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Just how do the Police recruit their Highway Cops.

What criteria is required to be eligible to become a highway cop. I sometimes think the lowest IQ that is measurable. Being easy to be despised is another. Maybe it’s just a local Australian thing? Are our cops of a typical world class of low standard.
At times the pettiness of a fine or warning irritates the receiver they go to the media who are of course pleased to provide publicity. One such this morning. A paraplegic fellow had a battery powered electric assist motor on his wheel chair. It was able to achieve speeds in excess of 10 kilometresper hour (6mph). Collin Dawson, 55, from Alice Springs was pulled over and told to pay for registration and insurance.

Cobar is a somewhat isolated town in central NSW and has a population of 3,900 and 4,700 in the whole shire. Mining is the main industry, copper, silver and zinc. The nearest towns are Nyngan 80 miles east with a population of 2,200 and Bourke which is exactly 100 miles north with a population of 1,800. A B Double truck is a semitrailer pulling a trailer and is permitted a max length of 82 feet. Many B Doubles are trucking hay and fodder from the south to an extensive drought areas in the north of the state and Queensland. One such driver stopped in Cobar for a meal and a sleep and was fined for parking a long vehicle in the town area. The dunny brush must go to the issuing officer.

Another incident that sticks in my memory happened back in the 1980’s. This one gets the gong. It was in Perth WA, a woman with a baby in a pusher heard a police siren behind and was surprised when the police car stopped at her side. She was reprimanded for not having sufficient tread on the pram tyres. The media went to the police station where the officer served to seek an explanation. Probably to ridicule the cop really and was told by the officer in charge that prams too must have tread on their tyres. That cop would have to be as stupid as the cop who stopped and reprimanded the woman.

I’ve travelled extensively and never seen so much police pettiness as I have here in Australia. I call the cops and tell them of my dislike for them, the highway cops that is. I tell them they are despised in the community. I write to them likewise. They call me and come and visit endeavouring to do good with PR. I am not abusive and present with good manners in giving them my thoughts. I don’t think they dislike me for it but they don’t like me either.

As a footnote. My friend Ken was told by a policeman that not all highway cops are c***s, but all the c***s in the police force are highway patrol officers.