Man arrested for using plug socket on Overground train

[bnm]

I think most people regard PSCO's as clueless muppet's who frequently don't know the law and as such are probably far more inclined to argue with them than they would with a normal Police Officer.

It's possible this PCSO may have known where to put apostrophes though.

 

[Crossover]

I've was about to plug a laptop into a "not for public use" socket on an Abellio Greater Anglia train recently, when the guard appeared behind me. I asked him if it was ok to do so, and he said "yes, but the reason they say that is that the output may be variable, however you are perfectly welcome to take the risk"...

I seem to recall "your phone could receive 25kV" at one point...

 

[DaleCooper]

Think you left of a few nines there.

I didn't want to waste nines (you never know when you might need one) and I thought I had made my point.

Anyway what's a picogramme between friends.

 

[Busaholic]

While I'm not defending the artist it's hardly the crime of the centrury and most PCSOs are, at best, muppets! I think though the artist most likely got arrested for, as he said himself, pushing past 4 PCs...

As for PCSOs and the attitude test, perhaps said muppet should get a real job!

My ex's brother is a DC in the Met. He never had a good word to say about PCSOs ("wannabes" was one usual comment) and called them "Reliant Robins" (which was their street name apparently - think about the most common nickname for those vehicles).

A recent Mayor of Truro, commenting on PCSOs, said 'we've got ten of them, but I'd far rather have the two and a half real police officers I'm told the same money would buy'. One in Penzance about two years ago tried to stop me walking down a pavement on the main street, one which is raised several feet above the road surface with railings, because the road had been closed off so a bus could reverse up it at about 5 mph. I pointed out that buses regularly used the road in both directions at 20 mph, also that pedestrians were being allowed to walk on the other pavement which is not raised and therefore supposedly much more 'at risk' but my words fell on deaf ears - I had to go into a shop as I was not prepared to retrace my steps (actually, retracing my steps would have meant I was accompanying the bus, but she was too thick to realise this!)

 

[jon0844]

Why? People have a lot of stuff to carry as it is, and they spend a lot of money on a phone that's thin and low in mass. Why would they then expect to have to purchase and subsequently lug around another heavy box, in addition to it's charger, just to be able to use it?

Of course you don't have to, but given you can't be sure where you can charge your phone, you would surely make sure to buy a phone that has a better battery in the first place.

I'm currently using a phone with a 3600mAh battery. Some iPhone models have had 1500 or less, which is mad because they may be good at conserving power when not used but not when someone is using their device near constantly.

If you get a phone that no longer goes a full day between charges compared to what you owned before, surely you can't just expect to plug it in anywhere you like?

I'd sooner carry my portable battery charger than a mains PSU anyway. I can charge anywhere, anytime.

 

[Starmill]

The smaller backup batteries are about the same size as a charger which you wouldn't have to carry if you had one so there nothing unreasonable about people carrying one of them around instead of a charger

I have a little 2200 one, which I find fits into pockets reasoably well And almost charges my phone fully. Not a bad compromise.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I carry a 5000mAh battery with me, it weighs 123g (when charged). I'd hardly consider that to be heavy and it's definitely worth the two and half times extension to my phone's battery life.

Ohh that's not bad. Maybe they've gotten lighter aince I looked into it.

 

[Spamcan81]

Serves the guy right for buying an iphone . I carry a spare battery for my phone, so on the rare occasions I flatten it, I can just swap it over .

Apple do seem to have created a generation of people who think it's their right to abstract power from anywhere. However, there's an ignorance issue of the cost of the theft here - how often would police go chasing after any other theft where the value was less than 1p?

What on earth has Apple got to do with it? I see all makes of devices plugged into sockets in all manner of places.

 

[CC 72100]

Back in the day we had smack dealers perambulating the NLL - when there were 313's sets with loose seat squabs they could hide their wares under and "discreetly" sell on a pre-ordered basis. This was sorted thanks to CCTV evidence - (only a few sets had working CCTV - the rest were dummy ones) , and the BTP made a good effort and nailed them. On this basis - this seems a different order of things. A driver had a gun pulled on him one night by miscreant for late running - not his fault of course - so things have improved just a little bit ..

ChiefPlanner - I particularly enjoy your anecdotes from your time on the railway, keep them coming!

(Although this one could have had a nastier ending!)

 

[JaJaWa]

Serves the guy right for buying an iphone . I carry a spare battery for my phone, so on the rare occasions I flatten it, I can just swap it over .

Ah yes I love that you can do that on the latest Samsung Galaxy and HTC One phones. Oh wait. You can't.

 

[thenorthern]

I think that some trains use the power sockets on trains to charge the catering trollies when they aren't in use which is why its impractical to disable them when the train is in motion. I know this is not the case with London Overground.

As I say though in this particular case the person did something that he was informed not to do and refused to stop when he was asked to.

 

[PaxVobiscum]

As I say though in this particular case the person did something that he was informed not to do and refused to stop when he was asked to.

And it is appropriate that he himself was put on a charge.

 

[Jonny]

What doesn't help is the pressure to keep gadgets charged up, especially if you have plans to take them on board an aircraft.

 

[Bletchleyite]

What doesn't help is the pressure to keep gadgets charged up, especially if you have plans to take them on board an aircraft.

You can keep a device well charged by turning it off

 

[Kite159]

Isn't there some stock where the plug sockets in the 'passenger' area have some sort of protective cover which is locked to prevent passengers using them?

 

[PermitToTravel]

Does the London Underground still have the Walsall Gauge sockets which is the same as the 3 pin socket just the pins are rotated 90 degrees.

I think so. There are still Walsall gauge sockets in London bus stations.

Certainly prevalent around the tube are BS546 sockets. Phone chargers for these are easier to find or make than for Walsall gauge.

 

[matt_world2004]

I love how the daily mail has got mixed up between C2C and London Overground when choosing images for the article.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

I think so. There are still Walsall gauge sockets in London bus stations.

Certainly prevalent around the tube are BS546 sockets. Phone chargers for these are easier to find or make than for Walsall gauge.

Either would be good prevention - anyone carrying such a plug was clearly doing so with the intention of using the sockets against the warning signs and can hardly claim to have just not noticed them.

 

[JaJaWa]

You can keep a device well charged by turning it off

That would be a great plan if absolutely nobody wanted to talk to me, or know where I was... :roll:

 

[GatwickDepress]

That would be a great plan if absolutely nobody wanted to talk to me, or know where I was... :roll:

Gosh, I wish I was that wanted.

 

[mbreckers]

I love how the daily mail has got mixed up between C2C and London Overground when choosing images for the article.

You seem to think that the Daily Fail follow any sort of logic in their articles

 

[tsr]

I think that some trains use the power sockets on trains to charge the catering trollies when they aren't in use which is why its impractical to disable them when the train is in motion. I know this is not the case with London Overground.

As I say though in this particular case the person did something that he was informed not to do and refused to stop when he was asked to.

Power sockets for catering supplies sometimes don't actually have warning labels, such as those in the (unused) trolley bays on 171s. Presumably some are in any case approximately suitable for public use because of mitigation against the risks of a significantly variable supply for potentially quite risky items such as water heaters (if a phone charger melts, it may start as a small fire - if you zap a water urn, goodness only knows what it might do).

 

[jon0844]

What on earth has Apple got to do with it? I see all makes of devices plugged into sockets in all manner of places.

I think the point was that Apple, and perhaps HTC, came up with unibody designs where suddenly the battery was fixed and couldn't be changed. In fact, it may well be HTC that did it first (there's certainly not going to be much in it).

The fix now is to carry a third party power pack, and you can now get them for peanuts and as long as you get one with at least 5V/2.1A then you should be able to top up power quite quickly.

I rarely carried second batteries (well, not since the early 1990s when batteries were quite similar in standby times as they are now - having had a spell in the late 1990s where you could have one last for a week or two weeks, before feature phones and then smart phones came along) but my biggest beef now is this race to make the thinnest device, so you can't fit in a decent battery.

That's a trend that COULD be showing signs of ending. Despite what Jony Ive said about the importance of good design, rumours are the next iPhone 6s and 6s Plus will be slightly thicker to accommodate a bigger battery. And we're seeing devices coming on Android with 3,500-4,500mAh battery packs.

If you want 6, 7 or 8 hours of actual usage time, including using mobile data over 4G networks, you need a bigger battery. No amount of clever power saving is going to help you otherwise.

What doesn't help is the pressure to keep gadgets charged up, especially if you have plans to take them on board an aircraft.

I think there's a new phenomenon where people suffer battery anxiety (I know I do) where you are never sure when you might get another chance to charge, so you start feeling uncomfortable when the battery is down to 70%. Certainly if you're going to be going on a plane, you probably want it to be 100% - but it's probably going to be depleted quite a bit before you board because you use it on the way to the airport and while sitting around in departures.

Hence why battery packs are so useful, as you don't really want to be tethered to a particular spot for 30-60 minutes at an airport. Why not have it charging in your hand luggage instead? And if you buy a 5000-10000mAh one, you'll have ample power for the whole flight even with it being in constant use.

 

[MikeWh]

To be fair to the PCSO involved, the article doesn't say that he didn't politely ask him to unplug the device, which may have been met by refusal and further escalation of the situation.

The article does make it clear that he (the PCSO) was a she though.

 

[transmanche]

I think the point was that Apple, and perhaps HTC, came up with unibody designs where suddenly the battery was fixed and couldn't be changed. In fact, it may well be HTC that did it first (there's certainly not going to be much in it).

The fix now is to carry a third party power pack, and you can now get them for peanuts and as long as you get one with at least 5V/2.1A then you should be able to top up power quite quickly.

I think having a power pack (as opposed to a spare battery for a particular device) gives you far more flexibility. My phone only has a 2,000mAh battery, but I have a Zendure 6,400mAh power pack (only 140g, they even do a 24,000mAh vesion weighing about 500g). Not only can I charge up my phone, but I can charge my Bluetooth headphones and even my camera if necessary.

 

[jon0844]

Yup, it's great to be able to charge just about any gadget.

I've also got a 14000mAh pack that can charge my MacBook Air, which is enough for a complete charge and a little bit more. The only downside is that if I try and charge it when it's in my backpack, the magnetic connector usually comes off and I realise it only charged for a few minutes/seconds!

Still, now Apple has ditched what I thought was a fantastic invention, in favour of USB-C (which if you trip over the cable will bring your laptop crashing down) I suppose I wouldn't have that problem.

 

[Jonny]

I think there's a new phenomenon where people suffer battery anxiety (I know I do) where you are never sure when you might get another chance to charge, so you start feeling uncomfortable when the battery is down to 70%. Certainly if you're going to be going on a plane, you probably want it to be 100% - but it's probably going to be depleted quite a bit before you board because you use it on the way to the airport and while sitting around in departures.

Hence why battery packs are so useful, as you don't really want to be tethered to a particular spot for 30-60 minutes at an airport. Why not have it charging in your hand luggage instead? And if you buy a 5000-10000mAh one, you'll have ample power for the whole flight even with it being in constant use.

For a phone, that's probably OK. However, some tablets charge through micro-usb and seem incapable of keeping their battery charge, even connected to a battery power pack of the kind you suggested. Also it's rather awkward if you're on a charter airline and need to keep cabin bag weight to 5kg (vs 7 kg on a proper airline) meaning that the charger/battery ends up in a pocket and thus separate from its intended device. I had that hanging over me for an entire holiday recently.

So, coming back to the original matter, the guy might have been acting out of anxiety. It may have become ingrained, or he might have been worried about losing possible work through being out of contact.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That would be a great plan if absolutely nobody wanted to talk to me, or know where I was... :roll:

I didn't so much mean generally as if needing it for a critical reason on that day.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Either would be good prevention - anyone carrying such a plug was clearly doing so with the intention of using the sockets against the warning signs and can hardly claim to have just not noticed them.

Not really, may have been carrying it for later use.

 

[Starmill]

Gosh, I wish I was that wanted.

Don't worry, it's just an illusion - and technology isn't capable of love

 

[Antman]

I had a similar problem at Plymouth station about 5 or 6 years ago. I was on-board a railtour hauled by D1015 Western Champion (formed of Mark 1 stock, therefore no plugs on the train where I was sat) and my phone was running low on charge. The train was booked to stand for around 30 minutes at Plymouth station, so during the break there I went into a platform waiting room and found a socket on the wall and plugged my phone in to charge it. There was no sign on or around the socket indicating that it was not for public use.

After around 15 minutes a member of the BTP walked past, looked inside the waiting room, saw what I was doing, and came in.

Without any form of polite greeting or introduction, he immediately threatened to arrest me for abstracting electricity if I did not unplug my charger straight away. His attitude was extremely surly from the outset to say the least. I had not even had chance to utter a word at this point, as I was so surprised by what he said over what I believed to be such a trivial misunderstanding.

I did what he requested, and responded to him in a polite manner that there was nothing to say it was not for public use. He said the socket was for cleaners use only. He then threatened to arrest me again if I plugged it back in after he left. By that time the train was nearly due to leave so I went and re-boarded it.

My view was that the BTP officer could have handled it a lot more politely! He certainly needed to brush up on his public relations.

I would certainly have made a complaint to BTP about this officers attitude

 

[AM9]

There was a short article on R4 this morning mentioning the case. There was then a brief interview with a 'tech expert' where the general point was that batteries have insufficient power for modern phones.
They were both arguing from the wrong direction, the problem is that phones have inadequate batteries for some users' habits and current phones' typical processor power requirements.
So the choice lies in the hands of the user, consider these three conflicting aspects:

a) you want more processing power for non-phone related things
b) you want to run the device for long periods away from external power sources
c) you want a small, lightweight, slim device​

The manufacturers will only do something about it if they see their profits suffereing so it is up to the user. As somebody once said, "you canna change the laws of physics".
Apart from phone fashion victims, aspect c) is the most practical one to address which as jonmorris says, may also be changed by manufacturers.