British police have an expensive problem. It's not crime and it isn't corruption, it's much worse. The £1 million problem is stupidity. Over the course of three years, UK cops have on 4,709 occasions put the wrong fuel in their police cruisers. That's an average of four cars damaged per day, with damages of £6,500 a week. That's more than $1.6 million USD. Blimey.

Each time the wrong fuel is added, the very expensive fuel has to be drained, and in many cases engines have to be repaired. According to the Mirror, one force, The Met, had four times as expensive a problem as any other group, with £194,212 in damage ($316k USD) over three years. In one year alone, the pump-challenged bunch had 287 erroneous re-fuels from its 6,500 unit fleet at a taxpayer cost of £84,992 ($138k USD). That's a mis-fuel rate of .09%.

A group called TaxPayers' Alliance demanded fueling info under the Freedom of Information act from 52 forces in the UK. Eight forces rejected the request, and four more didn't respond. The public action group poured over data over a four month period to come up with the staggering sum of bungled fill-ups.

TaxPayers' Alliance chief Matthew Elliott doesn't mince words when talking about the size and scope of the fuel problem. "Every car damaged is thousands of pounds diverted away from the fight against crime. One would hope our police were more on the ball." One would hope.

To combat the expensive fuel mix-up issue, North Wales placed yellow stickers labeled 'DIESEL' back in 2006, but that didn't stop officers from pumping petrol on 39 different occasions. Many forces have stated that they've tried many things to combat the problem, but apparently only one solution has worked. Humberside has had only one mis-fuel, at a cost of £51. They have an all-gas fleet, which they say saves £250,000 a year. Hmmm....

[Source: U.K. Mirror]

The long arm of the law now has a cat to stroke with Jaguar's creation of a high performance police pursuit vehicle. It hasn't been commissioned by forces yet, but is apparently under evaluation by UK authorities across the country. The model in question is the new twin-turbo XF Diesel S, a 3.0-liter unit pumping out 275 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque, while still returning 42 British mpg.

The police version XF gets a "police pack" electronics package to power equipment, the radio, and enough lights for several Heathrow runways: a roof-mounted light bar with 3600 light elements, side alley lights, blue and white strobing LEDs in the grille and blue flashing LEDs along the side of the car, along with blue and red flashing LED lights in the rear light clusters. If you ask us, this beats a Ford Crown Vic any day of the week.

[Source: Jaguar]

According to the UK Telegraph, Britain's government is no longer willing to let those who have illegal drugs in their system slip through any more checkpoints. It has let the Department of Transportation know that it is looking at creating a new law that would ensnare anyone with illegal drugs in their systems, as well as those whose driving is impaired by using legal, medicinal drugs such as sleeping pills.

A British company makes a "drugalyzer" that can detect amphetamines, cocaine, opiates, cannabis and methadone in a saliva sample. That machine is already in use in police stations, but a field unit would need to be approved by Britain's Home Office.

Right now, those thought to be driving on drugs are given the same walk-the-line field used for perceived drunk drivers for decades before the Breathalyzer came along. Countries like Romania, Australia, and Italy already perform mobile drug testing. If enacted in Britain, the bill would likely help the authorities reign in the suspected 23% of drivers and 21% of riders in accidents who have "impairing" drugs in their systems.

[Source: The UK Telegraph]

Police officers around the country routinely put their lives on the line in an effort to keep our streets safe. Officers in South Florida have come up with a way to make city streets a safer place and have a bit of fun at the same time; by drag racing at the track. A bad street racing problem that was endangering the lives of law abiding citizens when a plan was hatched to set up monthly "Beat the Heat" drags between the fuzz and street racers at Miami's Countyline Dragway. Everyone from former street racers to moms and dads are paying the $25 to line up against Johnny Law.

The "Beat the Heat" program has drastically cut down the amount of drag racing on the Florida streets, while also fostering a better relationship between racers and officers. And "Beat the Heat" isn't just in Florida. There are police drag racing programs in other areas of the country, including Chattanooga, Tennessee. If making nice with cops isn't your idea of fun, you can still test your skills against the king of all drag cars; the Crown Victoria police interceptor. Where do we sign up?

[Source: Officer]

For an episode of the show Police Interceptors, which airs on channel five in Britain, the producers wanted to recreate a police chase. But instead of throwing together some archive clips and fast-cut footage of police cars caroming through empty streets, the show gave presenter Natalie Pinkham (right) a Lamborghini and told her to take off. Then the Essex police gave Pinkham a 20-minute head start and they took off after her – speeding, blue lights flashing, the works.

Because the Lamborghini had a tracking device, the police knew how to find Pinkham, but it took them an hour. Other police forces are upset that the Essex men in blue were shown "Sitting round swapping silly jokes, drinking cups of tea and chatting up young women drivers." For their part, road safety campaigners are fuming that innocent drivers could have been put at risk, and a taxpayer's group doesn't like the Essex police subbing as extras instead of protecting the public.

In reply, a police spokesman said the chase was "a training exercise for officers in using a new tracker device." If Ms. Pinkham ever needs to try out a tracking device on this side of the world, please, let us know. We'd like to get that kind of training, too.

[Source: Daily Mail | Image: NataliePinkham.com]

After revolutionizing search, advertising, and e-mail, Google is changing the way police in Greater Manchester keep track of motorists: Filming them a la StreetView.

After having seen Google's StreetView car doing its Cylon sweep of everything, everywhere, the local authorities were apparently inspired to outfit Smart ForTwos with high-rise cameras to capture data. The cars will focus their views near "a high occurrence of 'driver distraction' collisions and where officers have regularly observed offenses being committed."

The police aren't trying to hide anything -- the ForTwos are evidently outfitted in official livery, and besides, there's that gigantic telephone pole of a camera mast sticking out of the roof as a less-than-subtle tipoff. What the police are hoping is that you won't be able to hide anything, either.

The surveiling Smart cars are only part of a pilot program for now, but you can bet that if they're effective, you've only seen the beginning of them.

Thanks, Google...

[Source: Daily Mail via CNET | Image: Manchester Evening News]

In a twist on the great circle of life, a motorist has his Porsche 911 searched during a traffic stop by Hoover, Alabama police, and they find 10 kilos of cocaine in two hidden compartments. The case traipses through the court system for over a year, the bad guy goes away, and the car is handed over to the police department.

The police then take their new 911 to the paint shop, have it dressed in department colors, throw on a wing, light bar, and rear window lights. Voila. A car donated by a criminal now meant to deter – and perhaps catch – other criminals.

Beyond the blue and silver paint job, the car's other decals read "Seized" and "911 Never Forget." The police chief said the car is planned for publicity rounds, to help kids understand what can happen to them if they go for fast money. But if you're an adult, you might want to scratch Hoover off of your "Place to get in a car chase" list...


[Source: Officer.com, al.com]

In Japan's Kanagawa prefecture, it looks like you can add 'police sketch artist' the list of occupations being killed by technology. The authorities there evidently skipped the pad and pencil and went straight to the Nintendo Wii when they had to come up with an image of the perpetrator, using the Mii digital avatar tool.

It would almost be more believable if the police were actually looking for an avatar that had escaped its console and gone on a joyride, rather than looking for a human being who looks like an avatar that looks a little surprised and a little high.

Oh, and the sign says "This man is wanted for a hit and run – if you see him please report him to Kanagawa police immediately." You might start your search in Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2. As comical as this is now, mark our words: We haven't seen the last of this.

[Source: Kotaku]

There aren't enough police in some areas of Nigeria, so vigilante groups have formed to take up the slack. When vigilantes in Kwara State saw two men trying to carjack a Mazda 323, they went after the baddies. One of the men escaped, but the other man, cornered... um, how do we say this... turned himself into a goat. (That's the actual goat/suspect pictured.) Even as a goat, "he" was apparently just as easy to catch, and the vigilantes took the goat to the police station.

According to Reuters, a police spokesman said "We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat." Yet according to Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper, which first reported the story, a police spokesman "said the goat 'armed robbery suspect' will not be left off the hook until investigations into the case are concluded." We will wait for justice to do its thing, but this comes as no surprise to us - everybody knows that goats love Mazdas.

[Source: Vanguard via Reuters]

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Science & Technology Directorate has been working with a research firm in Arizona that has come up with the Safe Quick Undercarriage Immobilization Device (SQUID). The SQUID is designed to safely, non-lethally stop drivers trying to elude the police.

Here's how it works. The SQUID disc is placed in the middle of the road, and a remote operator triggers a two-stage explosion when the getaway car gets close to it. The first explosion sends barbed straps flying out away from the disc, which get hooked on the wheels and undercarriage when the car drives over them. The second explosion occurs when the SQUID detects engine heat directly overhead and sends a burst of "sticky tendrils" that cling the straps to the axles and driveshaft. Within 500 feet, the axles can't turn any more and the car skids to a halt.

The key now is to make it lighter, stronger and cheaper. Last year the SQUID stopped a Dodge Ram pickup traveling at 35 mph, but authorities want to be sure it will stop an F-150 at 120 mph before they'll seriously consider using it. We aren't sure that an F-150 doing a four-wheel skid at 120 mph is the safest way to bring someone in, but it is probably better than bullets. The scientists are working on that this year, and if they get it done it could give the word "dragnet" a whole new meaning.

Check out a walk-through of how the SQUID works by clicking through the gallery below.


[Source: DHS via Physorg]