A few weeks ago i complained to Northumbria police about a police volvo doing 95mph on a dual carraigeway in Newcastle as I followed it it turned into a 40mph residential dual carraigeway and got up to 65mpg as I followed it. I thought that it warranted a complaint, so i took the number and complained to the chief constable.
I got a phone call today from the operational support manager who told me that if police have just cause they are exempt from all pseed limits, blue lights or no blue lights. When I asked him what the cause was he wouldn't tell me. Seems to me that there's one rule for them, one for us.
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Reminds me of a Navy helicopter pilot complaining bitterly about Harrier pilots making low and noisy passes over the ship:"Why the hell do they do that?" "Because they can" replied a colleague dryly.....
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Humpy's lucky they didn't stop and pull him for speeding, which he must have been in order to 'clock' the speed of the jam sandwich.
HJ
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Actually that's what the guy said on the phone. One of the grievances I'd put in the letter was that if the positions had been turned the police in the car would have had no qualms in pulling me, he replied that he's suprised they didn't seeing as they can get you whether they're following you or if you're following them. Anybody been caught like that?
I was following them on the 70mph stretch at a good distance. I'm not going to tailgate the cops.....or anyone for that matter but seriously....not the cops.
To be honest there was nothing that they did that was really dangerous. It just gets my goat that the police sometimes do things that are well out of order. Two instances spring to mind.
I was driving along the M1 @80mph, police volvo comes roaring past me at well above my speed. I carried on @80mph only to pass said volvo further up cruising at 50mph. I drove past them, without looking in, I mean, you don't do you, you just drive past as if it's the most normal thing in the world. Anyway, 5 mins later the volvo comes roaring past me again, same thing, further along it's doing 50mph. This happens twice more and the next time I passed them I dared glare into the volvo, what do I see but two female police officers just giggling away like they're on a hen night.
The next time was on the m20 on my way down to dover. I was cruising at 85mph about to be over taken by an italian merc vito, those things fly!! at about this time we were catching up a volvo that was doing about 80 in the middle. I hung back and so did the van driver, but in formation, he was to the outside of me, I was in the middle behind the cops and there were slower cars in the inside. The italian was late for something or got impatient an decided to go for it at 90mph and take the police car. Just as he was about to pass the volvo just swerved in front of him and slammed on the brakes, almost causing the van driver to skid and crash and me to sh*t my pants. Then when he decided he'd had enough he just raced away and left us for dead.
I mean!! What was that??
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I suppose I OUGHT to be glad SOMEBODY gets to enjoy motoring......
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65 mpg -- impressive for a T5
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Not a Freelander, was it? Fully justified in pulling you out of professional curiosity that the thing was still mobile....
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I once took the description - colour, reg., occupant details, time etc of a beat up Fiesta on the way back from the school lunchtime McDonald's break as the four inside proceeded to throw out all their McDonald's paperwork along with drinks cans, still half full. As a motorbike rider also I just hate coming across this stuff so I wrote to the local nick's traffic officer suggesting that they might wish to call them up for a caution. Out of interest I chased it up as in the meantime my wife was nicked for speeding on the way back from Tescos with the shopping, desperately trying to get the stuff in the freezer no doubt. Result - no record of my letter.
Also reported a van driver ( full details again ) on the M25 once for hurling builders rubble at my car ( he'd cut me up at Dartford crossing so I 'gestured' at him ). This went on for a while and other cars must have been hit too. I stopped on the hardshoulder to report to a stationary copper who just wasn't interested - not even writing the reg down in case somebody else reported it. This was quite scary at the time and I was worried about just stopping on the hardshoulder.
Speeding police cars - we just have to accept it, I'm afraid, or suffer the consequences.
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I am a Police Officer but work in plain clothes and drive an unmarked Police car. I have been on the receiving end of my traffic colleagues while doing my job. They have a job to do, not my bag but none the less it has to be done. With the workload we have the vast majority of us don't have the time to lark around, so I guess you need to assume those responsible for some of these reports were doing something worthwhile.
I appreciate there is good and bad workers in every organisation in fact the other week a plumber tried to charge me £150 to fix my boiler, which he didn't. Then my tiler F'd and B'd in hearing of my kids because he cut a tile wrong and to cap it all my hairdresser didn't listen to what I asked her to do! 'Nuff said?
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yea but you can choose not to use people in the free market
we have no such choice over the police who serve us
and i think your complacent reply is typical and appauling
the lack of response from coppers when seeing one of their own exceed the bounds of acceptable behaviour is sad in the extreme
poor traffic policing and road traffic manners of police drivers is really responsible for so much anti-police feeling among the sector of the public that should be your main supporters that i would have thought you all would be doing something about it
easier to pander to leftist anti-motoring politicians at the moment i think...
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being a police man doesnt mean you have to be overly blessed with intelligence or common sense, just know the difference that a uniform can make to you.
i have to say that it does annoy me intensely when they do that. an 8 hour shift cant be THAT boring can it that they have to go tearing around looking for trouble. surely in Newcastle there must be enough cars nicked to keep the entire traffic division occupied. the A1 around Gateshead and Newcastle is far from a traffic and accident free zone.
still who wants to get out of a nice warm car in the middle of winter???
incidentally did anyone see the pictures of the Police Transit parked in a disabled bay at a supermarket in manchester?? apparently they were doing the shopping, and an investigation is underway... bet they need a big piece of carpet to sweep that one under
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It was ironic really that a week after I sent the letter of complaint that I was pulled for speeding. Since it was New Year's Day and it was 9 in the morning it's not suprising really, they only wanted to breathalyse me (i passed no problem). The officers had no method of telling me what speed i was doing and i know for a fact they were miles behind me when they reckoned i was speeding. I can't have been doing much over the limit in a tdi Landie. However they had the good sense and decency to give me a warning when they heard that i was on the way to a job (foot and mouth stuff), so they're not all bad!! Didn't wish me a happy new year though, where is customer relations going?!
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dont be surpirzed if the local bobies know about your complaint and know what car you were driving
write to the press/mp
a friend who was sleeping with a coppers ex-wife was constantly stopped...
abuse of power is more common than youd think
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Blame cost cutting. Years ago they needed a two week course before getting behind the wheel of anything with 'Police' written on the side of it. Now a quick check test suffices, as it's cheaper. Expendiency/getting calls answered quicker with fewer officers, all at the cost of safety, I'm afraid. Still, pays your taxes, Home Office decides in this day and age.
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Yes, but re your third para, the police have a duty to the public to act professionally, your service providers are simply sloppy workers.
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Humpy.
Join the clan and become a Special Constable. The law that exempts police from speeding and there are conditions on this, will apply and then when you are on duty, touch of the two's and blue's, foot to the floor and off you go.
Be thankful you weren't Vascar'd and then you would have howled.
Ease up on the right foot and enjoy.
DVD
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get some video of off-duty coppers driving badly, thats the best strategy
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In fairness, when the police manager rang you and told you, correctly, that the police are exempt from speed limits in some circumstances, is there any reason he or she should be expected to tell you the details of what the cops were doing, which is probably very much someone else's business? Maybe I'm naive, but unless you are vetted to the same level they are I don't see why you should need to know - and to be honest I'd trust their driving at speed rather than yours...
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actually an "official complaint" (make sure its sent registered post!) must be dealt with by an inspector or above
you are entitled to a written conclusion
grade I or II drivers (was it a traffic car?) are allowed to break the 70 limit, but not the others (although you cannot actually PROVE they were speeding since you didnt have a properly calibrated device) and there is a lot of descretion involved (which the ordinary public do not normally get)
complain to the police complaints authority copy to your local paper and MP, and complain about inaequate investigation into genuine complaint
poor police driving is SO common now it is totally out of hand
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I admire equilibrium,what a shame there are not more like him in our police force.
If there were they would not be remotely pressured for time on their shifts because they would not waste it on competent motorists who happened to be temporarily breaking some topically irrelevent law or other.
There are times when anyone can drive through a 30 mph area at 40 mph without endangering anyone,and there are times when to drive along the same road at 20 mph should carry a lifetime ban.
Whether the police like it or not the prevalent view of London motorists is,and has been for 25 years,that they waste scarce recources annoying motorists.
Here in the West Country even the most casual observer can see that 10% of motorists never change a light bulb between mot's,and that even a cursory inspection in a Supermarket car park will reveal a significant number of vehicles that would not possibly pass an MOT test and are actually visibly illegal.
I say this with conviction because I was killing time in the local Tescos this afternoon and conducted the experiment.
But they are all quite safe until they exceed 30 mph on the way home,presumeably.
Its not the police themselves I blame,they are poorly resourced,badly led,and appallingly misdirected.
I should also like to see an enhanced graduate entry scheme and a discontiuation of the nonsensical requirement for all Policemaen to spend time with the big boots on.
But perhaps I am out of date already.......
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