Thought this article was really interesting.
Kali
THE AGE, SATURDAY 22 MAY 1999
SNEAKY PARKERS CAUGHT BREAKING MUCH BIGGER RULES
BY MARTIN WAINWRIGHT
LEEDS, FRIDAY
Forensic science made a simple but huge leap forard yesterday with the
discovery in the United Kingdom that one of the best places to track down
criminals is in a disabled parking bay.
Sneaky drivers who illegally use the bays are exceptionally likely to be
guilty of other offences, according to the six months' evedence compiled by
traffic wardens for the Home Office.
Prompted by a university professor's "extreme irritation" with able-bodied
parkers in the bays, the scheme took over the whole of central
Huddersfield, in the north of England, for a joint police-academic sting.
All the cheats, including some with home made orange disability stickers,
were checked via registration plates on the police national computer - and
the results were startling.
A third of the illegal parkers had criminal records, half had committed
previous road traffic offences, and a fifth were "of immediate police
interest" because of suspected connections with unsolved crime.
One in ten of the cars were also in an illegal condition anda fifth had
been previously used in or linked to thefts, drugs or other offences.
"It has been a very neat example of the bad guys self selecting", said
criminologist Sylvia Chenery of Huddersfield University, who hatched the
scheme with local police sergeant Chris Henshaw after her head of
department, Professor Ken Pease, had fulminated about "disabled fakes" over
common room coffee.
"Criminal types often refuse to be bound by supposedly minor laws and
conventions, never thinking that this sort of behavior may get them found
out.
The study, praised yesterday by Britain's Home Office Minister, Mr Paul
Boateng, as a "practical and challenging help tpo plolice intelligence",
follows a similar survey on traffic-light "squeegee mmerchants" in New York.
Like selfish parkers, freelance windscreen-washers proved to include a very
large number of villains with outstanding warrants or wanted on felony
charges.
Ms Chenery said that a second British study was being mooted, checking
people using mobile phones while driving.
But it was in doubt "because it may pick up some of the research team".
The experiment has, however, had a spin-off in raising the staus and
self-esteem of traffic wardens, who now feed information to police colegues
in Huddersfileld as a matter of course.
While Mr Boetang urged all other forces to copy, Ms Chenery said: "Nobody's
keen on someone whose job just seems to be handing out parking tickets".
"But," she added, it's going to be different if they are seen as the people
who trace your burglars or stop your car getting nicked."
GUARDIAN
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|