Police of the United States, take note, these Australian cops are going undercover as window washers for just the right reason.
These Australian cops are posing as window washers to catch drivers on their phones, a problem plaguing motorists in recent years. As per the New Zealand Herald on their report on this somewhat dubious bit of police work posted earlier yesterday (Nov. 14, 2018) some people think its wrong that police are taking advantage of an illegal activity (window washing on corner streets) as a way to catch people off guard whereas other people think this is A-OK by them, as long as they’re not being pulled over, that is.
Imagine this scenario, you’re stuck at a stop light behind some driver obviously on his phone. He misses the left turn signal because he’s concentrated on something else on his lap. You wish there was police around when all of a sudden this homeless looking fellow flashes his badge and tells the man to pull to the side. What just happened? Well, it’s apparently a thing in Australia.
As you can see in the video above, it’s not particularly fancy, their methods. Dressed in a high-vis shirt probably for his own protection more than anything and a backward baseball cap, this police officer was caught walking around with a walkie-talkie signaling to police officers nearby who were the offenders.
Stuff.Co reports that the police pulled in quite the haul of fines, close to $20,000 thanks to 38 inattentive drivers caught breaking the law. Each individual fine carries a $516 penalty and the equivalent of four points on your driving record both which add up when you tack on various fees, just like in the United States.
Of course, as mentioned, there are some people who think the police should be upfront with their methods and not try to fool motorists into thinking they’re someone they’re not.
Then again, if you have nothing to worry about and are just, I don’t know, driving, why bother?
Source: New Zealand Herald
