Police Should Be Aware That Speed Cameras Are Not Playthings
This is not a new one, it is about three years old and goes to show that bored policemen should not point their toys at anything other that cars.
Enjoy- H/T Owen and Autocar Magazine
Two British traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved in an unusual incident while checking for speeding motorists on the A1 Great North Road. One of the officers used a hand-held radar device to check the speed of a vehicle approaching over the crest of a hill, and was surprised when the speed was recorded at over 300 mph. Their radar suddenly stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.
Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar had in fact latched on to a RAF Tornado fighter jet which was engaged in a low-flying exercise over the Border district, approaching from the North Sea.
Back at police headquarters the chief constable fired off a stiff complaint to the RAF Liaison office.
Back came the reply in true laconic RAF style:
“Thank you for your message, which allows us to complete the file on this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical computer in the Tornado had detected the presence of, and subsequently locked onto, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, an air-to-ground missile aboard the fully-armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto your equipment. Fortunately the pilot flying the Tornado recognized the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile systems alert status, and was able to override the automated defence system before the missile was launched and your hostile radar installation was destroyed”
So – what would be the fine on that one?
The Best Comment on Autoworld was this-
Dec 19, 2007 8:54 AM
This happens all the time.
A local Police Agency adjacent to the RAF station I was stationed, even had the temerity to suggest they stopped flying when they were doing speed checks in the area.
Needless to say, they were sent away with a flea in their ear and given good cause for them to reflect on reality and their true position within it…….
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January 28, 2011 at 12:43 -
When the Nimrod AEW.3 was being developed in the eighties (only £1billion wasted then) oil rigs and the coastline were tracked moving at 47 knots because of a “decision” to set the clutter notch on the radar too low. On test flights the radar couldn’t be used within 120 miles of the coast as the number of targets would crash the 1MB memory computer. If only the Boeing E-3 AWACS had been bought 20 years earlier with industrial offsets negotiated.
Moral of the story: those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it until all Nimrod airframes are used up. -
January 28, 2011 at 13:18 -
Debunked as an urban myth, I’m afraid.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/radar.asp
Still a good story, though.
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January 28, 2011 at 13:41 -
I had a feeling it might be. Pity…
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January 28, 2011 at 14:48 -
Damn You Snowulf- shattered my sniggerfest !
On a deconstructionist point- Deconstruction (or deconstructionism[1]) is an approach, introduced by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, which pursues the meaning of a text to the point of exposing the supposed contradictions and internal oppositions upon which it is founded—supposedly showing that those foundations are irreducibly complex, unstable, or impossible. It is an approach that may be deployed in philosophy, literary analysis, or other fields.
It does show that as a popular urban myth it has achieved the status of Barthes sign,signifier and myth. The signifier being that the police are not reallyrespected any more.
(how about that for a completely posey get out !
, and I do not even live in Islington)-
January 28, 2011 at 15:19 -
That’s just made me break out in a cold sweat, as it reminded me of the time that I realised my degree course, contrary to what had been advertised, was actually a degree in radical Marxist feminism. Always banging on about Barthes and Derrida. It was utter tosh.
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January 28, 2011 at 15:31 -
That happen to me on one of the units I signed up for, as you can tell. I passed with an A grade, now hang about the left bank of the Severn cafes smoking gitanes and talking nonsense.
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January 28, 2011 at 16:34 -
It happened to me too. I did a Master’s not long ago, and we had to put up with several hours worth of seminars on methodology, where the tutor prattled on for hours about Derrida, hermeneutics, Lacan, blah-blah-blah, eventually signing off with the remark that methodologies in this bright new world were certainly not limited to the usual Western, classical, empirical methodologies employed in academia hitherto.
We were then required to submit a couple of hundred words justifying our choice of methodology. I was due to write a basic historical account of the development of a particular area of international law, but toyed with the idea of submitting a spoof methodology which would entail the studying of burned entrails coupled with certain rather arcane areas of Eastern ancestor-worship to arrive at my conclusion.
I thought better of it, as the generally stifling and humour-free atmosphere/culture which permeated that particular faculty was so intense I would probably have been kicked out or asked to appear before the University Court or something, and I was self-funded.
However, I was intrigued enough to buy “Explaining Postmodernism” by Stephen Hicks which is well worth a few hours of your time.
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January 28, 2011 at 20:41 -
I’m sure the first time I heard it, the aircraft was a Harrier, not a Tornado.
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January 28, 2011 at 22:38 -
Erm…Sopwith Camel?
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January 28, 2011 at 13:51 -
I want the jamming device for my car. Just imagine the look of the speed camera operator’s face as you wizz by and the camera indicates zero mph!
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January 28, 2011 at 14:04 -
Nice thought, but what would happen is that Plod would note the registration number and two days later you’d get one of those letters that start, “You are summoned…..”
They tried that with the RAF, but received the reply, “Please ensure courtroom is clear of all personnel at appointed time in case of casualties from missile strike.” They haven’t bothered since.
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January 28, 2011 at 14:50 -
Here in the US such devices are legal (in many states including Texas where I live)
They are marketed as “traffic safety devices”. Annoyingly they get set off by a number of non-police devices in urban areas especially – but they are very handy when trying to make godd progress in rurl areas – erm – safely….
Yee Ha !!!
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January 28, 2011 at 16:51 -
There was a case a year or so ago in Manchester when a chap was prosecuted after passing a fixed (unmanned) speed camera (Gatso, I think they’re called). He was not impressed, and the following day drove his van to the said Gatso, and applied a dose of Thermit (used for welding railway rails together – the guy was a rail worker). This destroyed said Gatso in a suitably satisfying flash and bang. Unfortunately, in it’s death-throes, the said Gatso took one last photo, which the investigating officers were able to retrieve. This showed not only a nice, clear view of the van and it’s registration number, but the grinning perpetrator as well.
The moral of this story – whenever removing hazards to good progress from the roadside, park on the blindside.
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January 28, 2011 at 20:19 -
Suggest that Andrew checks this site first before he blogs these stories, that are almost certainly invented. Also before he dismisses this site out of hand they plot and debunk most if not all the rubbish e-mail scams that bounce around the net frightening people that their hard disks are about to be destroyed.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/radar.asp-
January 29, 2011 at 09:18 -
I promise I will, however this is an online pub and fun is allowed. Besides snowolf had already told me this was bunk earlier at the bar see above.
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January 29, 2011 at 12:08 -
Sadly, for it is a truly great story, it seems that this is an urban legend.
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January 31, 2011 at 00:34 -
Yep. Urban legend. Pity, but there you have it!
However, there was the genuine case of a speed camera which recorded a mayor doing 60mph in a 30 zone, when, in fact, he had really being doing less than 15mph.
, and I do not even live in Islington)
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