Whiteparish speed gun

[SaintsPaul]

As the weather was good yesterday morning and I had a few hours to kill I thought I would take the Pork out for a hoon
On the way back from Salisbury on the A36 I turned off onto the A27 towards Romsey.
When I came to Whiteparish I throttled off as it is a 30 zone and I like to respect the villages when I go out.
Shortly before the end of the village I noticed 3 people in reflective jackets on the pavement. As I got nearer 1 of them turned towards me and aimed a speed gun at me
Not a problem as I had stuck to the speed limit. 2 cars coming the other way had been checked and were having their car reg written down as was the car behind me.
Now where do we stand with these vigilantes ?
Is the speed gun calibrated ?
Is it stored at a Police station or in someones shed ?
Have they been properly trained in its use ?
Do they pass the info to the Police who then prosecute ?
Seems very underhand to me. I can understand ensuring people drive to the speed limits in these villages but should it be by the public or the Police ?

[SS2.]

Local volunteers who have tasked themselves with ridding the roads of kitten killing maniacs..

Hampshire Community SpeedWatch leaflet -

[Spare tyre]

I saw em there a while ago

[garycab]

Had a nice letter sent to my daughter a few years ago warning her that her car had been caught speeding in a 30 limit by the village police wannabes, just a warning this time but next time she would be prosecuted, only thing was she was still learning at the time and I had borrowed her car, she wasn't amused when the letter turned up addressed to her !!

[theredbaron]

the speed gun is shared buy councilors in wiltshire. you get a letter from the police saying its been recorded that you have been speeding but thats it. no prosecution. been caught in alderbury.

[jonboy21t]

I got caught out in Tollard Royal sometime ago after a spirited drive up Zig-Zag and across the downs....
Got a letter & warning if spotted again....

[GEARJAMMER]

So if they catch you speeding, you can't be prosecuted, you just get a letter...... id go back again and do it just to p1ss them off!

[Johnnytheboy]

I'd love to know if anyone has ever been prosecuted on the basis of nimby-lante evidence alone.

Wilts police once claimed so in a PR picked up by the BBC.

I FoI'd them and they admitted they had never prosecuted anyone on the evidence of speed watch volunteers.

[AAGR]

Some time ago, surely, a village which had set up its own Speedgun-vigilante group found that most of those offending actually lived in the village itself .... ?

[Johnnytheboy]

That's the famous Herstmonceaux WI story, which appears to have more or less vanished from the internet. Here it is on an old Safespeed thread:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=...

But I did stumble on the thread where I discussed said FoI:

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Great bit of Steve Callaghan argument failure in there.

[brisel]

AAGR said:

Some time ago, surely, a village which had set up its own Speedgun-vigilante group found that most of those offending actually lived in the village itself .... ?

I've heard that one a few times about many villages with hi viz speed vigilantes!