The rule of law is deteriorating in this country. The police are just not up to the task. And the government is not up to the task of improving the policing regime.

I can only see it getting steadily worse.

So what can be done about it?

I envisage one very simple change that could make a huge difference….

Let’s do away with marked police cars altogether, and with police uniforms!

If we did this, practically every car on the road and every person on the street could potentially be a police officer in the eyes of those who currently feel that they can break the laws of the land with impunity.

If need be, the police could very quickly identify themselves, in police cars with flashing lights and sirens, or on the street by pulling a shoulder sash out of their pocket and putting it on, with the word ‘police’ emblazoned on it, front and back.

Wouldn’t this make a huge difference to the rule of law?

http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=2877#52318

NSW already employs unmarked police cars with plain clothes cops.

The trick is to learn what cars they drive, and where they like to be deployed - the internet and social media help with that.

Yeah let's make the state's thugs and goons invisible, let's also do away with Police ID, warrants and the right to silence in interrogations.
Crime in Australia and other majority European societies has been on the decline for over two decades, we don't need to give Police more power, if anything we need to disarm all but a few trained marksmen on each shift and return them to a more civil dress code.
This is a Police uniform:
http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2010/03/22/1225843/999330-police-uniforms.jpg
This is a military battledress:
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2007/01/24/code_wideweb__470x350,0.jpg

Yea! Disarm all but a few police.

Let's have more people defenceless against criminals.

I've got a better idea, disarm the criminals, shouldn't be hard; surely some on here who are keen to disarm the honest can think of effective ways to disarm the criminal.

Emotions so often take threads like this far from the intended directions.
Ludwig rightly points to concerns most have.
If true or just better reporting is behind our fears,or as many think migration we may never know.
I tend to think Ludwig wanted a way to slow the growth.
And while more unmarked cars and police may assist it can not alone stop the rot.
I think costs of imprisoning offenders and the wrong people judging them, maybe fueled by the former are at the root cause end of the problem

Is Mise,
In the UK firearms and tasers are carried only by specialist officers, there's no link between crime rates and having armed Police or not.
In the U.K crime overall has decreased by 58% since 1995:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jan/23/crime-falls-lowest-level-32-years
In Australia where Police are armed it's also gone down by about the same percentage:
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/society-and-culture/reporting-crime-drop-just-doesnt-pay-it-seems-20120306-1ui95.html
The situation is the same in the U.S.A where Police departments are militarised and the justice system is positively draconian:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13799616

Criminals have been known to impersonate police by wearing full police uniform, how much easier, and less costly, would it be to pull a suitable sash out of the pocket?

Hi there LUDWIG...

Good idea there, but the only problem is the 'police presence', is supposed to calm traffic, fly the flag if you will ? I realise it doesn't seem to work as well as it did in previous times, mainly because many people no longer respect that 'police presence' any more sadly.

Sorry Luddy, you've got that one completely wrong.

What we need is more marked cars on the road, & continually cruising, not sitting in a hedge, with a laser, radar or camera.

I travel a number of country main roads, being 20/25Km from a number of centers, with medium traffic. Also the Gold Coast/Brisbane expressway regularly. On all these roads there is a real reduction in speed, for some time after every sighting of a cop car. Many of these are simply cops traveling from station to station, but the effect is the same.

The reverse occurs after every radar car is passed. Much of the traffic speeds up as if thinking that will be the only cops around here today, so feel safe to drive at a more reasonable speed than our speed limits.

What we need is speed limits higher than most drivers want to drive, then the problem is solved. The cops can go do something more useful.

Jay,

There may be no link between having armed police and crime rates but there is a definite link between having armed police and criminals killing police.
Britain now has Armed Police on the streets wearing body armour and carrying MP5 semi-automatic carbines.

I take it that the term "UK Police" excludes so called "Northern Ireland" where all police are armed.

Crime may have fallen in the UK but the number of armed police is at an all time high, particularly as regards fire power and specialist weapons.
Some units have up to 30 mm cannons, something that NSW has not yet needed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_police_firearms_in_the_United_Kingdom

<< Good idea there, but the only problem is the 'police presence', is supposed to calm traffic… >>

It does o sung wu, when a police vehicle is present on the highway or an urban road. Then as soon as it’s gone…

And the police are so few and far between, all told, on our roads. So the overall calming effect is not much more than minuscule and momentary.

Hasbeen wants more marked cars out there. But that ain’t gonna happen. If we doubled or tripled the current number, would it help? Barely. We’d need about ten-fold to even start to make a significant difference!

We’ll get more police out there on the roads in the coming years. But the increase is very unlikely to even keep up with population growth and the concomitant increase in the number of vehicles on our roads.

Marked cars show how thin the thin blue line is out there on the roads.

Ok, so there have been unmarked cars for decades. But….. to what extent? In my extensive driving travails around this country over the last 35 years I have seen unmarked police cars on the side of the road having pulled over a vehicle a small number of times.

Unmarked cars seem to comprise a very small unit within the police force. They don’t seem to act as a deterrent to law-breakers at all!

But if it was beefed right up, with a total conversion from marked to unmarked cars, I think it would make a huge difference…. if it was accompanied by a comprehensive publicity campaign telling the public exactly what is going on.

Why do we need marked cars out there on the roads, or anywhere for that matter?? The calming effect is insignificant. What other reason is there?

When the police need to identify themselves they can easily do so, with flashing lights, as they do with unmarked cars.

.... as they do NOW... and have done for decades... with unmarked cars.

Ludy, I'm with the others on this one, the more marked cars the better, because after all, is their aim not to deter speeders, rather collect revenue!

Seem the opp to me, evidence being in the fact that many cameras are either hidden, or on down hill slopes.

Also, why are there no speed cameras in main streets, where 70 in a 60 zone is far more a risk to life than 110 in a 100 zone.

It all about revenue, and god knows we need as much of that as we can get now.

<< …the more marked cars the better… >>

Hey rehctub, it would be great to have enough marked cars out there on our roads to keep the rank drivers under control. But it just ain’t gunna happen!

The current setup DOESN’T WORK! Traffic calming, better road safety and better law abidance of all sorts, is just NOT HAPPENING.

How many more marked police cars would we need to significantly improve all of this? Five or ten times as many?

As I said previously; we just aren’t going to get an increase in police that even keeps up with population growth or the number of cars on the road.

<< …because after all, is their aim not to deter speeders, rather collect revenue! >>

Well………… ………….. …………. ………… YES!!

What more can I say? That certainly seems to be the way of it.

If they and their political masters were genuinely trying to stop speeding, and various other unsafe driving practices, and significantly improve road safety, then I reckon they’d be taking a very different approach to it all.

It is interesting that no one has attempted to answer my questions:

Why do we need marked cars out there on the roads, or anywhere for that matter?? The calming effect is insignificant. What other reason is there?

What do you reckon rehctub?

What we need to improve the rule of law on our roads and hence improve road safety is:

1. A concerted community policing campaign, whereby ordinary citizens are implored to do their duty and report dangerous or unlawful drivers, in just the same way as we are asked to report suspicious activity or people as part of Neighbourhood Watch, or litterers, or graffiti, or incidents on our roads.

2. More police, and administrative officers. But not out there on the roads. We need them to follow up on complaints from the public.

3. As part of this publicity campaign, information on how to collect evidence and make an effective complaint, including the use of Gro-cam type of cameras installed in your car.

That’s it!

If this was done comprehensively across the country, the rule of law would be sharply improved out there on our roads. Then the number of complaints would drop right away and the police could become more involved with the myriad other things that demand their attention…. and we’d need a whole lot less police time and effort devoted to road rules than we currently have.

Surely it really is that simple.

So….. why on earth is road safety treated so differently to Neighbourhood Watch and all manner of other illegal activity where we the ordinary citizens are encouraged to do our bit and report stuff?

Why have we been disempowered regarding the reporting of tailgating, speeding or other rank driving? Why has the public been cut out of the policing of road safety, in stark contrast to just about all other areas of law??