perfection!

Where abouts exactly? Was in North or South of the roadworks? Had a couple of cameras on bridges on the other side near Ashton/Oldham.

He was stood right in the middle of the Didsbury Golf Club footbridge, so south of the roadworks, but he could have been getting traffic going either way - traffic speeding up after the M60/M56 bottleneck but before they go into the northbound roadworks and/or traffic speeding up as it leaves the southbound roadworks.

He was probably collecting footage to sell on to the BBC for the next series of 'Traffic cops'..

He's a Briskoda member looking for others to post in 'Was it you?'

Actually, it looks like he was setting up some sort of semi-permanent thingy, because when I came back the other way, there was one camera pointing each way. The one 'filming' the southbound traffic was hidden by a gantry until about 2 seconds before I passed under it (filming the front of the car), so I'm not sure how good it would be for speed enforcement over three lanes of traffic with such a narrow field of view. But it would certainly be viable for registering 'anonymous' cars in order to survey the spot for levels of speeding and/or profitability (depending on your point of view! ) They had little grannies' rain hoods over them to keep them dry - ahhhhhh!

I came across a local speedtrap last week which involved nine police officers. It was just outside a local supermarket car park which I was driving to. My first thoughts on seeing all the police was that a major incident had taken place. I'm sure three of them could have done the job - not nine

I came across a local speedtrap last week which involved nine police officers. It was just outside a local supermarket car park which I was driving to. My first thoughts on seeing all the police was that a major incident had taken place. I'm sure three of them could have done the job - not nine

Some of the ones with several police are actually checking for Tax, they use a similar Camera thingy on a tripod & the spare plod are for "thiose who dont stop"

I agree to an extent with earlier sentiments though, the only crime that appears taken seriously is anything that can easily raise money for the Government, downside is its turning Mr average against the Police, the person who used to be his best friend