Fair cop? Motorist snaps 'officer' on phone

The man who took this photo was convinced the mobile-using driver of this car was a policeman. Photo / Supplied

The saying, "Do as I say, not as I do", was in the mind of a man who claims to have spotted a police officer talking on his cellphone while driving.

Police are reluctant to claim the driver as one of their own.

The Herald's informant, who did not want to be named, was travelling as a passenger with his wife on January 11 when he took the shot above on the Southwestern Motorway between Mangere and Onehunga.

"It was most definitely a police officer," he said.

"The law's the law, and they're supposed to be the law enforcers. He wasn't quite toeing the line, was he?"

The man said he saw the epaulette on the driver's shirt and it was "definitely" a police uniform.

He supplied the photograph following Herald reports on the number of crashes caused by cellphone-using drivers last year, five of them fatal.

Staff at police national headquarters were not so sure the man was an officer. "The shoulder patch is much larger than the rank epaulette which forms part of the police uniform," spokesman Grant Ogilvie said.

"Without details of the vehicle, the picture does not clearly show this is a police officer and there are several uniforms worn by other agencies and private security companies which, to a casual observer, could be mistaken for a police uniform when observed at high speed on the road."

Mr Ogilvie said that if the driver was a police officer, there were certain scenarios which would have allowed him to use his phone while driving.

"Under the Land Transport (Road User) Amendment Rule 2009, 'an enforcement officer may, while driving a vehicle, use a mobile phone to make, receive, or terminate a telephone call if the officer is making, receiving, or terminating the call in the execution of the officer's duty'.

"Otherwise, police staff are subject to the same rules as any other road user," Mr Ogilvie said.

The use of hand-held phones in cars was outlawed on November 1, 2009. From then to December 8 last year, 182 crashes were caused by drivers on phones. Five people died and 12 of the crashes caused serious injuries.