Queensland Police Union on Private Speed Cameras

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By Alborz Fallah | August 17th, 2010

The Queensland Police Union may have a lot to lose if QLD premier Anna Blight gets her way and hands over the operation of speed camera units to civilians.

The Premier argues that it’s the next logical process in increasing road safety operations. Nonetheless QPU president Ian Leavers recently told the Courier-Mail “If you put civilians in the vans, it will give people no doubt these are just cash machines“.

According to Mr Leavers the public confidence in speed cameras is already ‘eroded’ and taking police out of the vans will leave them with little to no credibility. We can’t help but to agree. Privatisation of speed camera units tends to shift focus (even) more on revenue raising than road safety according to research conducted in the United States.

However noble, Queensland Police are not defending us against private speed cameras (it did sound good to be true), the real issue is an ongoing pay dispute which has now seen QLD police take out even more advertising against the Premier.

Some reports suggest that police officers can lose up to $700 a fortnight if speed cameras are no longer operated internally. All speed camera units are operated by police on overtime shifts.

Anna Bligh has a gap to fill in the budget and speed cameras in QLD are simply not pulling their weight. Compared to Victoria’s $471 million in speeding-fine revenue, QLD is managing a humble $31 million.

It seems that time is the only thing that stands between Anna Blight and privatisation of speed camera operations.

Stumpy

Purely a money gab, I can’t believe the how blatant the state governments of this country have got.

Each time a vehicle is snapped we should get a free spin on a dash for cash pokie in the hope of getting a few dollars back.

If they actually put the money back into roads and safety it would still suck this is just a government racket.

Andrew M

ha ha ha, I love that bit on the free spin.

Perhaps it can go to court double or nothing style

Jon Leong

Don’t let Gillard do to Australia what Bligh has done to Queensland.

Jimmy

That doesn’t make any sense at all. They’re two different people.
Trouble

What has Gillard got to do with Speed Cameras?
Stay on topic or get the hell out.

Baaa

If mobile speed vans operated by civilians were around when NWA was singing about the Police, I’m sure the lyrics would have been slightly different.

Jimmy

“F*ck tha civilian operated mobile speed cameras”

Andrew M

Alborz,
There are 2 angles to this story.

The other side of the coin is that using civillians to operate cameras would be far cheaper than paying police officers on double time rates.

Also in doing this it would allow an answer to the need for more police officers by freeing up the qualified officers and putting them to use for something better than cross referencing number plates.

On the political side of things, what I find absolutly funny is that the coalition gets totally blasted for “Work choices” etc, when the Labour government is doing the exact same things, only difference is the Libs are telling people what is coming and educating people on how to be ready for it. Labour is gradually sneaking in the same sort of work related policies right under our noses, they just arent making it known

Matty B

How can they free up “qualified” officers if all speed cameras are manned by officers on over time shifts ?

Why don’t they just privatise the police now and get it out of the way, cause that’s where we’ll end up.

It’s all about the money, not saving lives or public good.

Andrew M

How about overtime shifts on real police work other than camera watching???

That would free them up wouldnt it??

I agree on it all heading privatised, thats why I dont see the difference between what Labour is doing by contracting worker agreements versus the policy of the Libs.
At least the Libs are up front about what they are trying to do

Sumpguard

Do you really believe the Libs will ease up on this revenue stream if elected? You’re joking right? They’re all the same. It is the easiest and most fraudulent way to tax people under the disguise that if you are doing wrong you pay.

90 in 60 zone, yep that’s wrong and dangerous so why wait two weeks to let the motorist know they are wrong? The camera won’t stop them continuing on until they kill someone. No-one will ever convince me that speed cameras are there for the road toll. If the governments gave a rat’s about the road toll we would see ads on TV highlighting the dangers of tailgating, running red lights and more importantly fatigue and on a daily basis.

The main news headline on the ABC today is the holiday roadtoll which stands at 26 nationally for the past 8 days. that’s roughly 3 people a day or about the average for any day of the week at anytime of the year despite there being much more traffic on the road because of the holiday break. Yet an accident involving death at any non holiday time will barely make the news.

We are being brainwashed into believing we are evil for doing 65 in a 60 zone and it’s crap. Fatigue is far and away the biggest killer on our roads but they can’t tax it. People are dying in cars at 60 km/h because they are getting hit side on at lights due to watching their damned speedo instead of the road ahead. Speed cameras are being banned in other countries for this very reason.

….and if you think the LNP will ban or even go soft on them you’re dillusional. They are dependent on these devices. So much for democracy and if they hid them in bins in the USA (like they are suggesting here) they’d end up in court for entrapment.

P.S it’s “labor”.

Fenno

In response to the Civilians being cheaper….I can see that burning them completely.
The cost of tendering and setting up a company to run such a scheme would mean a civilian contract (and thats what it would have to be would certainly be – a contract)
long-term would cost the government more than what is currently using our officers.
How about Anna Bligh give the Police the 4.5% cost of living increase they are asking for like she did her own public servants and save everybody the hassle.

Or she should just stick to cooking shows.

mmmmmm

it must be election time, you can smell the union greed.
Qld police union should stay out of politics.
i guess its just not profitable enough for police officers to focus on dangerous drivers or real criminals
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1435885244 Yani Hendriawan

i’m voting liberal
TT

Maybe speed camera revenue is down in QLD because people arent speeding? I guess when everyone obeys the law then this source of revenue will be lost. It’ll be interesting to see how the govt makes it up.

Lyall

She’ll make up for it by making up another tax!

Peter

Is the mis-spelling of Bligh (Blight) intentional? Regardless, it’s a cracker, coz some would say she is. A freudian slip, maybe?
Dave

No cameras = no problems. If the can’t make money on the cameras, get rid of them.
steve

Jon Leong says:Don’t let Gillard do to Australia what Bligh has done to Queensland,
yes sadly very true.
these 2 are giving women in power such a bad result.
i think if these 2 stay in power it will show the true IQ of the voting public.
God save the queen ? well, i think its God save queensland
and soon Australia.
BTW i dont have a problem with women in power otherwise i would not have gotten married.
Simo

is all about $$$, bunch of legalised government backed extortionists.
Bill Hatossy

they have these in the ACT with contractors operating them. These vans are ALWAYS – WITHOUT FAIL set up on long downhill straight stretches of road, or on well designed routes which have never had any recorded accidents on them. The speeds on the roads are deliberately set low so that the vans will catch a great number of people. The revenue including increases is factored into the budget including the outyears. Absolutely nothing to do with road safety!

JEKYL & HYDE

i have a few friends in the a.c.t,and yes,you are spot on,my friend.personally,i think people should do to these contractor’s what some people have done to fixed speed camera’s(make them not work..hee,hee.hee),because lets face it,it is all about the money,and everybody involved in this rip off has quota’s to fill…

Flying High

Saying these are operated by ‘civilans’ somehow misses the point that they are actually operated by very revenue focused multinational companies and banks. Like Macquarie Bank. And to places like Macquarie Bank, ethics is anemia
Durp

I know it seems SpeedCafe is a great site for V8 news but don’t be fooled by it.

It seems it’s run by BAM Media – a public relations company who does PR for Kelly Racing, Orrcon, the Gold Coast 600 and more.

Look at their platinum partners – Orrcon, IRWIN Tools, Jack Daniels, Pirtek, etc. All BAM Media clients.

Notice how much they pushed the Gold Coast 600 and its clients – even an ALMS report leads with “IRWIN Racing’s Bathurst endurance driver David Brabham.”

Notice they don’t really cover any controversial topics? For example the Kellys versus Courtney spat from Townsville was covered in Auto Action and the V8 website yet wasn’t mentioned on SpeedCafe. Why? It was a major taking point from Townsville. Could it be because the Kellys weren’t shown in a positive light?

So while it seems they are breaking news stories it’s really being feed by PR people who work within the teams. Why don’t the stories have an author apart from Speedcafe?

Notice how it doesn’t say on the site who it’s run by or owned by? If they had nothing to hide they’d tell the truth.

Please spread the word so other people aren’t conned and we can demand the truth. Don’t be fooled.
*Corporate Control*

Dont worry another (corporate entity) will have this one & pay civi operators next to nothing, but will give them a bonus on number of infringements issued.

Once our governments have betrayed us till the last, the mind police will be on there way!!!
jeff

This is nothing new. I proposed this to the Qld Gov when Beatty was Premier, struth back in 04/05 I guess, except I recommended implementing the Qld Sheriffs Office as a Law Enforcement Agency too do this sort of thing.
I was told no then, nice to see my proposal is still being looked at