Does anyone know Garda protocol for Speeding

dbrazil

I was pulled over by Garda saturday and he took my name and license number but never issued a ticket or quoted me the law which i broke, but he told me i would receive a letter, I am sure he has not performed correct protocol

Does anyone know how it should have been done ?

brayblue24

dbrazil wrote: »

I am sure he has not performed correct protocol

Does anyone know how it should have been done ?

Unfortunately for you, he was absolutely correct!! That's how it's done nowadays.

TheNog

dbrazil wrote: »

I was pulled over by Garda saturday and he took my name and license number but never issued a ticket or quoted me the law which i broke, but he told me i would receive a letter, I am sure he has not performed correct protocol

Does anyone know how it should have been done ?

There is no need to quote which law you broke with regards speeding. Also we do not issue tickets on th roadside anymore, they are sent out from the Fixed Penalty Office in Dublin.

Tell us the whole story of what he said to you, all of it. We can tell you then if he did the stop well or not.

source

The law broken doesn't have to be quoted once he tells you in plain english what offence you had committed. also the "letter" will be a fine sent out to you in the post. outlining that you have to pay €80 and you're now the proud owner of 2 penalty points.

fermoyboy

TheNog wrote: »

they are sent out from the Fixed Penalty Office in Dublin.

This office is now in Thurles and all fines are sent from there.

TheNog

Damn Decentralisation!!!!!!!!

dbrazil

I wasn't disputing the stoppage, Just was left very confused by the incident, I was pretty sure if law was broken one should be told the approriate law that was broken. I also thought that the Gardai used An electronic notebook not the old fashioned pen and paper. Does a Garda not have to inform you of the procedure with a stoppage, if not it seems pretty pointless, also if one was to ask questions it may be deemed in appropriate behaviour and therefore end up in worse situation.
I am still bemused by the lack of clear guidelines and clarification

TheNog

There are no set procedures in stopping a motorist for speeding. When I do it I inform the driver
that I was operating a speed check,
show the driver the speed I clocked them at and the distance too,
take down details and inform the driver what happens next as in letter sent,
28 days to pay fine of €80 with 2 penalty points added to licence
and if they fail to pay within 28 days the driver is given an additional 28 days but the fine increases by 50% but the points remain the same,
If the driver feels unhappy they can refuse to pay the fine and be summons to court but the maximum penalty points can be increased by the judge to 4.

dbrazil

The only reason I have asked, is that 5 years ago I was caught doing 45 in a 40 and was issued a ticket on spot and also quoted the traffic offence and recived the 2 points, I appreciate that law was broken , i was doing 66 in a 50 going down a hill, It woudl make good sense for a proper protocol to be followed, I appreciate that gardai are working in an operation with very poor guidleines and mgt structures , but for the normal guy on the street there should be a quality to way law is processed ifg only to preserver the apperaance of law being justifbly enforced. Too much flexibilty in way one oeprates leads too mucg grey areas.

My grievance is that under no circumstances was the Garda following any visinle procedure.

dbrazil

Apologies for typos in last post, I was speeding here too :-) And i'm not looking for some smart quip back or remark on the nature of speed.

source

The thing is that there is case law which states that the full law doesn't need to be quoted, that someone only has to be told in laymans terms. The point being that every driver is not a solicitor or Garda.

2 options, available to gardai, baffle poor john q public with law, where they can say in court that they didn't understand why they were stopped.

or

Explain to john q in plain english, why he was stopped/what he did wrong.

as for the fcps (fixed charge penalty) machine, these are few and far between, and usually only available to the traffic corp, so most gardai will just write the offence in their notebook and put it on the machine when they get back to the station, or use a fcps notebook, where they fill in the boxes and tick the offence in question, this still has to be sent to Thurles, to be processed.

dbrazil

I'd like to thank all who replied, I personaly think that gardai work hard to do their jobs, but sometime the ordinary man on street needs to be informed correctly, Information could easily be handed over verbally or in fact produce a leaflet there and then this woudl outline the offence and mecahnisms involved, this would be only a mere fraction of the fine imposed and would prove useful in negating grey areas.
A logical aproach to dealing with minor offences would possibly ease confusion. I think it has been proven that the current mechanisms for fines/points/court apperances has proven quite flawed over the years.

Dampsquid

What part of "you were speeding" do you not understand?

dbrazil

Perhaps if you read the posts entirely that this is not about the speeding its about the deliverance of the penalty.

have you not heard about the thousands of intoxication cases being thrown from court ???

Or that certain protocols are not adhered to correctly in so many legal cases outside of road traffic offences, The point of this post , shoudl there not be a single point of location of information of the exact protocols to be adhered to by our member of law enforcment

Sully

From a past incident, they dont seem to have to tell you if you broke any law. I got pulled over for breaking a red light (was first car, turning right, couldnt get a break in traffic to go until mine went red) and the guard just asked why I did it, and then said okay - take it easy and safe home.

Got a fine in the post. Disputed it with the guard, and was cleared.

yayamark

dbrazil wrote: »

I'd like to thank all who replied, I personaly think that gardai work hard to do their jobs, but sometime the ordinary man on street needs to be informed correctly, Information could easily be handed over verbally or in fact produce a leaflet there and then this woudl outline the offence and mecahnisms involved, this would be only a mere fraction of the fine imposed and would prove useful in negating grey areas.
A logical aproach to dealing with minor offences would possibly ease confusion. I think it has been proven that the current mechanisms for fines/points/court apperances has proven quite flawed over the years.

Cant argue with that

fermoyboy

There is a protocol to be followed regarding all offences and by and large most Gardai do follow the correct procedures.

It's just that not all of those protocols require the Garda to spend 15-20 minutes explaining the exact law to the offender and then having a Q+A session with them about the offence. Most Gardai will explain in layman's terms what the offence was and what the next step will be.

timmywex

Any of the gardai i nkow using the machines just fill it in in the station or if they were sitting around in the car, its painfully slow apparently, not nice in rain!