177 in a 60 zone! WHAT ON EARTH!

[EDManual]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/mor...-1226308199810

TWO police officers face possible criminal charges after lying to a series of investigations about their involvement in a deadly police chase.


Police chases are also set for a review, with the coroner calling for mandatory video recording of all police pursuits.

The fallout follows the inquest into the death of 19-year-old Shane Bennett, who died after being chased through Seaford in 2008.

As first revealed by the Herald Sun, crucial elements of sworn statements of the two officers chasing Mr Bennett, Senior Constables Michael Bednarczyk and Cameron Orr, were proven false through the use of GPS data.

The duo now stand accused by the coroner of turning a blind eye to their dangerous speeds before Mr Bennett crashed and died.

In a Victorian first, investigators and international experts took the data from the officers' vehicle to prove they were going much faster than they told several inquiries - including an internal ESD inquiry, an OPI probe and a coronial hearing.

[XR Martin]

Doesnt take long for an XR6T to reach that speed...

[Streets]

This'll end well

[Smoke Pursuit]

Cowboys at their best...

Its time mandatory video cameras be fitted to all highway patrol cars... These people need more accountability.

[dylancox]

Police are either licensed to drive above 150km/h or below? Never knew that

[lockieoc]

How long does it take to realise doing 3 times the speed limit is dangerous and the chase should be terminated?
I'm all for seeing crims get caught, but come on...!

[burnz]

faulty radar, i assume...possably only doin 60.001kph..for us.
but it's the police! they are above the law didn't you know.

[mr smith]

Originally Posted by DASH GT

Cowboys at their best...

Its time mandatory video cameras be fitted to all highway patrol cars... These people need more accountability.

Time for recorders in all vehicles. Not the cops fault, minimum 15 years for a runner IMO. Time to look at restricting all vehicles to a max of 125km/h as well.

[XR6Naranja]

Originally Posted by mr smith

Time for recorders in all vehicles. Not the cops fault, minimum 15 years for a runner IMO. Time to look at restricting all vehicles to a max of 125km/h as well.

I'm hoping that wasn't a serious statement, because there is quite a lot wrong with it.

Originally Posted by DASH GT

Cowboys at their best...

Its time mandatory video cameras be fitted to all highway patrol cars... These people need more accountability.

I believe that all NSW Highway Patrols do have this?

I do know I've been pulled up a few times with the cop stating the confrontation is video/audio recorded.

[MITCHAY]

Glad I'm not a cop and don't have to deal with this sort of **** but that sort of speed is ridiculous.

Though I'm firmly of the belief whether the cops call off pursuits or not isn't a factor in whether these morons eventually crash (they are all good kids remember) at the very least they will be less likely to kill themselves or anyone else.

You will never win either way. If you don't chase then you give the crims a free pass and if you do chase whether within rules or not and something bad happens they always have fingers pointed and what fades out of view is the moron that actually started it.

[cheap]

A rush of blood to the right foot caused lack of blood flow to the cranium...

[XR6Naranja]

Originally Posted by cheap

A rush of blood to the right foot caused lack of blood flow to the cranium...

Is there anywhere the rush goes when they want to exercise authority they don't have?

[Kevaclone]

Originally Posted by XR6Naranja

I'm hoping that wasn't a serious statement, because there is quite a lot wrong with it.

Such as??
and what part?
the bit that all vehicles should have recorders?
The bit about the Cops not forcing said d**khead to drive that fast?
the bit about 15 years for runners?
or the bit about restricting all vehicles to 125 since that is above the max limit in every part of Aust except for NT, but it's only 5kh slower, and how many people venture there anyway?

Kev

[chrisfpv]

It's shocking to hear that Victoria Police don't have any sort of dash mounted cameras fitted to there patrol cars, especially those marked for Highway Patrol officers. In this modern day and age how can they be so behind?

For those in the know (if any), how is data collected from police vehicles? Why on earth would two cops lie when they would surely know that the speed of the vehicle was being recorded? Amazing.

[atec77]

Originally Posted by mr smith

Time for recorders in all vehicles. Not the cops fault, minimum 15 years for a runner IMO. Time to look at restricting all vehicles to a max of 125km/h as well.

I don't see a smiley

so is it a troll or a no clue posting ?

[chrisfpv]

Originally Posted by Kevaclone

Such as??
and what part?
the bit that all vehicles should have recorders?
The bit about the Cops not forcing said d**khead to drive that fast?
the bit about 15 years for runners?
or the bit about restricting all vehicles to 125 since that is above the max limit in every part of Aust except for NT, but it's only 5kh slower, and how many people venture there anyway?

Kev

The part about speed limiting vehicles I'm guessing.

[XR6Naranja]

Originally Posted by Kevaclone

Such as??
and what part?
the bit that all vehicles should have recorders?

Of course, what is said and done in your car is your business, privacy rights are all around, I'd like to think this would breach it, may as well have one in your house as well, and as with another thing easily uninstalled.

The bit about the Cops not forcing said d**khead to drive that fast?

Not forcing but clear outcome, if a guy doesn't stop for the cops at 80km/h why would he stop anything above that, in a way not the cops fault, but they have rules too, and they should abide by them, good role models?

the bit about 15 years for runners?

Perfectly fine, run from the cops you puts just as many people in danger as you would waving a gun around, I think 15 years is fine.

or the bit about restricting all vehicles to 125 since that is above the max limit in every part of Aust except for NT, but it's only 5kh slower, and how many people venture there anyway?

With this rule we may as well all drive Prius', talk about putting car companies out of business in Australia if it wasn't already bad enough for Ford and Holden, not only that for every genius that invents an safety measure, there's another out there that can break it so it simply wouldn't work, and NT isn't a ghost state, Darwin is a largely booming city, and the NT is FULL of work and people, and there are plenty of area's here that have still signed 130km/h, but this works in many ways as well.


Kev

The odds are for the police to pull off pursuit at 120km/h those extra 57 of them wouldn't have contributed to a death and crash, people can run all they want, they just become Australia wide known criminals for doing something like that.

A cop will tell you not to break the law, a cop despite how they act isn't above to law either, so good role models here.

[Neale]

I hate how the cops are made out to be the bad guys in police chases for enforcing the law. If the person being chased by the cops pulled over when they were supposed to, there wouldnt be a problem.

[svo supporter]

Typical bogan...Oops, wrong brand of car.

Now all I am waiting for is some people to start trashing Ford drivers and how much of an idiot they actually are, behind the wheel of these. If it's was a Red branded car, this thread would be 3 pages long by now.

For what it's worth. Doesn't matter what brand of car it is, there will always be idiots out there, flurting with other peoples lives. I wouldn't care less if they killed themselves, as long as some poor bugger doesn't have to go out and clean up their mess.

[chrisfpv]

Originally Posted by Neale

I hate how the cops are made out to be the bad guys in police chases for enforcing the law. If the person being chased by the cops pulled over when they were supposed to, there wouldnt be a problem.

In this incident the Police WERE the bad guys as well as the fool who decided to keep driving.

[DJM83]

Originally Posted by svo supporter

Typical bogan...Oops, wrong brand of car.

Now all I am waiting for is some people to start trashing Ford drivers and how much of an idiot they actually are, behind the wheel of these. If it's was a Red branded car, this thread would be 3 pages long by now.

For what it's worth. Doesn't matter what brand of car it is, there will always be idiots out there, flurting with other peoples lives. I wouldn't care less if they killed themselves, as long as some poor bugger doesn't have to go out and clean up their mess.

It means SFA what brand of car they were driving so quit ya subliminal Ford bashing and go visit the forum over the road cause i for one am sick of your continual bagging of the product.

IMO the officers never forced the driver to flee nor make them speed. If offending driver had pulled over in the first place it would have made the police officers and their own life much easier and in this case the ultimate price was paid.

BUT if the officers lied about their speed then they have a case to answer

[medz84]

seriously if cops are chasing crims and it becomes dangerous then stop chasing!!!!
cops doing the wrong thing to catch someone else doing something wrong doesnt seem right to me, too many power trips from the police,

police are supposed to protect the general public, people that steal cars generally arnt a threat to public, getting in high speed persuits are!!

not at all supporting car theifs, theifs in general are the lowest form of scum!!
but your daughter,son,mum,dad etc etc is more important!!

[Landau Stable]

For those of you who want to bag cops for going too fast, think about this for a second. You see a crim and give chase. You have to drive aggressively and above the limit. YOU NEED TO CONCENTRATE ON THE TASK AT HAND. I would rather they go faster and pay attention to the road ahead etc, instead of looking up and down at their speedo while chasing some POS because he thinks the law doesn't apply to him. Think about it people! So many complain that they can't be expected to look down at their speedo all the time and the new speed cameras are rubbish. How is it any doifferent when these guys are under a much more stressful situation that requires their utmost concentration to keep their vehicle in the right direction?

[flappist]

Just wondering in what situation would 177 in a 60 zone be ok?

1) Pursuing Osama bin Hitler?
2) Carrying an armed nuclear weapon with a timer out of the town?
3) Donut shop is closing?

How fast is too fast? 61? 70? 100? 110? 130? 999?

It is embarrassing how many on here who pretend to be car enthusiasts repetitively go off like scruby on red bull every single time there is an event the involves speed without even looking at the whole situation.

Reading some of the threads on here usually started by the same small group of alarmist narcissists makes me double check that I haven't accidentally logged on to www.walk.com.au/fifth_colum....

[Jim Goose]

Coroner White said Mr Bennett did have marijuana in his system when he crashed, but said his death was a ''devastating loss''.

The police are dammed if they do and dammed if they dont.....

The article doesnt provide much info about the chase, other then the officers high speed. Not condoning it or going to go against them either.

If the drugged up idiot had been left alone and then crashed into someone and killed an innocent bystander would we be asking why the police didnt chase him?

[BHDOGS]

its y i never applied to join the police force you have idiots yelling at you for doing your job then you have idiots yelling at you for not breaking the law to enforce your job happens in security all the time no matter what you do your wrong to somebody people need to grow up.

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by DJM83

It means SFA what brand of car they were driving so quit ya subliminal Ford bashing and go visit the forum over the road cause i for one am sick of your continual bagging of the product.

Settle down pal. People get on here and bag all brands and it's against forum rules, yet it is allowed.

I DID say, idiots WILL BE IDIOTS, no matter what brand of car they are driving. PERIOD. So I'm not SINGLING out one brand.

[Dave3911]

Originally Posted by dylancox

Police are either licensed to drive above 150km/h or below? Never knew that

They aren't "licensed" so to speak - it's an internal policy within Victoria police and is not law. Lawfully any police officer can break any speed limit as long as it is reasonable to do so. The "police license" categories they hold aren't supported in law at all.

But FYI they are as follows:
Gold - Pursuit Qualified with open-ended top speed. Usually highway patrol and other specialist squads.
Silver - Pursuit Qualified with 150km/hr top speed. Majority of uniform police.
Restricted Silver - New interim category released this year to accommodate for the fact they can't get coppers through the training course quickly enough. It's half of the full Silver course and allows them to drive urgent duty (lights and sirens), no pursuits, and only 20km/hr above the posted limit.
White - Normal driving conditions only.

The license classifications match up with vehicle classifications of the same colours.
Gold - Highway patrol vehicles and bikes
Silver - Police sedans, Wagons, Territorys and Div Vans
Bronze - "Mini Brawler" Vitto/VW Vans, 4WDs
White - Mainly the booze buses, and larger brawler vehicles.

Note that Bronze is not a license category, but is a vehicle category only.

They can drive whatever out of the car and license classification is the lowest. IE a gold driver in a silver car can only drive to 150km/hr, as can a silver driver in a gold car.

In the case of S/C Orr, my understanding is he was at the Highway Patrol on temporary duties and hadn't completed his Gold classification, so even though he was in a Gold car, policy gave him his maximum of 150km/hr. If memory serves correct and he's the bloke I think he is, his normal day job is as a crime scene officer. (IE Fingerprints and photos etc.)

Originally Posted by chrisfpv

It's shocking to hear that Victoria Police don't have any sort of dash mounted cameras fitted to there patrol cars, especially those marked for Highway Patrol officers. In this modern day and age how can they be so behind?

For those in the know (if any), how is data collected from police vehicles? Why on earth would two cops lie when they would surely know that the speed of the vehicle was being recorded? Amazing.

In car video in Victoria is pretty much limited to regional areas. Any metropolitian stations go without, go figure.

As for recording the speed. They don't at all. But the location of the vehicle is recorded via their on-board MDT. Whilst in a pursuit it'll be recording location data roughly every 3 seconds. From that data it's a simple distance/time calculation to get speed.

Unfortunately this can only be calculated after the fact and if a copper decides to lie about his speeds when reporting his pursuit, the SGT (or above) controlling the pursuit doesn't know any better to call it off.

[BAXR8_Ute]

Yeah it was a 60 zone, but what were the traffic conditions and what time was it? There would have to be no traffic to get up to that speed so I'm thinking it was late night or early morning. Less chance of pedestrians etc so the danger would be less. I feel sorry for the coppers, there's so many hoops they have to jump through and there's always someone trying to criticize them.

[chrisfpv]

Dave3911,

Great post, very informative. Explains why I've had to move over for police responding to a call who have flown past me at times, and cruised past me as well.