Template for Reporting Incidents to Police

[Oxford]

your experience is exactly why I do not bother with personal visits anymore, too frustrating and at the end of the day he said/she said, they deny any wrong doing in handling the complaint. that's why I developed this written system and the template. it specifically says no one was injured, no damage was done etc but that does not seem to be a justification for not being able to issue a speeding ticket, police issue them anyway.

basically you were stonewalled. I suggest you write a letter to the police commissioner outlining your disappointment and the failure of the police to act on a genuine complaint with supporting evidence, also CC in the Ministers of Police and Transport and your local member of parliament, maybe even send a copy to some sympathetic journos.

[diggler]

your experience is exactly why I do not bother with personal visits anymore, too frustrating and at the end of the day he said/she said, they deny any wrong doing in handling the complaint. that's why I developed this written system and the template. it specifically says no one was injured, no damage was done etc but that does not seem to be a justification for not being able to issue a speeding ticket, police issue them anyway.

basically you were stonewalled. I suggest you write a letter to the police commissioner outlining your disappointment and the failure of the police to act on a genuine complaint with supporting evidence, also CC in the Ministers of Police and Transport and your local member of parliament, maybe even send a copy to some sympathetic journos.

OK, I will use the template. I got the name of a traffic Sergeant at a police station near the incident. I will start with him and go from there.

I had trouble including the map for the template, but I guess that is not critical.

[diggler]

Cop I complained to didn't charge anyone. No surprises there. I referred the matter using the pro forma to the traffic sergeant at Glebe NSW.

[skull]

I used a modified version of this template for a report of a Southern Water truck attempting to run me off the road. I got a positive response from one of their representatives. I have included the email sent and received

Sent:
I am writing to you because of an incident that occurred to me on 29/09/2011 at approximately 7:00am with a Southern Water vehicle <REGO> in the vicinity of <street address>.

Whilst I was travelling on my bicycle south along <street name> road the driver of the above mentioned vehicle intentionally pulled out of <street name> Street and forced me into the gutter. The driver would have been aware that I was there as I had flashing lights on my bike and was also wearing a fluoro yellow jacket, also as the vehicle was forcing me off the road I yelled out and witnessed the driver in a fluoro orange jacket gesture at me through the left hand side mirror.

Whilst I was not injured, no property was damaged and there was no contact made between myself and the offender in this case, the incident was dangerous enough for me to be in fear of my own personal
safety. I am fearful that this offender may cause myself or others harm in the future if their behaviour is allowed to remain unchecked. This is akin to speeding offences where in most cases the offender when caught was not or has not injured anyone, no property was damaged and no accident has occurred, but they are penalised for what may occur if their speeding is allowed to remain unchecked. In my case the offence was immediately life threatening to me and the driver needs to be made aware of the seriousness of their behaviour towards other road users. Next time it could result in an injury, property damage, an accident or worse a fatality.

I have also lodged a complaint to the police in regards to this incident
My concerns:
•That this driver thinks that their aggressive behaviour towards other road users is acceptable.
•That they may behave this way to other road users who feel unable to take the matter further without access to supporting proof of the aggressive behaviour.
•That they have an incomplete knowledge of the road rules as it relates to their requirements as road users.
•They have no knowledge of the traffic regulations as they relate to cyclists and cyclists use of the roads.

I trust that you will take my complaint seriously as the seriousness of this for me is that my wife does not want to have to visit me in hospital recovering from injuries sustained from a poorly behaved and ignorant driver, or possibly worse.

All I ask is that I be allowed to be able to cycle legally, safely and without fear of personal injury to myself by others.

I await your favourable reply.

Yours sincerely
Skull.

Their reply:

Dear MrSkull
Thank you for your email dated 29/9/11 regarding the incident between yourself and a Southern Water vehicle.
Firstly, I apologise for the distress that this event has caused you.
Southern Water is very focussed on safety – ensuring “No Harm” to our customer, employees and the general public is one of four guiding principles of the organisation.

The matter you have raised will be taken very seriously and will be fully investigated utilising our internal mechanisms.
The employees concerned have been interviewed and, upon review, actions will be taken to minimise the possibility of such an event recurring. This may include counselling, training or discipline as deemed appropriate.

Again, please accept my sincere apology for this incident and please feel free to contact me should you wish to discuss the matter further.

Regards,

NAME
Acting Manager Urban Reticulation

[Oxford]

Cool. Spooky reading my own words being used by someone else, but if it achieved the goal you were after, then that is great.

[Oxford]

following a good online complaint submission by jules21, I have updated the template to include an online complaint plus the original police version.

[Aushiker]

Hi

Here is another sample letter from CyclingMikey.

On Saturday 1st October at 10:04am I passed a Sainsbury's delivery driver on the phone. He was waiting at the giveway with the intersection of Talfourd Road and the A202 in Peckham.

Phone driving is as dangerous as drink driving, regardless of whether the phone is hand held or handsfree. The populist Mythbusters episode linked in the video description confirms this, but there are a number of rigorous scientific studies confirming this.

The driver was a **** **** for the purposes of identification, and although the video doesn't clearly show the phone, I was in no doubt whatsoever that he was on the phone. I do appreciate the potential consequences to the employee of reporting this sort of behaviour, so I try very hard to be careful and discard any instances where there's any doubt in my mind.

The video may be found on YouTube.com by searching for the vehicle registration, CA10URR, or for "Sainsburys delivery driver". This is only the second Sainsburys driver I've reported in 3 years, which is a pretty good indication of how very good your drivers generally are given that I cycle some 7,000 miles per year and thus encounter many drivers.

Please could someone get back to me via email confirming receipt of this message and that some action has been taken on it? I'd also like to know corporate policy on the use of handheld and handsfree phones.

Best regards,
Mikey.

Regards
Andrew

[Oxford]

Cheers Andrew, I have updated the template with an edited version of CyclingMikey's text. Another good set of words for people to be able to pick and choose from for their own purpose.

[diggler]

Miracles happen. Just got a call from the traffic Sergeant at Glebe police station. They will proceed based on my video evidence. I have to go to the police station to make a formal statement. They will proceed on the using mobile phone and defective brake light, but not dangerous driving.

Basically if you are not hit, police will not touch dangerous driving. Too hard to prove. Luckily I caught the offender doing other things.

Although this story seems to have a good result, it was only because I was lucky they had other infringements. This doesn't bode well for the future.

[GraemeL]

Its still a very good result, the driver may think twice next time, knowing that he may be on video.
Although what about illegal lane change or failure to indicate? I'm no law junky but it looks like there could be other charges, for the car that followed as well.

Graeme

[Oxford]

Well done.

The whole writing process started for me because of an incident that occurred to me and was ignored, becuase I did not get hit. A few days later, a Qld deputy commissioner managed to pull over a dangerous driver in her personal car and even though no one was hit and there was no property damage, the driver was charged. So I decided to write to her and say if its good enough for her to receive justice, then its good enough for me and I have evidence. The driver in my incident was brought in for an interview and warned about his driving.

Based on my experience with that I decided dealing with the police by letter got better results and it has so far. I hope you are successful.

[waynohh]

Basically if you are not hit, police will not touch dangerous driving. Too hard to prove. Luckily I caught the offender doing other things.

Even if you are hit, don't always count on them to do anything from video and your word unless there's police involvement at the scene, hospital records, stuff like that.

The driver of the truck that hit me 3 months ago is still out there trying to kill people. Same as the road-raging bogan who tried to put me under his commodore 2 months ago. In my experience police are only interested in revenue, not punishing dangerous individuals, even when they handed proof for absolutely no work on their part.

[diggler]

I have so little faith in the police. I am very tempted to take pre emptive action. I'm getting a horizonta safety flag. I'm also thinking of carrying a bidon of brake fluid to spray cars that upset me greatly.

[Kururunfa]

Cycling Australia should run frequent safety campaigns, many drivers are completely ignorant when it comes to road rules invloving cyclists

[Aushiker]

Cycling Australia should run frequent safety campaigns, many drivers are completely ignorant when it comes to road rules invloving cyclists

Not sure it is within Cycling Australia ambit at all: Cycling Australia's focus is on overseeing cycle racing in Australia.

Andrew

[GraemeL]

It would be nice if all cycling groups got together and contributed to a safety and awareness campaign that was run on a regular basis.

Graeme

[adriana23]

Having had some success recently with reporting incidents to Police that have supporting video evidence and at the request of some members to reveal the method I use I have put together a template based on what I have done in the past that combines a letter with a statement and other information.

In future I will not be personally presenting to a station, I will be simply writing to the appropriate station that looks after the area where the incident occurred using the template I have created.

The following link will take you to a Google Document where I have summarised my past experiences. Please feel free to use it, make suggestions for changes, additions or other things that you feel will enhance it. Hopefully if more people start to do things such as write to the police or show up at a station we will begin to see changes occurring.

https://docs.google.com/document......

If you have suggestions for additions or alterations, please copy the particular section and make it clear what the change or suggestion is.

Hey Oxford, that was really great... thank you for that!

[Oxford]

[Aushiker]

Hi

I meant to give some feedback on this template following my use of it in regards to a traffic incident in the North-West Metropolitan District (Perth, WA). The driver was charged BTW but the Officer who handled the incident (he has actually been helpful with advise in the past) suggest sticking to the facts in the report (the statement which he liked, particularly the map of the area etc), i.e., leaving out the emotional parts. By keeping in the emotional parts it just gets to much to work through and comprehend.

On the subject of comprehension, I have just drafted this response to the Assistant Commissioner Metropolitan of the Western Australian Police, Mr Stephen Brown. It is in reply to his letter to me over the handling of a number of issues by Superintendent Lindley, South Metropolitan District. My letter that to the Assistant Commissioner was four pages long and quite detailed (copy available on request). The Assistant Commissioner's response was a one page brush off.

My draft to the Assistant Commissioner is:

Mr Stephen Brown
Assistant Commissioner Metropolitan Region
Western Australian Police
2 Adelaide Terrace
EAST PERTH WA 6027

Dear Mr Brown

I am replying to your letter of December 6, 2011, your reference eA953669 & 0198611FV001 that was in response to my concerns about the review of a number of traffic incidents by Superintendent Lindley.

I sincerely apologise for writing a letter which extended to four pages and which was clearly without a doubt one that tested your comprehension skills and your ability to respond in accordance with the Western Australian Police Forces' principles in respect to complaint handling and the WA Police Strategic Plan 2010 -2013.

I assure you that should I have realised that this would have happened I would have raised my concerns in a series of letters no more than one page long and limited as best as possible one question or query.

Yours faithfully

and I have drafted a response to the Commissioner as well ... kepted that to one page as well. I am learning

Dr Karl O’Callaghan
Commissioner of Police
Western Australian Police
2 Adelaide Terrace
EAST PERTH WA 6027

Dear Commissioner O’Callaghan

I am replying to Assistant Commissioner Brown’s letter of December 6, 2011, your reference eA953669 & 0198611FV001. Assistant Commissioner Brown in his letter attempts to assure me that the matter raised was treated seriously. Regretfully the response has not reassured me in the least. However I am sure you will be pleased to know that Assistant Commissioner Brown has reassured me:

(1) That the Assistant Commissioner considers it acceptable that senior officers are ignorant of the Road Traffic regulations and that such ignorance is acceptable to defend the lack of action to an incident report. Furthermore that it is acceptable to use such ignorance in an attempt to intimidate members of the public.
(2) That the blame the victim culture is still prevalent in the Western Australian Police Force.
(3) That making an error in a incident report is sufficient grounds to do nothing, despite video evidence showing the correct information.
(4) That there is NO point in reporting traffic incidents that occur in the South Metropolitan District and in fact I already been involved in an incident, which I haven’t reported despite advice to the contrary. I do thank Assistant Commissioner Brown for supporting this action.
(5) That should one raise issues in a letter that exceeds one page the response will be to treat the concerns with contempt.

I see no point in you replying to this letter and therefore do expect one. I just hope you reflect carefully on the implications of what has occurred and how it reflects on the Western Australian Police Force.

Yours faithfully

Pushing my luck? Constructive feedback appreciated.

Regards
Andrew

[Tracey Gaudry]

It would be nice if all cycling groups got together and contributed to a safety and awareness campaign that was run on a regular basis.

Graeme

Hi Graeme, The AGF spend a great deal of time and effort promoting exactly this kind of collective initiative with colleague bike organisations, and ensuring that it was delivered in a 'whole-of-bike-community' way not lead/owned by any one organisation. It's not there yet at on a nationwide level, however we're working directly with bike and road safety groups on joint initiatives. The collective buy-in really needs to happen to swing the pendulum.

Happy for your thoughts.

Tracey G

[CommuRider]

Bumping this up.

Found Ox's template really useful in documenting Subaru driver who threatened me and my son on our way to school last week. Made me think step-by-step how to write all of the facts as I can remember of the incident and what action I wanted.

While action was limited to the Constable going to talk to said driver, the process of writing up the incident was really useful. It emphasised on how cops can only deal with facts but they need the best of facts that you can give them.

The more accurate you are with your written evidence, the better your oral evidence will be when you speak to the cops. If you want action, be presentable (suit and tie will not go astray - don't wear lycra) have video and photo footage in front of you, your video equipment to show what you are using to document incidents and speak in a fortright manner.

You might not get what you want but if you want a bit of action or remedy, then this is the best way.

Preparation and Prevention is way better than the cure peeps. Have your vids ready and Ox's template should you be unfortunate enough to be in an incident. A couple of hours work writing things up will impress upon them how serious you are when reporting the incident.

[Oxford]

in a nutshell, if you want to be taken seriously, act serious and show you are serious about it. if they even think you have a hint of bailing out, then they are the ones holding the baby so to speak. quite a number of times I have had to make formal statements and still get no result other than the driver being sanctioned. but at least the driver knows there are consequences.

[newbikeorupgrade]

Thanks for the template got a call from the police today...
It's a start...
Submitting another one next week.

[Oxford]

cool, good luck, hope you get the result you're after.

[Ozkaban]

Hi Oxford,

I've tried to download your template but am getting permission issues. Is it still available for download?

thanks!
Dave