New M5 Police Tactics...

[Sortie 10]

Anybody else noticed the marked Skoda VRs stationed often southbound on Bleadon Hill (ie between WsM and Sedgemoor Services - near Webbington Hotel) - BiB stands with Gatso in hand.
Yesterday just north of J23 (Bridgwater N) I spotted a recent silver Merc estate on the hardshoulder - not often you see a new car broken down? I wonder if it was an unmarked car connected by radio to the Skoda a few miles "upstream"?
As I was doing a steady 69.5mph ;) en route to Exmoor yesterday morning I turned off sooner than planned, just in case.
Anyone else got a take on this situation - particularly someone "in the know"?

[pstruck]

I travel this area regularly. Will keep an eye out!

Often see a marked Mercedes estate in and around Bridgwater, with a rear facing speedgun gizmo mounted on the roof. Usually a second car a few yards up the road.

[mechsympathy]

Sortie 10 said:

Yesterday just north of J23 (Bridgwater N) I spotted a recent silver Merc estate on the hardshoulder - not often you see a new car broken down? I wonder if it was an unmarked car connected by radio to the Skoda a few miles "upstream"?

I'd be very surprised to see a BiB car on the hard shoulder without all it's lights going. After all traffic BiB know better than most how dangerous the hard shoulder is. It was probably just some eejit making a phone call. (And you'll probably get a better - ie actual BiB - response in the SP&L forum.)

[silverback mike]

mechsympathy said:

Sortie 10 said: Yesterday just north of J23 (Bridgwater N) I spotted a recent silver Merc estate on the hardshoulder - not often you see a new car broken down? I wonder if it was an unmarked car connected by radio to the Skoda a few miles "upstream"? I'd be very surprised to see a BiB car on the hard shoulder without all it's lights going. After all traffic BiB know better than most how dangerous the hard shoulder is. It was probably just some eejit making a phone call. (And you'll probably get a better - ie actual BiB - response in the SP&L forum.)

Not one of our unmarked mercs, I think mechsympathy is right, numpty phonecaller.
The skoda's are all anpr vehicles, so unless for some reason someone wanted to zap a few speeders the gun would have been anpr.

All of the skodas are purely there as anpr units, nothing else.
The mercs (including ml's) are for general traffic and ARV use.

Incidentally the skodas are more reliable.

[DennisTheMenace]

silverback mike said:

Incidentally the skodas are more reliable.

Dosent surprise me , one of the british gas sales reps has gone for a saab 95 over another E class as it had been in the dealers for a total of 7 months in the 3 years he had it

skodas are pretty reliable , as they use vw hand me down technology after its been sorted in the vw's according to one of the aa patrols vw's are p155 poor but skodas they very rarely go out to

[zogg]

The skoda's are all anpr vehicles, so unless for some reason someone wanted to zap a few speeders the gun would have been anpr.


Sorry for being a bit fik, but what is 'ANPR'

[silverback mike]

"automatic number plate recognition"

Good bits of kit that spot stolen vehicles, untaxed vehicles and generally things that have reports on them.

Worth every penny, and not speed related. They latch onto the number plate, which then goes off to the police national computer.

[zogg]

silverback mike said:

"automatic number plate recognition".

Thanks for that Mike (having ablonde moment)

[silverback mike]

Damn nice car by the way zogg.

[zogg]

silverback mike said:

Damn nice car by the way zogg.

Ta very much Silverback, picked it up three weeks ago. Going on the Eurohoon this Friday, realy looking forward to it now.