Well it would depend if your vehicle was "apparently defective". There probably aren't many coppers who can tell from a sniff of your exhaust fumes that you're running a decat, but if the noise makes his ears start bleeding then he may well guess that all is not road-legal underneath.

Are they likely to be carrying an emissions tester around with them though?

I think that VOSA can stop and test, but if it fails then you have a week or two to put it right and get it re-tested, IIRC?

lol - this thread is hilarious! Lots of people claiming this, that and the other without having a clue. Apparently something you experience everyday in your working life counts for nothing compared to some person who's managed to google the crime stats for Nottinghamshire????

Obviously my beloved cannot speak for the rest of the country or even for the whole of the county but he's just relaying some of his experiences. It's not exactly fair then for somebody who has no experience of working in car related criminal activity or who lives in the same county, to stick something in Google and proclaim it as fact! There have been generalisations made in both sides of this argument but the general public never see a lot of the hard work that goes on in the police force or the good outcomes because they are not news worthy are they? Much easier to propogate the myth that the police don't do anything except fine you for trivial things like illegal number plates.

The police don't make the laws - they just enforce them. You can go on and on about some laws being more important than others but there is no gray area to the coppers on the beat who are no longer extended discretionary powers. If there is a police road side check point pulling people for traffic offences - they are going to pull everyone violating the traffic laws not just a few here and there.

You may not like the police Belfastjohn - that is your right in the free society in which we live - and you have the right to express your opinion. People who work in the police are very good at having to bite their tongues to people like you.

But the message that it sends out is "If you keep the small rules, then you can break the big ones"* ... you're not catching criminals, you're catching criminals who don't wear their seat belts, or who don't have regulation number plates.

We also see from the OP's post that clearly discretion is being used - negatively. The police used the number plate stop to check his vehicle for other defects - without, apparently, informing him of his legal right to defer such as test, as laid out in the RTA.

So, for the cost of a few officers standing by the side of the road for a day, you disenfranchise hundreds of 'ordinary' people and you justify it by claiming that you'll catch some criminals ... while, presumably, the police officers involved could have helped solve or prevent crime if they'd been used more positively.

* This is a quote, by the way. See if you can guess which book it comes from - clue, its title is an anagram of "1948".

Why are they saying that "if you keep the small rules, you can break the big ones"?

I don't think I explained myself properly before.

If there is a road side check point pulling people for violating traffic laws - they are pulling over people who are breaking those laws. They are NOT pulling over people who break these laws for the reason of looking to see if they are a criminal in some other way as well. If they do pull somebody and they happen to have an outstanding warrant etc then that is obviously a bonus.

The police officers involved in this road side check point ARE helping solve or prevent crime by standing at the side of the road pulling people for no insurance/no seatbelt/using mobile phones/illegal plates aren't they? They're all crimes like it or not and thus the people breaking them are criminals. By pulling people for no insurance they have the power to take uninsured cars off the road. By pulling people not wearing seatbelts they are potentially preventing serious or fatal rtc's. By pulling people for illegal plates, they are potentially pulling people who are involved in other vehicle related crime. These are all proactive aims.

And before somebody says that they could be out solving burglaries etc - that is not their job. Traffic officers do traffic offences

So I can rape, murder and pillage at will around traffic officers without fear of arrest. How cool is that ..

Wouldn't surprise me if they are carrying an emissions tester. The traffic cops carry a Tintmaster around with them, around here, so wouldn't take much to carry an emissions tester too.

If you get stopped by Vosa, they are worse than the police.

I had a Prohibition notice slapped on my car for it's tints, by Vosa. This meant I couldn't use the car until I removed the tints. They gave me a 10 minute allowance to drive home and that was being lenient. A car trailer was waiting at the side of the road with them and if I'd been arsy, the car could have been put on that and impounded

After I took the windows out, replaced them with standards and went to Vosa and got the Prohibition notice lifted, I waited a few weeks, then stuck the tinted ones back in again (I know, I'm a rebel )

Traffic pulled me the second time and I got away with a warning and a £30 fine, but that may have been partly been down to it being my birthday

I didn't put the tints back on afterwards

As for number plates, well, mine's illegal too.

Not because of the font or spacing though, that's all legal.

I just have my works website address at the bottom, but have no postcode on it, to show where the plate was made.


Gutted the 'show plate' business is being made illegal - didn't know about that




Lol

As long as you dont drive there, I find public transport very handy on these occasions when I feel like a good old pillage.

Not from what I've seen on Traffic Cops(BBC 1)

PMSL

Just to clarify this law was applied from September 2001 in accordance with BS AU 145d Statutory Instrument 2001/No 561.

My understanding is that there is no requirement for cars registered before this date to wear plates conforming to this latest specification UNLESS it is required that the plates are changed for whatever reason.

Therefore if you have car registered before September 2001 you can fit 'show plates' without the postcode/ BSAU number as long as they have legal font/spacing and 'were fitted' before Sept 2001, Nudge nudge wink wink.

Otherwise any car pre 2001 would have to have new plates fitted in order to meet the new legislation. This has clearly never been a requirement.

Cool, cheers cosmo

The policeman did mention that there was no BSAU mark on my plates but seemed more concerned about the characters and that was all that was mentioned on my ticket.
So I guess i`ll see what happens after I fit the same style plates on again but with the standard (and IMO harder to read ) UK font .

Baz

My point is that not all criminals are equal - while I don't dispute that people displaying shonky number plates or disregarding seat belt rules are breaking the law they are not breaking it to the extent where trhe rest of society is quaking in fear of them.

A traffic car parked up by the side of the road, pulling over these people will catch an impressive number of criminals, but all it is is an exercise in generating nice statistics.

The same traffic car driving round residential areas will be actively discouraging dangerous driving, drug deals, theft, etc. - which is a positive effect, but which doesn't instantly produce figures suggesting that record numbers of criminals are being caught. Of course the traffic car can run ANPR, so they can still take uninsured drivers off the road and pull over anybody who is flagged up by the system, albeit fewer of them.

So, what these road side checkpoints are then is an exercise in making government figures look good - the police have been reduced from an active role in promoting order to a trivial exercise in generating figures at the cost of the goodwill of the public.

You justified this stance by saying that more serious criminals are caught and my rebuttal was that the only serious criminals caught are those who are breaking the small rules - those who commit more serious crimes have nothing to fear from these checkpoints as long as they've made sure their car is legal and buckled up their seatbelts.

The defence you've mounted of these checkpoints shows just how much the police have bought in to this new role and actually believe it is for the best. This is a terrible state of affairs.

The real question here isn't about cops doing their job its really about laws that serve no real purpose yet are dressed up and spun to make them appear a nessecary evil.

Grouping traffic offences that are clearly dangerous such as using a mobile with punitive action against your choice of font is ridiculous and to say as you do that people with illegal plates are potentially involved in other vehicle crime is almost beyond belief. If that is the attitude of our police forces, power really has gone to their tiny minds. Well I guess thats obvious from the powers they are trying to seek on the back of global terrorism. And it also shows just how out of touch they are. illegal plates = potential serious car crook. Of course it does in Paranoid City nestled in the land of the chained, next to the Great Shackled Lake.

And whats criminal is that there are people out there so sheep like in their obedience, they'll swallow all the snake oil they are fed to justify needless laws.

Right then. Regarding number plates. I cant see the point of having number plate and altering the lettering in the first place. When you buy it you know that it is illegal and everytime you leave your house you MUST know that there is a chance of getting stopped by the police so why bother risking it. Having first hand experiance of peoples opinions of the police i will say this. If you drive down the road with that number plate and the police let you drive past without stopping you, then you can bet your life that a member of the public will see it and start complaining that its unfair etc etc and why didn't the police pull them over blah blah. Like any job, police do have bad days where they appear a bit rude etc etc. I think the bobby got it spot on with issuing a ticket. He has probably pulled loads of people and got a lot of abuse that day for doing it. The number plates are the size they are as they are the easiest to read by people and by ANPR and other machines etc. Even if it is slightly, that is the reason. I dont see how anyone can complain.

Baz wasn't complaining about the number plate fine,it was the 1st polis guys attitude that annoyed him

The number plate thing though, I dont get it. OK I can see the point of a private plate, not my thing, but changing the font? The fact that some people look at it and go "well, that is just not pretty enough - we'll see about that".

It is a bit like the person who looked at a toilet and thought "Y'know, that needs a hat" and knitted that wooly toilet seat cover. And then, cos it looked like power ranger with a berret on, knitted a matching bib - to soak up male pee!! Urgh! Too much time on their hands.

Why?

It would be a pretty dull world if everyone was the same

Baz mate,sorry just reading this for the first time. Can I on behalf of the decent common sense driven police officers just apoligise to you for having to be subjected to an officious arsehole of a cop that obviously gets his jollies from exerting his new found power over the tax paying public!! They are out there im afraid! I would send a letter to King St complaining about his attitude . He isnt doing the job any favours,only thing he is succeeding in doing is alienating decent law abiding citizens for no reason what so ever. And please dont anyone say Baz wasnt law abiding because he displayed illegal plates,Iv seen them and there is no way the ANPR would not pick them up!
it is the pressure brought about by senior officers/Government to report minor offences to justify special units ,meet certain targets ,they actively discourage officers from showing discretion in any circumstances! What goes round comes round Baz,I hope he breaks down in his 100% legal motor vehicle in Sanquhar in aon a cold and rainy night! Sorry mate ,but we aint all like that!

Good point about the police. Most are very good and wont behave like this. You were just unlucky. As i said before, its the chance you take unfortunately.

I have to laugh at some of the points being made in relation to number plates. The government makes the rules on number plates and the government runs the DVLA who sell personalised number plates. Personalised number plates encourage people to display non legal plates but the DVLA makes mega dosh from selling them and the courts dosh from fining people for displaying them. Or have I missed some lickyl point along the way?

My last post did start by stating this is more about needless laws than the police doing their job . Personally I am always friendly and polite with the police.

My gripe is, it is a pointless law that serves no purpose other than to restrict civil liberties and an individuals self expression.

It's also there of course to 'justify special units ,' ...Cheers guys, nice one you obviously cant hit the targets that really matter so you hit the targets you can The easy targets

Dont take it too personally though Since some bright spark came up with targets, there aint a civil/public servant who isn't hitting the targets they can, the easy targets. Coz they simply not being given the time or resources to go after the targets that matter.

So really its not the odd grumpy cop that ruins it for everybody. (I'd rather my executioner frowned as the axe fell rather than stood there being all buddie buddie with me!)
Its just the fact its done, that ruins it, and for no good reason whatsoever IMO

Aye, we know what you're like

.

Baz

Why wasn't this thread titled "Grabbed by the fuzz"?

Coz Baz hasnt started shaving yet!!

That's not strictly true, unless you don't mean his legs?

Got round to fitting my new plates today,hopefully they`ll be less hassle because as far as I can see they`re meeting the requirement for an MOT .

Baz

Classic them vs us issue.
"mans" inherant attitude to work will be to dodge it, to dodge the hard work in favour of the easy work.
Police are no different - that is, without the uniform they are no different.
They'll target the stereotype,
They'll penalise the hardworking young people for taking pride in their car fitting tinted windows etc... because it's obviously easier and gratifying for the cops, letting them think they are "fighting criminals"...??

Police round here never set foot out in the rain unless there's a car crash,
they never check tax in the rain,
they don't do random drink driving tests in the rain
A friends mother once told me a truth about police officers -
"cops are like wasps... they only come out on a hot dry day"

Have a look round your part of the world and tell me if the same isn't true...

I don't know about where you live but it does rain quite a bit these days...