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Police sirens


Bill

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Last Saturday morning I needed to go into the office very early and set off from home at 5:30 am. Immediately I could hear the sound of a distant police siren that grew steadily louder as I walked down the road. I reasoned that given the length of time it took that the police car must have had the siren sounding all the way from town and it must be some kind of chase situation. So it was with a degree of surprise to see it pass by, not chasing anyone and not really going that fast? A couple of minutes later a second car did exactly the same?

 

While understanding the need for sirens and lights especially near junctions, I have to question the need to do this on empty dual carriageway and especially at that time of the morning. 

 

Be interesting to hear if anyone else has experienced this sort of thing?

 

Bill   :)

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Living near to the hospital the sound or sirens is an everyday occurance, usually ambulances.

 

However being also near bewsey/dallam the sound of police sirens late at night is also a regular occurance as they hurtle down past the hospital in the wee small hours. I sometimes wonder if they do that so that the "criminals" can have it away before the police get there and save them some paperwork and also so that they can have a bit of fun driving like "maniacs" down the empty-ish roads.

 

As regards identifying what direction they are coming from, it was my understanding that the new sirens were easier to in that respect as they use a "doppler?" type of efect so that from teh  side of teh vehicle they are quieter than from the front of the vehicle. Mind you when one suddenly puts teh siren on when about two cars behind you it makes it really easy to spot wher they are. :shock: :shock: :shock:

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We used to get a lot of noise from sirens, it must have been paramedics or ambulances as they were going to nearby nursing homes. I mentioned it to someone who worked there and was told it was seldom anything serious, that if a resident slipped out of their chair they weren't allowed to pick them up they had to call the paramedics. obviously if it was suspected that someone was hurt this would merit a siren but I was told that most times it was obvious they were perfectly fine. This last year it doesn't seem to be happening.

We do however hear sirens on the roads at night.

 

Lately we've had a few police helicopters, the last one was a couple of weeks ago 1.30 in the morning circling repeatedly overhead and it seemed to go on for ages. I felt like ringing the police and asking "is this really necessary"? It must cost so much to use the helicopter service I would have thought that it would only be used for catching really dangerous criminals - which would probably get a mention in the news but I never hear afterwards why a helicopter was sent out.

 

But back to the sirens, they are such stress evoking sounds, I think there should be tighter controls on when they are used - and perhaps a register of when, where and why they were used made available to the public to check that that they are being used appropriately.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The helicopter costs around £900 an hour it is in the air.

 

I recall an accident outside my house a few years ago, an ambulance took about 30 minutes to arrive, it arrived with lighs and signal on it took the police another hour to arrive and they too arrived sirens blazing, lights flashing.

 

Reason you can not tell the direction of a siren is because the sound gets distorted, the sound comes in from places that let in sound so the sound might be coming from the back but let in through your side window, it also can echo.

 

They played with a siren that was more efficient sounded a bit like k k k k k k k, the sound was sent forward somehow not all around, but it disturbed people in houses that wete located at junctions and bends

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