Not necessarily. If they are breaking the law themselves in the process (parked illegally, causing a traffic hazard to others, etc) then no, they are not. Additionally, if they are on private land pointing the radar gun down through the trees at the road, then the landowner has the right to tell them to **** off.
But that aside, I think that nobody here is questioning that speed should be controlled - I think the issue at hand here is that the tactics used by the officers point towards the real motives behind the speed traps in place. Bright liveried police car with officer in visi-vest pointing camera down the road in a high incident area to me points toward a genuine intent to reduce speed and thus accidents in that area. Officers hiding in camo gear in the woods pointing camera out towards a downhill section of road where cars will have the tendency to drift over the posted speed limit smells more of filling the coffers than of any tangible intent to reduce speed in an area.
Its for this reason that the UK government started painting speed cameras flourescent orange rather than battleship grey a few years back - the more conspicuous cameras now actually prevent drivers from speeding in the first place, rather than just mail them a photo in the post a few weeks later.



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