Police Correspondence

[Dohmar]

Some people are saying they've been pulled over with no defects. breatho, few checks etc. Then on their way.

Thats fine. But dont you get annoyed that your always getting pulled over for no reason.

We must have the cleanest cars out there. We look after everything (most of us). battery enclosure, oil leaks, etc etc etc.

I wouldnt mind that being put forward also.

Suspected defects are really a joke. I 'suspect' all datsuns with rust are defectable./

I must agree. I really hate it when I'm cruising along at the same speed as everyone else, same noise, and the police in front of me pull over to the left, drop back, get behind me and chunk up the lights.... its a bit suss.... and yes, i spend probably 50% of my non taxable income on the car.... and i work my azz off for the honor... suspected defects, i suspect, are probably the main cause of malcontent of the community. Fair enough if something is blatantly illegal, but if an officer who knows nothing pulls you over and gives you a canary for something that is legal, you >still< have to pay that money at regency... i was under the impression the magistrates court would be able to arbitrate such things, but since the offences are classes as trivial, they dont get to any form of court.

-D

[Import S13]

rok, you speaking like your the only person whos been treated unfairly by a cop or just being 'picked on' by them.

i've been defected over 14 times, not once have i whinged about it even when ive been treated unjust in my eyes and ive been sent to regency for many things that i didnt have and have also been threatened by police before. i've even sold my car becaue im sick of the harassment.

because of this, id like to see at LEAST 1 police man to see it from our point of view. all the wasted money and wasted time ive been through because of this suspicion of a defect or being defected for legal items is a joke and the whole mod plate thing would be great.

even if this guy neil has been a flamin mongrel towards you, give him a chance to see it your way through your eyes. dont just shut it all out. i really dont see the harm in trying to do something about it regardless to what i think the outcome might be, hell i could be wrong and this could solve everything.

goodluck to you all whos doing this.

[Stagstock]

+1 ^^

[Fishpaste~]

getting back on track...

- we can ring regency multiple times and get multiple answers regarding car modifications, point being no standadisation of the rules and if regency dont know, how are police officers to know

- officer training, what do they actually do or learn to be able to defect our cars? is there some test they have to sit?

- i know many destist/doctors and they have to continue educating themselfs (once a week at least) to keep up with changes, what do SAPOL do to keep up with changes in ADR's etc? (ie. rim size vs rolling diamiter change)

- the age old suspecting a defect vs proven defect

- unsure of this rule/law, but if you as a driver get pulled over by police 3 times for doing nothing, and each time you report it to the police station, after the 3rd time they pull you over of normal/sensible driving, that is! they can't randomly stop you again? (please dont argue this here, these are just sugestion for people to ask)

- how can we get engineering certs for our cars that police officers will respect/uphold?

- how as a community can we best help plice officers? as in, when a police officers pull us over and say "that is XYZ, defect" how can we say.. "actually its ABC" ???

- do we actually have 1 hour road side to fix the defect before they issue it to us?

- testing of defects in particular noise and height.. MUST this be done by them before they give us a defect?

- i've heard of people getting stopped by a "regular" cop on suspission of defect and then he called in the "proper car" with all the testing equiptment to actually defect him.. dose that imply there is some kerb side protest we can go threw to verify our defect with someone with greater power, and also the possibility of getting it removed on the spot?

anyone else got sugestions?

[Nightcrawler]

Well there is no easy answer IMHO. I am not keen to give the police our cruise details and they rock up and start popping bonnets indiscriminately. I am keen on cops defecting blatantly defectable cars with twats driving them and doing the wrong thing (and giving us all a bad name) - but fact is we almost never get any of them on SAU cruises, so that point is a bit moot.

I think what is more important to highlight to Neil (and his ilk), is that most things imports are defected for are not major defects (or true defects at all), and could easily be resolved by the owner changing/addressing problem items, and attending the local police station to get the defect removed. This used to happen a lot, but I rarely hear it these days.

I am keen to hear what becomes of this, but unfortunately really don't have the time to prepare for, nor meet with Neil. I am most happy for others nominated so far to represent us, including Nene, Ben, Heslo, Kellie and Sled, or any combination of them.

[scandyflick]

suspected defects vs proven defects, what recourse do we have if we are defected for something that simply doesnt exist? the 'guilty until proven innocent' thing with cars just seems more than a little 'off' to me. its strange that a traffic officer can simply look at a car and say 'the exhaust is too loud' when the car in question isnt even running.

standardisation of adr's, mod plates, and proper officer training. as has been pointed out, you call vehicle inspection services x amount of time about issue y and recieve dozens of different answers, why? an example of the confusion in regards to what is legal and what isnt the mazda rx8, up until recently factory fitted suspension was 'too low' according to regency inspections. also, how can a traffic officer who knows absolutely nothing about cars defect you for something they 'think might be illegal'? its mind boggling, i cant take someones money because i 'think they may've lost the hand'.

thats really all i can think of for now, however, im more than happy to be represented by pete, nene, luke, andrew, and kell.

edit, just read andrew and chads posts and now have a few other question.

a clear distinction between major and minor defects.

and mallala, drift days in particular, the defect blitzes that regularly occur just outside the gates at the finish of a drift event, why? a police presence i can agree with, as some people might feel the need to emulate some of the things theyd seen during the day when they leave the track, but thats it.

Edited January 13, 2009 by scandyflick

[DSTROY]

Maybe something could be said also about the fact that a few of us go out to track days (drift/grip) and that we try do do the right thing and keep the hooning of the streets, even though it seems like there are very few who are actually keen to take their cars to the track.

[SLED]

I will also remove my hat from the ring.

Your main objective appears to be a want for this fella to go easy on your cars which would be denying him his job and furthermore, I hardly think he needs to be told how to do his job by the Director of SA Investigations. We're almost on the same team and would probably know similar people in the job so it could be construed as a slight conflict of interest.

[CRoNic...]

Bingo on the clear distinction between major and minor defects...

How is a non-secured pod filter a major defect? It doesn't have an effect on the overall structure or safety on the car... can't make the car go faster if it's secured or unsecured...

That's just an example.

[PREISS]

Would be good if defecting cops carried some paperwork. updated paperwork showing defectable parts etc.

It seems sometimes defects are getting handed out like lollies.

It does disrupt work for some. it disrupts life in general.

It isnt cheap.

Fair enough if you get done for something thats there.

Just wouldnt mind them being alittle more sure of the defect in future.

[scandyflick]

im not asking for a get of jail free card, or leniency (granted, my car is at the moment the least likely to get picked on), and anyone that is needs to take a few minutes to think about exactly what they want to be the outcome of this, at the very least i want some distinctions made between a minor and a major defect, and the 'suspected defect' issue to be addressed.

[PREISS]

im not asking for a get of jail free card, or leniency (granted, my car is at the moment the least likely to get picked on), and anyone that is needs to take a few minutes to think about exactly what they want to be the outcome of this, at the very least i want some distinctions made between a minor and a major defect, and the 'suspected defect' issue to be addressed.

+1 spot on.

couldnt of said it any better.

still wouldnt mind being left alone alittle more.

Just because we have circle lights doesnt mean the car is defectable.

[Rbware]

I am sorry to say but this is a total waste of time they (the police) dont give a shit about us you are trying to do the right thing but it wont work THEY dont care . What has to happen is it has to start in Nth tce not the local police this may make ppl warm and fussy inside but that is as far as it will go.

[JMW]

This does seem like a step in the right direction maybe, but as part of a larger group we must also be careful. I think SLED pretty much sumed it up though, you have to remember that this is the guys job and as a club we can not change SAPOL or Regency Parks perogative. All we can do is voice a valid concern about import drivers being classed as hoons by the media and offer him a view point from our perspective.

Maybe a little more communication between SAPOL and Regency could be a good point to raise, as there seems to be alot of descrepencies between what the two state on defectable items.

I know we had similar problems with CCSA and SAPOL back in the day. Normally once you put some valid points forward and commend them on their assistance they sort of see you in a different light.

But all the best to those attending and hopefully it has a good outcome for all

[Ryanrb25]

A couple of months back when the police were unnecessarily contacted and informed about a cruise is where it ALLLL started to go down hill. By creating a big saga about all this has pretty much made all this bullshit 10 times worse. How about people stop trying to fix shit that doesn't need fixing. It really wasnt that bad before. I dont know how to put it in words, but the people who think they are doing everyone a f*kn favour need to realise that it's putting all of you on their map. Pretty much coming out and saying, this is who we are, this is what we got, now f**k us up the arse because like tim said, your talking to one officier, not the 50000 other ones. Niel isn't going to walk up to his fellow officiers and say, Cmon guys, give em a break.

[Ryanrb25]

This makes me want to not have any affiliation with SAU.

[rhys5169]

guys remember we are not even a club, we are all members on a internet forum that none of us own or created.

have you even contacted the owner of the site regarding this?

if you are serious about getting this looked at then forget neil, he is nothing but a pissed off old man. put in the hard yards and create a club, talk with the owner of the site and a local MP and try lobby for mod plate systems to be used in this state like they are interstate and to great success.

maybe even speak to the sporting car club and get them on board, they have alot of power within the motorsport scene in this state

dealing with one traffic cop is, i hate to say it essentially pissing in the wind

[Nene260RS]

Just for the record. The police were never contacted to come out to a cruise. They just showed up at the stag cruise, and were never actually notified of kellies cruise seeing as it never took place. As for your comments about "US" trying to make it worse Ryan, If you go back to the first discussion about this you'll see that MANY sau members wanted "something" to be done in regards to Neil. After no one put there hand up, i made the effort to try and improve the situation, and consulted with other members on what to send Neil.

No need to swear, and curse at the people trying to make a difference. Your opinion has been noted, leave it at that. Because you are pissing me off!!!

[mid life crisis]

dont let the door hit you on the way out then

[savage GTR]

This does sound like a good idea Nene and co. (say gooday to Ben for me)

A point I would like to make would be that you were not asking for a police escort or defect city , but were wanting to inform them that a few of us were going to get together, go for a cruise and were informing them of our presence as a group of enthuisists not a bunch of hoons.

A sugestion of getting a local mp to attend and dare I say it , a reporter from ACA or the like (could do a story about a group of car lovers who want to do the right thing and not get labeled as hoons).

The mod plate sounds like a good step in the right dirrection BUT ( that plate is 3 months old and you could of changed the car since then ) was what I experinced was the reply from an officer .

A serious list of ligitimate questions needs to be put up here on this thread and updated so all can see.

When talking to him and trying to come to a joint agreement on how to conduct cruises , WE can't seem to come across as we want this or else.

We as a group must be seen to Neil and his superiors as working with them and their needs aswell.

We must push the issue that our cars are some of the best looked after and maintained on the road.

Question for the asking would be - how can we help get ouselves a better image in there eyes and the public?

I want their opion.

Edited January 13, 2009 by savage GTR