Why do the police have the right to flagrantly ignore law infringements?

Why aren’t they compelled to police the law in all its forms, and only turn a blind eye when they are rushing off to something of urgency?

Numerous times I have become really angry when witnessing police just drive past illegally parked vehicles, cyclists without helmets or lights at night, and various other infringements, when those police are obviously just cruising the beat.

Then they’ll clamp down on one thing or another and book everyone for infringing the letter of the law, while for 99% of time ignoring the same and probably much worse infringements of the same law.

By ignoring infringements or not policing the law at face value (ie there is always a 10 km leeway on speed limits Queensland so it seems), they are effectively training people to not obey the law. They are effectively setting up a different set of rules, unspoken and unwritten, which people come to understand, but which vary from town to town and state to state). This then creates a conflict between those who wish to obey the law and those who are only concerned with what they can get away with.

The incredible discretion that police have is also open to abuse, with a high likelihood of out-of-towners being booked while locals are let off for the same infringement, young males being booked while young females get off, and so on.

I think our whole policing regime, of everyday things, is serious flawed.

Dear Ludwig
this may come as a shock :) but police are very human. I tend to agree with you, but a recent experience showed me that the discretion police use is related to the 'cost benefit' they see in the incident based on their own perceptions rather than the legal aspect.

When I asked if police would protect me if I was a bit 'in your face' to some Palestinians with some ugly truths they would not like, he said as follows:

"If I have to become a punching bag between YOU and a mob of Palestinians, I'll arrest YOU for breach of the peace" i.e. take the easiest way out.

I do sympathize with him. So, I avoided that level of confrontation.
I met him later at the demonstration, and my restraint taught me some important lessons about dealing with those of opposing views in public.

So, don't despair. Just realize it ain't all black and white out there.
cheers

I believe also that police are very overworked and sometimes there just isnt the manpower to go around. It could be for this reason that some things look as though they are being overlooked. I think our police do a fantastic job all in all. It was blue ribbon day on Friday and I was surprised to learn of how many of our police died in the line of duty. The are human as Boaz said and can only do what they can do, with what they have.

Deborah, I agree that the police are very thin on the ground. The whole law-enforcement sector is just another service, along with health, water, education and lots more that is not up to scratch….not by a long way.

But when I see a police vehicle simply cruising around and passing obvious infringements, I just have to shake my head and say to myself; ‘for goodness sake you slackers, how about doing your job.’

The police are only human. But that does not give them the right to pick and choose what they will pull people up on and what they will ignore entirely.

The law is the law. If a police officer sees a violation of the law when on the beat, he should be obligated to deal with it. There should be no discretionary powers and there should be no need for a complaint to be lodged in order to trigger action.

Ludwig I too tend to agree with Deb. and Boaz on this up to a point..

Police are spread very thin..overworked and simply dont have the time or energy required to give every misdemeanour the full attention it may or may not deserve..I guess they do have to prioritise the most urgent and important jobs on any given day and thats about it in some cases..

As for the pretty girl scenariou well there has to be some perks to being a girl doesnt there? Cops are human too as was stated..thats completely right.

And maybe they are trying to lighten up a bit..it cant be nice for being branded a "Pig' just for doing theyre job.?

And lets face it some of the stuff they have to enforce..really petty stupid stuff, well some of it does go beyond a joke even for them.:)

Dont be frustrated Ludwig as long as they front up on the things that really matter , is it really that important?

Hey OZGIRL, if you're lucky enough to be the attractive young female that gets off, then good for you. But what if you’re on the other side of the situation?

Well, I have been, and after seven years it still cuts very deep.

I was parked at a beach at Lakes Entrance, Victoria. I returned to my car to find a police officer writing a ticket. I asked what was going on. He pointed to a sign back amongst the line of parallel-parked cars. On closer inspection it proved to be a no standing sign….with a number of cars parked illegally on my side of it. I hadn’t seen the sign and had simply parked where everyone else was parked.

Then along comes an attractive young woman and gets into the car next to me. She realises what is happening and waits, presumably because she knows that she will also be getting a ticket. But the officer doesn’t book her….and doesn’t place any tickets on the other illegally parked cars.

I had Queensland plates on my car and all the others were Victorian. So it seems to me that the out-of-towner was deliberately targeted.

It was clear that people parked all along there all the time. Vacant spots on the other side of my car clearly showed that vehicles parked there, off the road in the dirt, all the time. The locals apparently knew what they could get away with, but any tourists (or whatever criteria the cop used to decide to book only me) were fair game.

This is the sort of corruption of the discretionary powers that I am concerned about.

OK, so this is a very minor example. But the effect it has had on my perception of police is not in any way minor. And if this officer can so blatantly exercise chronic bias with impunity in this situation, what could he do in more serious situations? Was he acting differently to the others in his unit or his state or was he exhibiting normal practice?

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