Speed watch

I'm pretty sure that most people don't understand what we, in Community Policing, do on speed watch.

We don't give out tickets.  We aren't allowed to.  We aren't peace officers, and we aren't trained in the ticketing system.  Which, in our province, has just undergone a change anyway.

We give people lots of leeway; lots of margin in terms of what the speed limit actually is, and when we take note of their particular license plate number (and vehicle details, which probably is used as a check on whether we got the licence number right), and note it down.  Even when we record it, we don't do anything in particular with it.  It gets passed along to someone else, and that someone (who might be in the police detachment, or who might be our boss in Community Policing, or who might be some clerk at ICBC) then sends a letter to the registered owner of the vehicle, noting that the vehicle was observed doing excessive speed, and probably giving the date and time and place.

I should also note that the margins that we give people are set by our boss.  But that's just for us.  The actual police officers, when doing their own speed traps, have their own standards.  So, when I say that we allow you to go twenty kilometres an hour over the speed limit, if it's a regular speed limit, say fifty kilometres per hour within city limits, that doesn't mean that you are safe from actual police officers if you go sixty-nine kilometres per hour or less.  (We also don't give you as much margin if you are speeding in a school zone.  In a school zone, which is generally thirty kilometres an hour, we only give you a ten kilometres per hour margin.  Again, that's for us, and actual police officers may use different numbers.)  So don't base how fast you can legally speed on what I say here.  Legally, if you go fifty-one kilometres per hour in a fifty kilometres per hour speed zone, you are breaking the law.

Because we are mere Community Policing volunteers, and therefore nobodies, and do not actually issue tickets ourselves, a lot of people just simply ignore us.  Some of them ignore us very deliberately, obviously, and even provocatively.  There are those who will drive, at reasonably close to the posted speed, right up to the rear bumper of our Community Policing van, which is where our speed watch display board is mounted.  As soon as they get to the rear bumper, you can hear that they have stopped on the gas, and revved up the engine, and are taking off at quite excessive speed.  Obviously, these people are of the opinion that only be display board matters.  Unfortunately (for them), the speeds that we use for determining when we collect license plate numbers we take from handheld, very accurate, laser range and speed devices.  These, being handheld, are not mounted on the van.  All we have to do is stand up, turn around, and get your speed.  And we can clock you more than half a kilometre away.  Even when you have tromped on the gas pedal, from a start approximately at fifty kilometres per hour, you are not going to be out of range before we can get two, or even three, readings of your excessive speed.

Of course, by that time, you are, so you think, too far away for us to read your license plates for the number.  Unfortunately for you, we actually do have spotting scopes, and, even when you are speeding at more than eighty kilometres per hour, we still have time to read your license plate, very clearly, before you can get out of range.

Even when we are not doing speed watch, but just doing our regular crime watch, going around and checking for troubles, it always astounds me when I encounter people who try to hassle and intimidate us.  Bear in mind that I am riding in a van which, on front, back, and both sides, is clearly labeled as Community Policing.  So, some drivers will pull up beside us, and will then step on the gas and roar loudly away, at high speed.  Some people will tailgate us, and then, when they think it will annoy us the most, will tromp on the gas, and pull out and around us, cutting back very closely in front of us, and roaring away.  As I say, I find this behavior astounding.  Why would you do that to a vehicle which is clearly marked as being occupied by Community Policing volunteers, when you know (or should know) that someone in that vehicle has a device with which they can look up your license plate number, in order to determine whether that vehicle is, in fact, stolen.

There are other oddities, as well.  There are certain motorcyclists, who, knowing that they only have license plates on the back of their vehicles, and that their license plates are much smaller than normal license plates, assume that we cannot read their license plate as they roar by at eighty kilometres per hour (in a fifty zone).  Yes, it is going to be difficult to read that license plate in that situation.  But, if you have a highly identifiable motorcycle, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that someone will, say, when your motorcycle is parked somewhere, read and memorize the license plate number, so that the next time you fly by at eighty kilometres per hour, the volunteer can simply note down the known license plate number.

As I say, people do a lot of these things, obviously thinking that it will annoy us, and that we will get upset.  It would probably disturb them to know that we have more important things to think about.  We check on people whose health may be compromised, and report them and their location to other people who may need to come and assess whether they are truly at medical risk.  We have stolen vehicles to report.  We have friends and neighbors who have reported illegal activities, which we then have to document, and, once again, report to other authorities who have more powers than we have to address those activities.  We are too busy to get bent out of shape by someone who thinks that merely pulling up alongside us and then stamping on the gas pedal is going to be a major issue in our days.

But, yes, it is slightly annoying.  It is somewhat irksome to be so obviously, and blatantly, ignored.  But today went some way to mitigating any such annoyance.  While we were out on speed watch, an actual police officer stopped to chat with us.  It was nice of him to do so, and it made our rather boring day of gathering statistics on the actual level of speed, and speeding, on this particular stretch of road, more bearable.  We had a delightful conversation.  He was, in fact, trained on the type of laser speed measuring devices that we have.  He was very impressed at our newer speed gun.  He obviously enjoyed trying it out, and even caught a couple of speeders who were in excess of even our speed margin.  And then there were a couple of times when I noted a speeder.  And stood up to get a better look at the license plate, the better, and more accurately, to note it down on our report form.  And it was blatantly obvious that this speeder intended to ignore us, as well, since we were just Community Policing volunteer nobodies.  And was intending to just blow right by us, until the actual police officer, standing behind us, stepped out into the road and flagged him down.

Yes, it was a very satisfying day, in terms of righteous indignation, and just a touch of justification.