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Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day

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On 2014-08-02, Whiskers <catwheezel@operamail.com> wrote:
> On 2014-07-31, Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> wrote:
>> The practice of leaving car engines running is known as runlock. It
>> allows the police vehicles to keep the computer booted up to allow the
>> control centre to know the exact location at any time of the vehicle, and
>> to tell them where to go. When the engine is switched off it takes about
>> seven minutes to boot up the computer.
>>
>> Ms Honeyman, 53, a rock musician, said: "Almost every time we walk past
>> the police station there is an unattended police vehicle with its engine
>> running. Sometimes there are as many as four police vehicles left
>> unattended with their engines running for periods of an hour and a half,
>> throughout the day, so in effect there is always a police vehicle belting
>> out diesel fumes 24/7 unnecessarily.
>>
>> "Our neighbours in the flats next door to the police station cannot let
>> their baby out on the balcony because of the harmful effects of diesel
>> fumes and we cannot sit in our front yard because of the fumes. I had
>> cancer last year, of course it's impossible to blame police car pollution,
>> but it does make one wonder."
>>
>> <http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/man-arrested-after-complaining-about-stench-from-police-cars-left-with-their-engines-on-9634586.html>
>
> The Highway Code is dead against the practice:
>
> ,<https://www.gov.uk/general-rules-all-drivers-riders-103-to-158/control-of-the-vehicle-117-to-126>
>| The Driver and the Environment
>|
>| 123
>|
>| You MUST NOT leave a parked vehicle unattended with the engine running
>| or leave a vehicle engine running unnecessarily while that vehicle is
>| stationary on a public road. Generally, if the vehicle is stationary and
>| is likely to remain so for more than a couple of minutes, you should
>| apply the parking brake and switch off the engine to reduce emissions
>| and noise pollution. However it is permissible to leave the engine
>| running if the vehicle is stationary in traffic or for diagnosing
>| faults.
>|
>| Law CUR regs 98 & 107
> `----
>
> But the Construction and Use Regulations have exceptions which seem to
> exempt the police:
>
> "where the machinery is required to be worked for a purpose other than
> driving the vehicle"
><http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/regulation/98/made>
>
> "being used for ambulance, fire brigade or police purposes"
><http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1986/1078/regulation/107/made>
>
> However, I'm sure it would save the cops money to fit either a
> motor-caravan 'recreational' type battery for the computer, or a
> beefed-up starter battery and alternator.
>
> I think the regulations as they stand were meant to apply to emergency
> kit such as lighting, radios, water-pumps, etc, or to refrigerated
> lorries.

In Switzerland and possibly Germany it is illegal to leave your car running
when not needed and it is common practice to switch off at red traffic
lights.  The owners handbook for my 1997 Audi documented an extra which
started the engine when you depressed the clutch to ease the process, though
I've never come across a car which actually has this feature fitted.

Besides all that, in 1973 got a caution for leaving a car unattended with
the ignition switched on.  After all these years I don't remember the
wording of the offence but it might have covered leaving the keys in the
ignition with the engine off.

-- 
The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.
The early mouse is now a late mouse of course.

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Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-07-31 13:47 +0200
  Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2014-07-31 19:30 +0100
  Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day "Dirk T. Verbeek" <dverbeek@xs4all.nl> - 2014-08-01 07:02 -0300
  Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Shadow <Sh@dow.br> - 2014-08-01 10:33 -0300
  Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Whiskers <catwheezel@operamail.com> - 2014-08-02 16:25 +0100
    Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-08-03 23:19 +0200
      Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Whiskers <catwheezel@operamail.com> - 2014-08-04 01:07 +0100
        Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-08-04 13:38 +0200
      Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Andy Burns <usenet.feb2014@adslpipe.co.uk> - 2014-08-04 07:29 +0100
        Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Paul Sture <nospam@sture.ch> - 2014-08-04 13:51 +0200
      Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Gordon Henderson <gordon+usenet@drogon.net> - 2014-08-04 12:06 +0000
      Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day "Dirk T. Verbeek" <dverbeek@xs4all.nl> - 2014-08-04 14:12 +0200
      Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the engines running 24 hours a day Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be.invalid> - 2014-08-04 14:36 +0200
    Re: Policecar computer takes 7 minutes to boot, so they leave the   engines running 24 hours a day Sylvia Else <sylvia@not.at.this.address> - 2014-08-07 23:10 +1000

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