Australian Police Get McLaren and Aston Martin Supercars 122
An anonymous reader writes: Australia's New South Wales police department has added a pair of new cars to their fleet that are going to be very hard to outrun, a McLaren 650S and an Aston Martin Vanquish Volante. The vehicles aren't going to be used on the job, but as a promotional tool to help raise money for the families of fallen police. "These sponsorship arrangements are designed to promote community engagement with NSW Police. This agreement is designed to promote tomorrow's Police Legacy Wall to Wall ride and celebrate 100 years of Women in Policing," a police spokesperson said in a statement.
Re:How long will it take (Score:5, Informative)
Since it's a sponsorship, they don't cost anything.
In the past, the NSW Police have had an Audi RS4 and a Porsche Panamera donated to them. With these arrangements the car manufacturer foots all the costs, included servicing and registration, with the police force responsible for only the fuel.
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Those things won't run on cheap fuel tho.
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Those things won't run on cheap fuel tho.
The price difference between RON 91 (cheap fuel) and RON 98 (Expensive fuel) is about $0.15 to $0.20 per litre.
Its not even going to make a swirl mark in the NSW police budget.
Cars like this aren't used for patrols and duties, they're used for demonstration, PR and recruitment. Almost patrol cars are still Falcon's, Commo's and Hilux paddy wagons although Camrys are becoming more popular as a general duties car.
That being said, didn't one cop (I think it was in NSW) destroy a modified supercharged
Re:How long will it take (Score:5, Informative)
Given that they were donated at no cost, precisely zero seconds.
It's still stupid, but no, they didn't pay for them.
That said, we keep seeing the stereotype that the key ability to successful police enforcement is to be able to drive faster than the criminals. Which is nonsense. The strength of the police force versus criminals is that there's a million of them, pre-scattered across the country, and they communicate with each other in realtime. You don't have to catch up with the fleeing perp, you're already past them - or at least, another officer is. You just need to not lose them (aka, a helicopter, or better, a drone; things like StarChase help too) and keep the net around them tight enough that you can nab them if they stop (which has to happen eventually), but not so tight that they feel the need to drive like a maniac and endanger the public. Heck, you can even make them stop in a place where they're no threat to the public, such as spike strips on a closed road or the like. But you never need to have car chases through busy public areas - at least not for more than a brief initial period. It's pointless.
There's a interesting statistics [washingtonpost.com] on the topic here. 91% of police chases are over non-violent crime. 233 suspects and their passengers (some of them innocent) die in police chases every year in the US, as well as 87 innocent bystanders and 3 police officers - more than the number killed by floods, tornadoes, lightning and hurricanes combined. 42% of police chases were over nothing more than simple traffic infractions. 15% were for suspected drunk driving - which just adds even more danger to bystanders.
Police chases make great TV, but usually they're hardly worth the risk unless there's a serious danger of A) losing the suspect, and B) the suspect committing a violent crime after being lost.
Re:How long will it take (Score:4, Informative)
The vehicles aren't going to be used on the job, but as a promotional tool to help raise money for the families of fallen police
The vehicles are a flash way to promote a charitable cause, and a bridge between petrol heads and police, nothing more.
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"That doesn't make what he said any less true."
Just off topic.
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True. The topic is actually off topic of the story. AKA click bait.
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a bridge between petrol heads and police
Spot on, in fact there's a fair number of responsible petrol heads [facebook.com] amongst the NSW highway patrol, and they have been in their ranks for a couple of generations now. IMO they're "eating their own dog food" and genuinely trying to set a good example for the bogans to follow.
Re:How long will it take (Score:5, Interesting)
Please don't bring your US statistics into Australian law enforcement. There's differences:
a) Police chases aren't televised live, and the last time a news helicopter was used in a police chase they were too busy relaying information between two different states who used different and incompatible radio systems, we got some occasional updates on the radios of which areas to avoid but for the most part all we saw was 5 seconds of footage in the nightly news.
b) Guidelines for police departments all over Australia are to abort police chases at speeds that pretty much every car on the road can already reach, no need for a supercar.
c) Most police chases in Australia has resulted in attempted disciplinary action against the police for public endangerment. As a result car chases here are actually quite rare.
Re:How long will it take (Score:4, Informative)
Add on to this that Australian police forces haven't gone full paramilitary like the US has. The chances of having a gun pulled on you by a random member of the public here is incredibly small so the coppers aren't permanently scared.
If you want to see the difference watch this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] - This is a video of police in Brisbane, a major capital city, accepting a dance challenge outside a pub while on security detail for the recent G20.
Re:How long will it take (Score:4, Insightful)
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Also as a result of not shooting everyone in the face, the police in NZ/AUS are generally not hated. It makes a pretty big difference. Where in the US the feeling is that they are out to get you. And my own experience is that they probably are [in the US].
The concern that police are out to get you in the U.S. is not due to police shooting everybody in the face. I personally have lived here 45 years and have never been shot in the face by a policeman. I am much more concerned about getting shot in the face by a criminal than by a policeman. The only people that have any legitimate fear of getting shot are criminals. Even so, the number of criminals that are killed by police in a given year compared to the number of total arrests is meaninglessly small. Howev
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Clearly you are white.
White people occasionally get shot by police, as well, thought it is about as rare as black people getting shot, and is in equal proportion to the percentage of crimes committed by race. However, when white people get shot, it doesn't make the news, and nobody riots or burns businesses, because, just like when blacks are shot, the person was usually a criminal, and we understand that being a criminal is a dangerous profession that may end in you getting hurt or killed.
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The only people that have any legitimate fear of getting shot are criminals.
Nice troll!
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You do realize that all of those who have been shot recently were committing crimes at the time right?
Yep, even the 12 year old black kid that was shot was committing a crime. He removed the orange tip from a realistic looking toy gun, then was stupid enough to point it at the policemen who told him to drop it.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/video... [go.com]
If you teach your kids to respect the police, they are more likely to not be shot by police.
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He removed the orange tip from a realistic looking toy gun
That is not a crime.
then was stupid enough to point it at the policemen who told him to drop it.
No he didn't. He didn't point it at the police, and they never told him to drop it. They killed him less than 2 seconds after they arrived. Here is an unedited video [youtube.com] of the entire incident.
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The only people that have any legitimate fear of getting shot are criminals.
Shy should criminals fear getting shot? If they are armed then that's one thing but lots of criminals are unarmed. There's usually no reason for police to ever point a gun at you if you're unarmed and not threatening.
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The only people that have any legitimate fear of getting shot are criminals.
Shy should criminals fear getting shot? If they are armed then that's one thing but lots of criminals are unarmed. There's usually no reason for police to ever point a gun at you if you're unarmed and not threatening.
Lots of things criminals do can cause them to get shot: Breaking into a house where the owner has a gun, shooting at cops, shooting at people who have guns, trying to run over cops, robbing a store at gunpoint, robbing someone on the street who has a gun or wrestles a gun away. Basically, we cannot ensure the safety of people who hold no respect for the lives of other people.
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I wouldn't go that far. They are still a corrupt and violent bunch of thugs. They just can't get away with shooting you as easily.
Searching for the video of the Brisbane cops kicking the shit out of and macing a chained dog but to no avail right now.
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Disclaimer: Aussie driver's
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Unless the person being chased is a former football player that is suspected of killing his ex wife.
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Please don't bring your US statistics into Australian law enforcement. There's differences:
a) Police chases aren't televised live, and the last time a news helicopter was used in a police chase they were too busy relaying information between two different states who used different and incompatible radio systems, we got some occasional updates on the radios of which areas to avoid but for the most part all we saw was 5 seconds of footage in the nightly news.
b) Guidelines for police departments all over Australia are to abort police chases at speeds that pretty much every car on the road can already reach, no need for a supercar.
c) Most police chases in Australia has resulted in attempted disciplinary action against the police for public endangerment. As a result car chases here are actually quite rare.
Beyond this, Australian police now favour using interception over pursuit.
Interception means not chasing the suspect at high speed, rather hanging back, monitoring them and setting up a trap at a later point.
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In the Netherlands a bunch of criminals stole a few Audi RS4 and robbed a money depot of the transport company that trasports the money between shops and banks. They drove away full speed and were chased full speed too, then they stopped and shot at the police with AK-47s so the police backed off and they got away.
Apparently fast cars help a bit in shrinking the response time of the police.
Another time the police caused a traffic jam using the overhead speed advice signs, and the criminal drove full-speed i
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Don't worry. (Score:5, Funny)
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Oooh! A working brain. Very rare on slashdot these days.
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Why? By all accounts the current trends are that there will be no more interceptions at all. Every car chase in the past several years has resulted in police being hauled before the court for endangering the public. Guidelines already say that when a chase exceeds a certain speed which all current cars are capable of they need to call it off.
By the time the old interceptors fall apart there won't be car chases. Just helicopters / drones monitoring the situation.
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Lesson learnt. Coffee first, then slashdot :-)
Stupid part was I got the same reference in another post. For some reason Interceptor here made me think of cars capable of catching a V8. hahahahah
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That's probably a lot cheaper than paying for all this publicity. It's already made world-wide news.
This McLaren is rated at 11.7L/100km
The Holdens they current use are rated at 12.1L/100km
That's half a bee's dick difference.
Re:so... two million Pounds buys what? (Score:5, Insightful)
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How is this relevant for cars that won't be used on the job? Please don't stand by your comments if they were idiotic to being with. Even without reading TFA or even reading the whole summary it was obvious that these were donated and won't cost the NSW government any additional money.
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If you read the article
This is Slashdot . . . we don't read the articles . . . some folks don't even read the summaries . . . some don't even read the post that they are replying to . . . or even the subject line.
Back on topic, I was a passenger in a "race taxi" on a track in Germany where amateurs are allowed on during the weekend. There were some rich guys with Porsches . . . and they got passed by my female professional driver in a plain looking white car . . . and were clearly annoyed about that.
The driver told me that mor
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Two supercars or several months' worth of frontline support for the families of fallen police officers?
How about both? The cars didn't cost the cops anything.
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These cars cost $0.00
What can you get for less than that?
Re:A bit silly really (Score:4, Insightful)
Why bother with these "supercars" when they can easily...
Very simple: Because the Australian Police can actually read an article summary on Slashdot before posting.
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Clearly your brain sees something that said "FREE!" and you lunge.
What about the cost of insurance? the cost of repair? the cost of fuel? the cost of training?
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Advertising. Audis are relatively unknown in Australia, Porsches have a bad rep here as being driven by wankers who had money and didn't know what to spend it on other than speeding tickets, so no you can't substitute them, even if Porsche and Audi did provide the cars for free like these two were.
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Audis are unknown? Where do you live? They are bloody everywhere around where I am in Brisbane.
That said I wouldn't swap them as I agree with your Porsche sentiment and audis are driven by accountants or sales droids.
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Yes Audis are everywhere. What are they known for? Small cars with good traction control.
I've seen a single R8, heck I've seen more Ferraris on our streets than I've seen RS6s. Audis are seen as a luxury European small car all over the country and don't even carry remotely the prestige of a McLaren or an Aston Martin, even if for some of the cars they may deserve to.
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I was amazed to find you could actually sell a British car in Australia. It's like they never learn.
Hard to outrun? (Score:2)
The vehicles aren't going to be used on the job, but as a promotional tool to help raise money for the families of fallen police.
So I'm guessing that "outrunning" them is largely irrelevant.
Missing the correct question here (Score:5, Funny)
The correct question should be: by any chance is one of the officers assigned to drive it called Max Rockatansky?
Reasons (Score:4, Funny)
Australian police get super fast cars (Score:5, Funny)
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Malcolm Turnbull just became Prime Minister in the last few hours. I have mixed feelings about him, but he's very strong on internet technology, having bought shares in what become Australia's largest ISP for 500,000 AUD, becoming chairman of the company, and selling them later for 57,000,000. He has to downsize to the Prime Minister's residence, poor guy.
Hopefully he can break Australia's history of very poor internet policy.
Prior to Turnbull being Communications Minister we've had some shockers, with Alston and Conroy being the at the bottom of that very deep bucket. I have hope.
The thing is, we've only replaced the head of the cockroach.
We've still got Abetz, Cormann, Bishop, Brandis, Joyce (who is livid at his pet Abbott being dethroned and has already started making demands), Dutton, Morrison and the rest of delinquents. Beyond them we have the party powerbrokers, AKA the faceless men like Murdoch and Gina Reinheart. Abbott was a symptom of the disease in the LNP, not its cause. Likely Hockey is going to have to pack up his Eleventy calculator and go home, I guess there is so
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but Australians don't get a super fast internet
Don't overestimate the bandwidth of a McLaren loaded up with CDs rocketing down an empty Outback highway at 200mph.
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Especially because it's probably not very much, those things are tiny inside
PURSUIT (Score:2)
I like to imagine the Australian police driving something a little more like this:
http://www.zupimages.net/up/15... [zupimages.net]
Even dubbed in American (Score:5, Funny)
Still not better than the last of the V8 Interceptors.
Blink (Score:1)
"The vehicles aren't going to be used on the job, but as a promotional tool to help raise money for the families of fallen police."
Yeah. Why do charities or their managers always have to buy supercars?
I don't get it. I surely won't donate to any charity where the chairman doesn't drive a rusty 85 Chevy.
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I almost forgot. I also once tried to buy a property, but the realtor came to the location with a Ferrari.
As you mi8ght guess, I didn't sign.
Those guys really don't get it.
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If you didn't sign because of the car they drove then you're as much of a problem as those people who don't sign because they drive an old beat-up car. You're basing your view of the property and it's price on a person who is delivering the paperwork, something tells me you weren't interested in the property anyway.
My mum was a realestate agent for 10 years until the corruption and infighting in the industry got too much to bear, but one thing was certain, her business improved a lot when she switched to a
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wait a minute... (Score:1)
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Dropbears. Every survived day in Australia is a blessing.
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I don't believe it. A Jaguar that ran for year? Bullshit.
Perhaps if it was a re-badged Ford 'Jaguar'.
Aussie cops get sportscars for community outreach (Score:2)
donated by car dealers, while US police departments are getting MRAPs and APCs courtesy of the US taxpayer, to be used for terrorizing the populace into submission, as well as the occasional no-knock raid on a suspected pot grower or whatever.
If US cops want something like a Porsche or Lamborghini for their DARE propaganda vehicle, they simply start an asset forfeiture against the local coke dealer....
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If US cops want something like a Porsche or Lamborghini for their DARE propaganda vehicle, they simply start an asset forfeiture against the local coke dealer....
Since when did you have to break the law to get your assets forfeited? Here in America you can have your Porsche stolen by the cops just because they don't like you, no actual crime or evidence needed. Good luck getting it back too.
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If you "couldn't care less" about something, why would you even write about it?
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I could care less about the opinions of pedants.
Why aren't you on Reddit where you belong?
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