QPol to Remove ALL Speed Camera Warning Signs.

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QUEENSLAND police have been told to remove signs warning drivers of upcoming mobile speed camera traps.

“Speed camera in use” signs that were placed ahead of police camera vans were deemed “too problematic” and too small by the state’s Road Policing Command.


It comes as almost 600,000 motorists on Queensland roads were fined more than $87 million in 2014 by the mobile cameras.

The new directive, which began on July 1, coincides with the minimum fine for speeding increasing to $157 for vehicles less than 13km/h over the limit.

“The signs were problematic and too small,” Road Policing Command Inspector Allan Hales said.

“If you are in an urban area you either put them on the footpath and people whinge about that or you put them on a street and people whinge you are taking up another car space.

“So what we actually did was increase the placarding on the side of vehicles ... and there are ‘Join the Drive’ logos on there and also ‘Road Policing Command’ in bigger letters.”

Queensland has about 47 mobile camera vehicles, including 12 covert vehicles which have never used signage.

Insp Hales said he did not expect the changes to increase the number of fines “because the signs were so small and were out of place sometimes”.

“The policy always was that they were past the camera,” he said.

“It was mainly really about what was the best — the placard on the side of the van is larger, it’s easy to see, and we thought that was better than having a small sign that people sometimes get distracted by.”

Insp Hales said data showed a drop in the road network speeds of motorists in the past few years.

Police are now focused on getting drivers in the lower bracket of speeding to slow down further.

“It might only be one or two kilometres an hour but the research shows that even those small changes are significant to the frequency and severity of crashes,” Insp Hales said.

Police would be on highways and in school zones as children prepared to go back to classes next week.

RACQ executive manager of technical and safety policy Steve Spalding did not see the change as misleading.

“I think police have always used a mix of overt and covert, and we certainly support that,” he said.

Mobile camera fines

2012: 359,764 fines over 67,170 hours — 5.36 per hour

2013: 436,080 fines over 92,303 — 4.72 per hour

2014: 597,959 fines over 97,080 hours — 6.16 per hour