Police Powers And Your Rights

[Zoggy]

A cop pulled me over to defect me, called me a "Dick Head" , My gf witnessed it , can i do anything about it ???

[Johnny Cash]

You can file a formal complaint.

Only problem is, unless EVERYONE who gets harassed by police files a complaint, it won't make a difference.

We need to flood police stations with complaints until the cowboys get under control, and the good cops are recognized for their efforts.

There are LOTS of good cops out there, and they let a lot go by. And you have to admit that most of us gun it or go racing when we shouldn't. If we get caught, it's the luck of the draw - there's no use complaining.

But if you are genuinely being unfairly harassed or discriminated, then it's worthwhile to make a complaint. A lot of the things I've heard on here warrant complaint, and the moderators on this website and other car websites should compile a web page purely for posting complaints that have been filed.

It would allow a national database of police complaints, listing date, state, officer name, rank, car, complaint, etc etc. Eventually, you would be able to tally up whose getting the majority of the complaints. Police have a database of us, why shouldn't we do the same?

Thankfully, there aren't as many cowboy-cops going around as there used to be.

Edited March 13, 2006 by Johnny Cash

[Zoggy]

You can file a formal complaint.

pfftt like that will do anything, Honestly, the complaint will get thrown out !!!!

I read earlier on in the thread that you can request your lawyer anytime, does that mean cops cant do anything unless your lawyer is present ???

[ctjet]

It would allow a national database of police complaints, listing date, state, officer name, rank, car, complaint, etc etc. Eventually, you would be able to tally up whose getting the majority of the complaints. Police have a database of us, why shouldn't we do the same?

i LOVE that idea... where do i sign up??

[justin911]

how would the cops determine a real complaint against a fake one ?

zoggy: no offence, but the cops calling you a dickhead isnt exactly harrasment.. its just not very nice..

if you dont wana be 'harrased' dont mod you car its not brain surgery

[Johnny Cash]

There should be no connection between modifying your vehicle and sustaining harrassment from law enforcement officers.

[justin911]

u goto realy define harrasment though...

if you call harrasment being pulled over constantly (or evan once) because your car has mods, then yeah theres a big connection between the 2..

I wonder if theres the same debate on other forums... like robbers forums...

"damn cops are always harrasing me when im trying to brake into houses... cant we make complaints!!!"

I dont mean modifying your car is the same as breaking into houses obviously but you all know what i mean...

There should be no connection between modifying your vehicle and sustaining harrassment from law enforcement officers.

[george.bryant]

There should be no connection between modifying your vehicle and sustaining harrassment from law enforcement officers.

Thats why u keep ur car standard externally, but then have a 300hp motor like mine

[Imtorqing]

You can ask for a lawyer any time whether criminal or traffic related.

UNDERSTAND this does not get you out of a ticket or in the case of criminal stop you from being arrested and charged.

IF THEY MAKE A MISTAKE ON YOUR TICKET(Put one L instead of two L's for allan etc this does not get you out of a ticket. In Qld anyway they will cancel that ticket and then send you a fresh one without the mistakes.)

Tickets are given based on what the officer has seen and most of time 99% they dont need admissions from you to give you one. I have heard traffic police brag that they could give a ticket to anyone ! as you can basically cop a defect from the factory for a lot of things. If you looked at all the offences police can issue you would not believe it.

Best practice when you get pulled over ;

1. Be POLITE (If they are Traffic Officers you have basically zero to .0000000001% chance of being let off anyway and your dignity is worth more than acting like a toss). Being a wanker will only result in a ticket and they will investigate further usually finding as many as they can give you to get better satisfaction). I am sure there are a few on here that have copped one small ticket and knew that they could have copped more. One of my mates the other day copped one for learner unaccompanied and knew he was lucky not to cop the one for not having his L plates on his car and he didnt have his L's on him which is another 150 bucks(Which the copper told him).

REMEMBER THAT IGNORANCE OF THE LAW IS NO DEFENCE AS ONCE YOU PASS YOUR DRIVERS LICENCE YOU ARE "EXPECTED(However fair you think it is)" TO KNOW EVERY RULE IN THE BOOK.

You cannot do u turns at intersections with lights where it

1. does not have a sign stating that you can.

2. has a sign stating that you can't.

If police call you a dickhead you can ;

1. Do nothing about it or B make a complaint (Dont expect much).

Another thing is if you are modding your car - unless you are some type of IDIOT that is paying someone to do crap to your car but dont realise what they are doing(Wont save you a ticket anyway). YOU should be aware that you are driving a defective vehicle ie loud blow off valves that are not plumbed back, loud exhausts with no Cat, running screamer pipes venting to the atmo, running no plumb back on your wastegate, non boxed in pod filter etc etc then when you get pulled over traffic police will rub their hands with glee as you have just made there day. Dont come onto forums and whinge about cops harrassing you as you may as well had a big sticker saying "F%$ the police" on your car.

TO RB FIRE. Police do their bit to try and get your car back. They record the car as stolen and you will get a call if they find it which sometimes is police find in during a raid at some drug dealers house or someone finally calls it in after seeing your car parked out the front of their house for the past month.

Knowing video surveillance in an RSL Carpark I can almost guarantee that it was absolute crap as they could see a white guy wearing a white shirt breaking into your car. I hope that you had a steering lock and alarm atleast on your ZX and especially now on your skyline because they go walking very easily. If you dont then you need your head checked. Satelite tracking is becoming cheaper with 1100 installed for Car Minder and 1800 for NAVMAN.

People will spend 25 grand doing shit to their car to make it go faster but wont spend any of it making it more secure. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

TO MZR33 and others like him - If you are about to lose your licence because of your current ticket let them know(POLICE) straight up but have some dignity about it. Dont go making a specticle of yourself and start crying and shit or show some bust as some women do to try and get out of it.

Some coppers may give you another chance but if they dont, dont make out that all coppers are mongrels as You have obviously done some stupid shit to get to the point where you are as you are about to lose your licence.

YOUR LICENCE IS A PRIVILEDGE THAT SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN FOR GRANTED

MAYBE I AM GETTING OLD OR SOMETHING

BUT

Anyway thats my 2 cents.

Cheers

Imtorqing

[Johnny Cash]

United we stand. Divided we fall.

[Zoggy]

how would the cops determine a real complaint against a fake one ?

zoggy: no offence, but the cops calling you a dickhead isnt exactly harrasment.. its just not very nice..

if you dont wana be 'harrased' dont mod you car its not brain surgery

How isnt it harrasment, its nothin majour but its still harasment , It was also personal and directed to myself because of the car i drive ... very unprofessional

Edited March 13, 2006 by Zoggy

[Johnny Cash]

Yes it was very unprofessional and would not be supported by any judicial official.

My idea still stands for the creation of a national register of police complaints. That would weed out the bad ones pretty easily, and allow us to have a unified voice.

Strength in numbers

[momo]

they took my licence and went back to the patrol car for 5 min and then came back and said they hadn't decded wether they were going to fine me or not untill they looked at my driving record

I was told I may get a fine in the mail

Now how the hell can you decide if an incident warrants a fine from previous history.

Either fine the person on the spot or not...

The way the officer said it was as if they "might" not fine me if they were in a good mood.

There demeaner was arrogant.

I must admit I used to really respect the police. but with the treatment I have been given with my last few incounters I have only contempt for them.

I had the same situation but the cop was ok he just said if you havnt been fined or had a warning then they can give you a warning but if youve already had a warning or been fined they cant warn you again, so I got a ticket so I guess he wasnt ok.

Another story, I was about 16 and walking home from a party blind drunk, some cops pulled over and started hastling me, one of them said he was gonna wipe my nose off my face (i was a little cheaky) anyway i asked them for their badge numbers, told them i knew my rights and they took off, with smoke and excessive noise. The week before two cops had been caught on tape beating some pissed guess in the park in the middle of the day.

Got pulled up (around 17 in school uniforms) and cops told me to get out but told my mate to stay in the car

I was trying to be real nice and get off but my mate got out of the car and when they told him to get back in he said "what you think im gonna shot you or something" after that i wasnt getting out of anything.

Another time much more recently some cops pulled over when i was walking home from a big night out and asked whats going on, again I was cheeky but in a friendly kind of way and ended up talking them in to giving my mate a lift home (I was 100m away from mine at the time) so theyre not all bad.

I agree that even if they are complete pr#$ks its better to be polite cos there is a million ways they can f#$k with you. I have more stories to prove it but I probably shouldnt say...

Edited March 17, 2006 by momo

[CruiseLiner]

I had the same situation but the cop was ok he just said if you havnt been fined or had a warning then they can give you a warning but if youve already had a warning or been fined they cant warn you again, so I got a ticket so I guess he wasnt ok.

Another story, I was about 16 and walking home from a party blind drunk, some cops pulled over and started hastling me, one of them said he was gonna wipe my nose off my face (i was a little cheaky) anyway i asked them for their badge numbers, told them i knew my rights and they took off, with smoke and excessive noise. The week before two cops had been caught on tape beating some pissed guess in the park in the middle of the day.

Got pulled up (around 17 in school uniforms) and cops told me to get out but told my mate to stay in the car

I was trying to be real nice and get off but my mate got out of the car and when they told him to get back in he said "what you think im gonna shot you or something" after that i wasnt getting out of anything.

Another time much more recently some cops pulled over when i was walking home from a big night out and asked whats going on, again I was cheeky but in a friendly kind of way and ended up talking them in to giving my mate a lift home (I was 100m away from mine at the time) so theyre not all bad.

I agree that even if they are complete pr#$ks its better to be polite cos there is a million ways they can f#$k with you. I have more stories to prove it but I probably shouldnt say...

sounds like u stumble around your neighbourhood pissed on a regular basis better than driving pissed i suppose

[momo]

sounds like u stumble around your neighbourhood pissed on a regular basis better than driving pissed i suppose

Yes, I got caught drink driving 2 weeks after i got my licence, never did it again.

[urbanoperations]

when i got pulled up the cocksucker who alot of melbourne east subs people will know who is park of knocks tmu , knocked my license out of my hand and called me a f*k wit....

because all i did was a little screch, i spose i deserved it tho... altho i dont believe these cockheads should be rude to anyone unless your a rude prick yourself...

[morgsj50]

i aint a huge fan of law enforcement, however, i dont think its the individual police officers fault, in most cases they just cant be bothered dealing with sh#t from the public, which i can totaly understand. they are just doing their job in most cases. On the other hand there job is a joke, but this is all due to politics. Cars get stolen, houses get burgaled, people get stabbed etc... because there is no revenue generated by these crimes, therfore, the amount of man power(police patrols around neighbourhoods etc) is reduced. instead we have more police on major roads, highways and "hoon" infested areas pulling people over for things that really arent hurting anyone like pod filters and fmic's, hardly gonna cause an accident or kill anyone... so really, as cliche as it is, society is to blame, in that we all voted in the people who make these laws and we accept them..... the police, just do what they're told to do, if they were told to go out and do "real" police work i'm sure they would.

[Fraser]

I believe it’s illegal for a driver to record (voice or video) without informing police officer. What is stopping us recording these "incidents" and sending them anonymously into ACurrentAffair or 60minutes?

I have noticed a lot of posters saying they have filed complaints and were all but laughed at.

We have copped a lot of flack from the stories labeling ALL skyline drivers as criminals, thugs and completly antisocial. I myself was discussed when I saw some of those stories and the people who seemed to be representing the whole high performance community.

I believe its time something was done to show some of our views and the things we have to put up with whether it be police, thieves, or the jealous general public abuse.

If anyone knows of any good recording equipment that can be hidden within the car please pm me.

Edited March 21, 2006 by Fraser

[satanic]

I've always found that the best way to combat police is with common sense and above all courtesy. Most of the time when I'm in my car I'll be dressed casually (car is primarily used on weekends) - this is when I receive the most flack at RBTs etc. However, the verbal abuse and tone does die down when they realize that despite my "hoon" appearance (most who have met me will agree), I am courteous and respectful to the officer on duty. Once they realize that there is no need to be Rambo in front of me, they are nothing more than your average stranger on the street making conversation.

However, driving home from work and being pulled into an RBT is a completely different story. They'll all huddle around the car until the windows are wound down. You can almost see the change in facial expression from one filled with hostility to one filled with respect. Why? All because I'm in a suit, I speak in a formal manner and I fit the description of what they'd classify as a "proper citizen".

MORAL OF STORY: Look proper, get treated properly - speak properly and thou shalt receive the same treatment. There's no need to get cocky with the cops, because at the end of the day they're just like you and me - it's just their job!

On the other hand, when it comes to the crunch (only ever happened once over a dispute at a RBT), connections do help.

Personally I have 2 lawyers, another 2 accessible 24/7 from work, a few barristers from my previous job, my father's legal team of 7 and last but not least a advisory consultant for the Human Rights Commission which is directly linked to the NSW Police.

And if that wasn't enough a phone call to my mates in the AFP may be of assistance~

[satanic]

PS: I live on the Northern Beaches of Sydney where there is bound to be a RBT station every second night on your way home