Camo Cops in the Black Spur

Police are wearing camouflage to nab speeding motorcyclists in the Yarra Ranges. Officers in jungle greens have been hiding behind bushes to trap hoons racing along the winding roads.

The ranges are a favourite with motorbike racers, who post videos on YouTube. Sgt John Morgan, officer in charge of Operation Surreptitious, said it was difficult to police the region using regular tactics.

“The road is so narrow there’s nowhere a marked car can sit with the speed camera,” he said. “And if a police car takes a speed from an oncoming vehicle, the drivers know there’s not many places we can turn around and give pursuit.

“So there was an element of riders and drivers who really saw the area as a law-free zone.” Dozens of videos posted on YouTube show motorcyclists, with video cameras mounted on their instrument panels, clocking up to 170km/h in the Yarra Ranges.

One rider describes the Black Spur as “the best road in the world”, while others videos show motorbikes doing “monos” — riding with the front wheel raised — and overtaking cars in front of oncoming traffic.

Operation Surreptitious began in early March and the Yarra Ranges traffic management unit has already nabbed 26 speeding vehicles over nine days, including a motorbike clocked at 190km/h. Police have impounded eight motorbikes and one car.

One officer hides in the bushes taking traffic speeds with a laser speed gun, while a police car waits further down the road. “It may look a bit silly, but at the end of the day it means we’re catching motorists driving at extremely dangerous speeds,” Sgt Morgan said.

A police spokeswoman said Operation Surreptitious was the first of its kind in the state and was specifically designed for the Yarra Ranges area.

Automated Noise Cameras in NSW

Noise cameras are becoming the latest ticketing technology deployed against motorists in New South Wales, Australia.

State governments across Australia are poised to deploy automated cameras that mail tickets to vehicles considered by a machine to be noisy. The fully automated noise camera systems have been in development since 2005 but are now are active and issuing warning notices in the small New South Wales suburb of Mount Ousley, according to the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA) Annual Report. The agency is looking for a regulatory means of making such ticketing solutions more common.

“The RTA is contributing to the development of the ‘Planning Guideline for Residential and other Sensitive Building Developments alongside Major Roads,’” the RTA report explains. “This will include requirements to address noise for new residential development along nominated roads and rail corridors…. RTA continues to develop technology in the form of a suitable noise camera to use as an enforcement device.”

The fully automated noise analysis system designed by the NSW firm Acoustic Research Laboratories uses a set of microphones and cameras that continuously record and analyze activity on a neighborhood street. A computer program processes the audio data to isolate trigger sounds from general background road noise. This allows the device find opportunities to mail a traffic citation to passing vehicles that exceed a predetermined noise threshold. Once configured, the machine will generate up to 10,000 tickets before the on-board hard drive is filled. A 10-second video and audio clip is stored for each incident for use in court proceedings.

South Australia and Victoria have begun similar programs with each state focusing on the noise of heavy commercial truck compression brakes, an issue designed to court local approval of the ticketing technology.

“In parallel with the development of the acoustic measurement methodology, Transport South Australia has developed camera technology that can be linked with the measurement software,” Australia’s National Transport Commission reported. “The combination of these systems offers the potential for excessive engine brake noise incidents to be identified and recorded, which may provide a useful tool to enforcement agencies.”

The commission approved the regulation against engine compression brakes last November. The ticketing system can also be easily expanded to issue citations for loud subwoofers, noisy exhausts, or even an inopportune honk of the horn.