Ranger Danger !

Mosman Council in Sydney will take a controversial idea to the forthcoming Local Government Conference.  It wants to increase the powers of it's Rangers to book motorists for driving offences such as speeding and running red lights.   The idea has received majority approval from Mosman councillors but opponents claim that Rangers doing police work would need to be armed - and have access to pursuit style vehicles with lights and sirens.

At present, council Rangers have the power to book motorists for parking offences and this has morphed into what many think are " driving offences. "   In recent years the plethora of " No Standing " signs in the city have been changed to " No Stopping " - and that completely changed the legality of " picking up or setting down " a passenger.   Under the former, it was permissible to stop briefly for that purpose.  Now that is totally illegal -as is doing the same on a vacant bus stop.   At a time when car pooling is being urged, great stretches of the city make it legally impossible to disburse the passenger load without incurring fines from Rangers who dwell on the practice.

Council Rangers are quick to record this illegality with a camera and the offender gets a fine in the post.  The Mosman proposal is that Rangers use their cameras to catch people exceeding the speed limit and record red light runners.   That opens the question of how speed will be estimated.  The police use highly sophisticated radar guns - and are trained at the Police Academy to legal status.   They also hold a police warrant and will probably resist that power being devolved to a lesser trained civilian form of constabulary.

Why this sudden interest in extending Ranger's powers ?   Obviously councils are eyeing off the prize of a share of the fine money.   Parking management used to be the responsibility of the police force, but when it passed to council Rangers the pool was split several ways - and councils gained a bonanza.  Now they are after a slice of the speeding and red light pool, and to get that needs a law change.

Many shopping precincts are avoided by shoppers because of predatory Rangers over policing parking laws.  The Ranger's employers demand they concentrate on issuing parking fines because this is more lucrative to council coffers than fining people for not picking up after their dog - or for issuing jaywalking fines.   If speeding fines are granted to Rangers, there is every prospect that this will morph into the first priority of their duties.

Drivers are under stress from RBT, Highway Patrol speed traps, fixed speed cameras and now the advent of camera cars in random daily rotation.  Speeding and red light running both impose hefty monetary penalties, but they also attract demerit points - and these often result in the loss of a driving license - resulting in loss of employment or serious dislocation of living standards.  It is essential that they are not imposed lightly - and that the person making the decision to impose a penalty is both impartial and trained to a high standard.   Most agree that the police meet that criteria.

Many will have reservations about increasing the power of Rangers.   It seems that it is inevitable if that happens policing will devolve into the hands of a lesser trained bunch of individuals who will be under increasing pressure from their cash strapped employers to increase the cash flow.  It will have little to do with road safety - and everything to do with issuing the maximum number of fines to meet quotas !