Sneaky police tactic during double demerits infuriates drivers: 'Revenue raising'
A police car, pulled over and hidden in shadows alongside a Sydney motorway, has left drivers seeing red.
A photo of the Highway Patrol vehicle in question has gone viral since it was taken on Monday’s Labour Day public holiday.
A dashcam captured the shot of the car as it sat on the bushy verge of an M4 Motorway on ramp, where the speed zone dramatically changes from 110km/h to 60km/h.
Those online accused police of trying to catch drivers out.
With double demerits in place for the long weekend, fines would have been hefty for those over the limit.
“They’re f***en revenue raising, there’s literally no way to avoid getting caught,” one pent up motorist wrote online.
“Ingenious camouflage against the trees there,” another said.
“He’s basically invisible there,” someone else added.
“They need to fill their quota,” a fourth angry Reddit user wrote.
But many others claimed there was a simple way around it.
“Another day, another post about speed enforcement,” one person said. “Just drive like a normal person and be aware of your surroundings.”
“If you pass a very visible HWP [Highway Patrol] car and continue to speed, you deserve to get booked for lack of awareness of your surroundings,” another added.
While someone else said: “He’s very obvious and if you don’t speed nothing will happen.”
New rules to quash 'revenue raising' rumours
The debate online came after new rules were introduced last month to ban NSW speed camera operators from hiding behind bushes or in-between cars in a bid to catch unsuspecting drivers.
Under the new laws, operators must be parked 10 to 15 metres from another vehicle and take a photo to prove that they were in plain sight.
It follows accusations that speed camera operators were deliberately hiding or not displaying warning signs, especially on rural and regional roads.
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