Cops Put the Brakes on Speed Camera Revenue

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By Paul Maric | July 06th, 2011

The Victorian Police are waging war against the state government – and it’s gotten dirty. Reports have surfaced that the cops have started kicking the Government where it hurts: in the cameras. Apparently some members of the Victorian Police have taken to stopping ‘upstream’ of privately operated traffic camera vehicles or covert fixed cams, with their emergency lights activated. This has the effect of slowing down the passing traffic, greatly reducing the number of drivers who get pinged. The cops are also going slow on fundamental paperwork and legal processes.

If you harboured any lingering doubts speed cameras were about revenue and not safety, this should set those straight.

The war between the cops and the pollies kicked off over a pay dispute, and has been running since March this year. The Police Association Victoria claims that the government’s proposed 2.5 percent pay rise falls under the 2.9 percent inflation rate and leaves coppers disadvantaged.

The Police Association entered negotiations with a proposed pay increase of 4.5 percent, which has been knocked back by the Coalition, which also promised an extra 1700 police during the election, but won’t keep members’ salaries above inflation, essentially sending them backwards in terms of spending power.

Breakdowns in negotiations in early June lead to Victoria Police members beginning strike action aimed directly at the government. Police members vowed to alert drivers of hidden fixed and mobile speed cameras by parking their vehicles with emergency lights on at known revenue hot-spots.

Above: Victoria Police union members alert motorists to an unmarked mobile speed camera operating in suburban Melbourne. Image courtesy of ABC News.

Police additionally vowed to withhold entering statistical information via MAS sheets and imposed a ban on using work e-mail to slow communications between members. MAS sheets detail every police officer’s daily routine and allow the government to ascertain crime statistics. An extra step that is also causing havoc in government agencies is police refusing to hand out subpoenas to fellow members. Subpoenas instruct members to appear in court as witnesses to crimes and without being issued with a subpoena, have no legal requirement to attend court to provide a witness account of events.

Police Association secretary Greg Davies told the media, “Actions such as these are necessary because our members have lost patience with the government after months of delays and avoidance,” he said.

“We’ll continue to apply the bans to their fullest extent so that they have maximum impact.”

It would appear that the action has worked and is causing the government to become flustered with the slow down in revenue. The Police Association has reported that speed camera operators have been instructed to withhold their weekly locations from police, in a bid to continue revenue raising efforts.

A media release on Friday by the Police Association said, “members are telling us that some mobile speed camera operators are starting to withhold from police their proposed location of operation in a bid to avoid the impact that our industrial action is having on them.

Above: Victorian Police Minister, Peter Ryan, claims the new government is making speed cameras fairer and more transparent for motorists.

We are also seeing our industrial action cause the desired level of disruption to judicial processes. For instance, the Office of Public Prosecutions has been forced to employ process servers to serve subpoenas on our members, at a significant cost to government.”

The implication of the government instructing speed camera operators to withhold their information is fairly obvious. People will always slow down at the sight of a police vehicle with emergency lights on. Strategically placed, the police cars cause a marked drop in the number of speeding motorists – and, consequentially, government revenue. It’s a simple proof the Victorian Government is more worried about revenue remaining constant than protecting the private mobile speed camera operators and more importantly, drivers. (Back when they were all on the same team, police were typically informed of the locations of the camera operators for the safety of the operators.)

Above: Victoria Police union members vow to continue alerting motorists to unmarked mobile speed cameras operating in suburban Melbourne.

This response from the government is the clearest indication yet that the $500 million revenue stream from speed cameras in Victoria is integral to the yearly state budget. Removing this much money from the budget without notice could cripple the government’s ability to operate.

This backpedal by the Victorian government also breaks a key election promise by Police Minister Peter Ryan, who promised to publish the locations of mobile speed cameras on a weekly basis.

A Victoria Police member who agreed to speak with CarAdvice anonymously said, “We feel betrayed by the government. We are a hard working force and feel that our pay should rise with inflation at the very least. The fact that the government won’t even meet inflationary figures indicates that we are not as valued as we should be. We’re happy to continue with the union’s strike action in a bid to hit the government where it hurts – statistics and speed camera revenue.”

What do you think? Is the government more concerned about keeping drivers safe, or reaping revenue from hones motorists, via the unethical deployment of hidden speed cameras? If you’re a speed camera operator, are you happy operating in a risky environment without police protection from irate or malevolent crackpots?

Car Fanatic

WA Police are doing exactly the same. Parking near speed cameras with lights blazing and LED signs warning drivers of the Impending speed camera. They are seeking a 15 percent pay rise or will continue to disrupt Government revenue raising.

Jester

Inflation data in this article is all wrong – year to March inflation was 3.3%, but true increase to living cost inctreased 4.9% – we are all poorer by the minute.

laurie

lol what happens if I flashed my lights to on coming traffic warning them of a speed camera and a police car sees me doing it once this strike is over?….. yep thought so back to BUSINESS of making money for the Government

gustapo

whats good for the goose is good for the gander.. yeah right. cops are just running riot doing whatever they please

Ben 10

May i just say… I hope that becomes a habit all across the nation. theyre the true heros :’)

Gene

Strange to talk about the cops this way but there is no good guys in this dispute. They are fine collecting revenue for government and wrecking havoc among the motorists if they think they get paid right.
Convict

No they’re not.

They’re just after money, like the Government.

How does that make them heroes if their interests align with truth and justice coincidentally.

Trump

A modern day Robin Hood, but in reality is counter productive for their cause.

Corkas

The government is telling the cameras to ditch the cops!

That right there is proof that all it is to them is money.

Even if it didn’t save one life I’m sure they would keep doing it.
ST

This proves also that having more marked police presence is a good thing.
Yonny

The problem is, once the cops have done this they can’t just go back to business as normal.

They’ve let the cat well and truly out of the bag – speed cameras are for cash purposes only (but most sensible people already knew that).

Once this temporary rift between the cops and the government is resolved, how can the cops ever have the gall to continue to spout all that rubbish about speed cameras being an essential part of the road safety strategy (as most sensible people know they will).

Wake up Australia, we are all being ripped off big-time, and we don’t need any aggrieved cops to tell us that.
union

I have seen this on the Geelong road and the Princes Freeway heading towards the Latrobe Valley.
rentakeyboard

And if people stuck to the speed limits and took care on the roads instead of driving around with their heads up their arses we wouldnt have the need to have speed cameras in the first place!!!!!!!

Tell the cops to back off and let the idiots get caught for speeding!!!!!!!!

Karl

There’s two forms of ‘speeding’(in Victoria at least);
1)going faster than the (unreasonably low) posted limit 2)driving dangerously fast.

I’m a regular number 1. It’s the idiots with no regard for safety that cause problems. We have a ‘speeding kills’ culture that doesn’t distinguish between the two.

Exchange Student

Beautifully summarised.
Remo

I totally agree with you… The govt, has a ‘speeding pays’ mentality. Speeders are low hanging fruit, easy cash. Thing is we must remember it is a voluntary tax.. ie. don’t speed, don’t pay. What’s safer? A: a mechanically perfectly maintained modern car with an alert driver doing 110 or a clunker with a filthy windscreen, bald tiers, 1 stop light and a distracted driver doing 90? Cameras can’t do road worthies, oh it costs MONEY to do road worthies… Cameras just flash flash away… get the junk cars and bad drivers off out roads and watch the toll plummet.

JEKYL & HYDE

here’s another one,

the police have to do “x” number of rbt’s, say on one weekend.so a big amount are done on a main road,on even the main street.only thing is,all the police light’s are going,and even the most drunk,stoned,unlicenced person can clearly see it and turns away beforehand.guarenteed to do the numbers,ah guys…
M

Up here in Queensland, I don’t think they have private speed camera and private fixed speed cameras. The government has a few fixed speed cameras(3 or 4 in Brisbane) along the highway, and the speed camera vans are run by the police, but no private ones.
Shak

This is what us enthusiasts and pretty much any sensible person wants. We are not against slowing down, we just want the Government to did their job and actually try and lower the road toll with a visible Police presence. I am very happy to see that someone has finally had enough of all the lies and actually decided to do something about this blatant form of revenue raising.

Remo

Would you be happy to pay more tax each year for that added police presence? The money to pay for more cops doesn’t come out of thin air you know!

AverageJoe Blow UNION MEMBER

good on the cops for standing up to their hard earned rights which were, i may add acheived through unionisation. The current barry shocker ofarrel govt wants to reduce all public sector employees work entitlements to just nine basic rights….shocking. Not only are cops affected by this but, nurses, DoCS, Housing, Ageing Disability and any other govt sector employees.

O Farrells current attempts at reform are even more slash and burn than coward howard’s old work choices.

Peter Stone

Don’t forget us transport workers, we’ll cause bigger disruptions than police currently are if his bill gets passed.

AverageJoe Blow UNION MEMBER

Peter, i wouldn’t be suprised. It’s funny how a looser has already thumbed down my comment. Typical Aussie mentality these days of not sticking up for a fellow citizen. People in very large sectors of the working community, honest hard working Aussies are being shafted. If we don’t speak up about it it’s our future generations who will be working under very backwards conditions. Pay rises which are under inflation figures is a joke. in 10 years if Aussie economy growth continues people in the public sector will be 10% to 15% worse off in their pay packets….tell me how that’s fair for some of the most neccessary sectors of our economy?

Health care
police
child services
elderly services
housing
transport

any govt sector will be affected.

Where’s the Aussie Eureka spirit of fighting for waht’s right, and fighting for our fair share?!
absolutely bemused

i pay $25,000 per year in tax. where is the government squandering all this money to warrant the use of these cash cows and rely on them so heavily that the police can hold them to ransom by thwarting their operations

JEKYL & HYDE

you jest surely.maybe $25k in income tax.there there’s gst,fuel excise,lct,stamp,etc.more like $50-75k…

Al Juraj

It’s the police’s job to protect citizens, and can’t be done better than this!

Convict

protect citizens … what from the Government? wtf lmao

Sumpguard

I think it’s awesome. I was listening to Alborz’ interview on the radio in the wee hours of this morning which was quite enjoyable .Well done Alborz.

In that interview you hit the nail on the head. The fact that police cars with flashing lights placed ahead of the cameras is stopping the cameras catching people is testament to the fact that police presence on our roads makes people behave.

Watch as other states use this tactic for wage claims. Police are grossly underpaid. Well done to the Victorian police. You have my support.
http://Frosty Hicks

Black and White proof, as if it was needed, that the cameras are revenue.

If it was about safety, they would be risking the lives of motorists and the government would be on it quick smart.
Copcop

A normal Cop earn at least 75K+ peryear + high percentage of super+lost of tax offset, what more do they want, high cost and low output.

Modern Man

How much do you want to stand in front of a loon with a knife or gun? 25K?????

Hope one day you actually need these cops and they are there to fight for you as they have the tools the training and the balls to stand up for us who get cought in bad situations.

I know many police as friends and they are worth every cent.

By the way, apart front the local 7/11, what other organisation works EVERY day,i.e. public holidays, weekends, 3am in the morning etc.

Not many.

Carl

If we did that when the police aren’t wanting a pay rise we would be moved on or fined!!! Why do we put up with motorist being used as a massive revenue stream??? I think we are a weak society
LB

When people flash their lights they flash their high beams on. Maybe on/off would not incur the fine.

Secondly, Police write tickets for breaking laws and can use discretion, cameras don’t. And finally a nice attitude may help you get away with a warning, with a camera you don’t. Camera’s are about revenue raising.
PeterG

Everyone except the crooks want more cops and less cameras as long as they pinch dangerous drivers and not just those doing just over the limit.
Roo

Can anyone tell me the legality of a member of the public placing a sign warning of a speed camera ahead in Victoria if it’s not on public property? ie a sign on the back of a parked trailer.
Remo

This is a joke… so the cops are stopping the flow of the same revenue that pays them their wages. If/when the government capitulates who do you think is going to be out there raking in the speed fine revenue?? THE COPS! cause they know it will end up in their wallets.