While sympathetic to the police call to dob in dangerous drivers (''Police call on Canberrans to dob in dangerous drivers'', April 15, p1), until something changes, there is little point.
Due to resourcing restrictions and an emphasis on revenue raising, they are rarely present in the suburbs to intercept incidents as they occur (or deter them from occurring); they are rarely able to respond in a timely fashion; the work involved in making a statement and potentially fronting up to court only to have a judge throw it out is time-consuming and fruitless for police and public alike.
For example, some time ago my family was pursued through suburban streets for some five to 10 minutes in an incident of road rage.
My family was effectively terrorised my wife, on the phone to the police, was panicking, and my young children scared so much that they were still nervous about travelling home a couple of hours later. The best the police could do (which I appreciate nonetheless), was charge the bully with a minor traffic offence witnessed by us en route! What use would be a sworn statement, or the map I drew of the pursuit, or the police recording of my wife's panicked voice?
These things happen because people know they can get away with it, and sadly they often do. Until that changes (and speed cameras have no effect), nothing will change.
The police plea is one of desperation.
They know they can't fix the problem the way things are, so it's up to our legislators to resource them adequately.
Name and address withheld by request
How can drivers really ''dob in'' feral drivers in the ACT when so many of their cars either have no licence plates, stolen licence plates or bogus plates like ''DaHood'' or ''Bling''?
How much police time will be wasted by vindictive reports?
Isn't it about time the ACT Police got out of their stations and away from their ''crime intelligence'' computers and actually ran random roadside blitzes as in the past ?
I am sure that they would discover dozens of unlicensed cars and drivers.
Mike Phoenix, Greenway
Poor spirit of Qantas
I used to really care about having a national flag carrier in Qantas, and was proud of it. Now, with its ever decreasing service on flights, and on the ground, reduced safety record, outsourcing overseas and its lousy frequent flyer scheme, I don't really care anymore.
Despite planes with numerous vacant seats taking off every day, it's almost impossible to get a frequent flyer seat to anywhere out of Australia. We have tried to find seats to European destinations mid May, but no luck.
There must be vacant seats, but they are not being made available to frequent flyers. Our only course now is to transfer our points to the Star Alliance and not fly Qantas overseas.
J.M. Thomas, Deakin
US guns no answer
Given the option favoured by your editorial, that the threat of piracy can be reduced by bailing out the collapsed and starving Somalia (''Western aid key to curbing piracy'', April 14), and that advocated by Gwynne Dyer, that the US Navy should deal with the pirates, and if innocent people get killed in the process, than so be it (''US should get on with job of shutting down Somali pirates'', April 14), it is not too difficult to opt for the former.
If the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have taught us one lesson, it is this: that the size of your army and navy is no longer the sole guarantee of superpower status. A few individuals armed with crude explosive and homemade small arms can take you on, and are virtually impossible to defeat.
Many suggest that the Somali pirates are largely ex-fishermen who are forced to take up pirating in order to keep their family from perishing.
These fishermen are no longer able to compete with European trawlers, which, having depleted their own waters of fish stocks, are now exploiting the Somali waters.
If one were after a solution to the piracy, then surely it is far more sensible to begin reducing the quota of these trawlers, as a gesture of good will, than to embark on yet another US adventure with unpredictable consequences.Sam Nona, Burradoo, NSW
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