BOGUS TRAFFIC OFFICERS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27339, 3 May 1954, Page 10

BOGUS TRAFFIC OFFICERS

IMPOSTORS REPORTED IN TARANAKI “The Press” Special Service NEW PLYMOUTH. May 2. Cases of impersonation of Transport Department traffic officers have occurred in Taranaki since the introduction of plain-clothes patrols. The case of a woman motoring at night was quoted at a Women's Institute meeting at New Plymouth. Fearing that the cap and badge might be bogus and refusing to believe that there was anything wrong with her driving, a womap motorist recently did not stop when called upon to do so by a- man ostensibly a traffic,officer. The Ngaere Cbunty Women’s Institute felt she had some justification for her fear because it might be too easy for an unauthorised and unscrupulous person to stop a motorist merely by wearing a cap and badge resembling those of a traffic officer. The institute wanted traffic officers to have an official uniform more readily recognisable in the dark and less likely to be copied. Mr J. H. Semple, chief traffic officer for the Taranaki-Wanganui area, said that one or two cases of impostors in Taranaki roads had come to his notice in recent weeks. A driver who was signalled to stop by a civilian car ostensibly containing a plain-clothes traffic officer was not bound by law to do so. When a siren was sounded from the officer’s car the law said the person for whom the siren was sounded must stop. Mr Semple considered that a motorist would have “every justification to believe the supposed traffic officer was an impostor if no siren was sounded after the motorist had refused to stop.” Mr Semple said the difficulty of identifying mufti traffic officers at night had been overcome. Specially strong dome lights had been fitted inside their cars. These were invariably turned on by the officer when he wished to stop a car.