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.