Unmarked police car warning

bobson (Bob) · #1 07-08-2010, 12:08 PM

I didn't know about this number nor about our rights regarding unmarked police car. Especially if you are a woman.

This is copy/paste of the email I got from a friend:

This number actually exists here in Australia . Read this and then send it to all your friends! I never even knew about being able
to dial the number 112 feature! This actually happened to someone's daughter.

Lauren was 19 yrs old and in university. This story takes place over the Christmas/New Year holiday break.

It was the Saturday before New Year and it was about 1pm in the afternoon, and Lauren was driving to visit a friend.
An UNMARKED police car pulled up behind her and put his lights on.

Lauren's parents have 4 children (high school and university age) and have always told them never to pull over for an unmarked car on
the side of the road, but rather wait until they get to a petrol station, etc. So Lauren had actually listened to her parents' advice, and
promptly phoned the number 112 on her mobile phone to tell the police dispatcher that she would not pull over right away.
She proceeded to tell the dispatcher that there was an unmarked police car with a flashing red light on his rooftop behind her.
The dispatcher checked to see if there was a police car where she was, and there wasn't, and he told her to keep driving, remain
calm and that he had back-up already on the way.

Ten minutes later 4 cop cars surrounded her and the unmarked car behind her.
One policeman went to her side and the others surrounded the car behind.
They pulled the guy from the car and tackled him to the ground.
The man was a convicted rapist and wanted for other crimes.

I never knew that bit of advice, but especially for a woman alone in a car, you should not pull over for an unmarked car.
Apparently police have to respect your right to keep going to a 'safe' place.
You obviously need to make some signals that you acknowledge them i.e., put on your hazard lights, or call No. 112 like Lauren did.

Too bad the mobile phone companies don't give you this little bit of wonderful information.

112 IS THE NUMBER TO RING IF YOU CANNOT GET SERVICE ON YOUR MOBILE

IT'S LIKE 000

So now it's your turn to let your friends know about No. 112

This is good information that I did not know!!!!

Please pass on to any females that you know.

Go to the Website now. It is real and very informative for all the family, then forward on to friends & family.

http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD/pc=PC_100581

renormalised (Carl) · #2 07-08-2010, 12:44 PM

Damn good advice, and have taken this one on board.

Clarry (Clayton) · #3 07-08-2010, 12:52 PM

Interesting, but I'm thinking if it was a real cop, she would have been done for using a mobile phone while driving too.

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #4 07-08-2010, 12:56 PM

Story has done the rounds.

PCH (Paul) · #5 07-08-2010, 01:18 PM

If the OP's message is to be accurate, it should read ... "Dial 112 (even) if you have no CREDIT" Clearly, if you have no service then not much is going to happen. But as WYO points out, it is purely fictitious as far as the story goes, - but good advice in a general sense anyway.

No offence intended, but this may need spelling out to some people. I know one person who genuinely thought that scheduling their virus scanner to run conveniently in the middle of the night was a great idea - even though they don't leave the pc on overnight. Go figure

renormalised (Carl) · #6 07-08-2010, 01:23 PM

Ah...so it's one of "those" stories. Still, it's good advice, to err on the side of caution. Make sure that the car following is a cop car.

Kevnool (Kev) · #7 07-08-2010, 01:51 PM

Great thing for the city...yes i agree.

Not so good for the outback where theres no signal.

Cheers Kev.

Suzy · #8 07-08-2010, 02:53 PM

Gosh Bob that's scary stuff. I was very glad to know about that and I will be getting my 20yr old daughter who is just learning to drive, to read your post. When I was young, I got pulled over a couple of times by unmarked vehicles and I didin't know the danger involved, nor my rights. One was for absolutely no reason and puzzled me and the other one, errr.. well I got a ticket. Every female should now this! Thank you.

Octane (Humayun) · #9 07-08-2010, 04:02 PM

Suzy,

Don't, it's bs.

I wish people didn't pass these things on; all it does is perpetuate urban myths.

Read the Snopes link in Brendan's post.

H

bojan · #10 07-08-2010, 05:48 PM

112 is an emergency number, it is part of the GSM system and it works everywhere (where any GSM network exists.. internationally).
It can be used even if you do not have SIM card in your phone, or your account is empty (no money in it) or even cancelled.
Of course, it cant be used in the bush with no coverage.
Since GSM is sub-part of 3G system, 112 is supported even wider.

Sarge (Rod) · #11 07-08-2010, 08:58 PM

The story is pure fiction - no names, no date, no location and not new. The facts in the story make no sense - cops arrive 10 minutes later and the crook is still there!!
In Victoria (similar in other States) it is an offence to fail to stop a vehicle when signalled by a police officer. This includes if you knew or ought to have known. Signal to stop among other things includes emergency lights being operated, siren or horn of a vehicle. Serious penalties.
If you are unsure, you still must and should stop, ask the officer to show identification, and or ring 112 or 000 if you wish, but don't act on foolish advice or unfounded e-mails.
Read the Road Safety Act 1986 (Vic) Section 64A to confirm.
This link should work.

http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/Do...86-127a123.pdf

Rod

Suzy · #12 08-08-2010, 01:40 AM

Thanks Humayun & Rod for correcting that info, was getting a bit worried there.

Ric · #13 08-08-2010, 02:17 AM

The local police in my area have a Ute for a unmarked car.

But when they want you to stop and it suddenly lights up there's no mistaking it's a police car.

kinetic (Steve) · #14 08-08-2010, 07:22 AM

Further to what Bojan has said,

a bit more reading on the 112 vs 000 numbers here:
http://www.bwrs.org.au/?q=emergency-comms
(lifted from a Bushwalking/Emergency services Australia website)
The guy at the top left looks a bit like our Hagar

Interestingly they say this:
quote:
If you are using a mobile phone to dial emergency, the first number to try is 000. This will connect you to the emergency operator using your normal phone provider. If you cannot connect to the operator with 000 for any reason (including no coverage) it is recommended you then try 112. 112 will also connect you to the same operator as 000 emergency but has a number of additional benefits:

It is an international standard that a mobile phone dialling 112 is an emergency call. If you dial 112 with a GSM phone anywhere in the world it will connect you to the local emergency operator.
000 will only work with the phone service provider you are subscribed to. If any provider detects a 112 call they will connect you. This means, for instance, if you are a Vodaphone customer and are in an area which does not have Vodaphone coverage but does have Telstra coverage, Telstra will connect a 112 call for you. Telstra would not connect a 000 call made on a Vodaphone mobile phone.
If a mobile phone network is running at capacity a 112 call will cause a non-emergency call to be dropped immediately to make capacity available. This does not necessarily occur with 000. This means if the network is running at capacity and you call 000 you may not get connected.

A bit further down it mentions the death of a bushwalker and the part that 000 vs 112 played in the Emergency services response.
I believe it was because of point 3 above.

also: SMS...a few important things about that too:

This is a common problem in bushwalking areas - your phone is picking up a weak signal from the network but it is not enough to make a call. In this case we recommend you try sending an SMS. It takes a fraction of the battery power to send (or receive) an SMS compared to a voice conversation, it works on much lower signal strengths than voice conversations and it has built in error-checking so your message should get through correctly. However there are some important limitations about using SMS in emergencies:

The 000 emergency line cannot receive SMS messages. You must send the SMS message to somebody you know with a mobile phone and they must contact 000 on your behalf.
SMS messages are usually sent to the recipient immediately, but on rare occasions can take a period of time to get through the network before being sent to the recipient's phone.
If your friend has their mobile turned off they will not get the message until they switch their phone on, and you have no way of knowing this.

These problems mean obviously SMS is not an ideal way of summoning assistance - but if an SMS is all you can send it is better than nothing!

Steve

Esseth (Alan) · #15 08-08-2010, 08:54 AM

I use Hoax Slayer for checking forwarded emails, check this one, it even has the name Lauren

http://www.hoax-slayer.com/lauren-677.html

Jen · #16 08-08-2010, 12:11 PM

yeah i have had this ongoing email for a while now too grrrr they are a pain in the bum

wasyoungonce (Brendan) · #17 08-08-2010, 12:16 PM

To be fair..the OP didn't know of this being "one of the usual emails doing the rounds."

I guess some of us have been on the net so long (well from late last century) we have become suspicious and can smell a rat from a mile.

Which tends to make us appear cynical.

We are not..just..well..just a little maybe

mill (Martin) · #18 08-08-2010, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen

yeah i have had this ongoing email for a while now too grrrr they are a pain in the bum

Jen emails don't go (oops i have to think about kids on the forum)

bobson (Bob) · #19 08-08-2010, 12:31 PM

Forget about the story, who really cares who is Lauren or Helen or what ever her name?

The point is many people didn't know about 112 number.

I know that even myself of 105 kg and being in special force for many years wouldn't stop to anyone in some dark dangerous place what ever lights are on unmarked car! Of course I would let them know I saw them, put hazard lights on, slow down and drive to safe place before I stop.

But that's me. I still check back seats to see if anyone is there before I get in the car

I was trained to do so and I don't see it as a bad thing even if my wife gets annoyed sometimes

cheers

torana68 (Roger) · #20 08-08-2010, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobson

But that's me. I still check back seats to see if anyone is there before I get in the car

I was trained to do so and I don't see it as a bad thing even if my wife gets annoyed sometimes

cheers

is it the body search before bed that annoys her most?