santa2000

Following on from a recent thread about the top poilice bloke and his lenient punishment for doing 100mph+...

I have heard this story from 2 reliable sources (mates who are firemen)

Senior Officer (D.O. so i'm told), off duty, is travelling in his lease car between Dundee and Perth. While driving in outside lane a car approaches from behind and flashes to get attention and let him pass (a legitimate course of action as far as I believe). Fire officer takes umbrage at this, lets the guy pass then tailgates him and sticks his blue light on to put the shi*s up the bloke.

Bloke then takes number of car and reports this to the police. Fire officer gets called up to his top bloke (Firemaster i think) and gets a slap on the back of the hand...!!

Apparently, senior officers are also signing exemtion certificates for each other when caught speeding too while firemen (and women i suppose) who are getting flashed are being told to face the consequences for their actions.

This is fair enough but surely tailgating and using blue light when off duty is a much more serious offence than e.g. doing 50 in a 40 on the A9 at 2am in the morning.

Is this another case of people at the top feathering their own nests while ensuring the troops at the bottom of the pile are kept well in their place?

Or am I being a touch harsh on senior blokes?

little miss fire

What action the police give us if we are caught speeding on the way to the station, responding to a fire call, is completely up to the police. However, we get a severe telling off (and possible disciplinary action) through the brigade!!

One fire fighter at our station got caught speeding through the village at about 2am in the morning, and the coppers didn't beleive that he was responding to a fire call, so made him wait with them at the side of the road until they had seen the pump go up the road with blues going!! Pretty bad as we could have been waiting for him to make up a crew!

ScoobyDriverWannabe

Iv got a friend on the lifeboat crew when he gets a call out hes always puts his foot down, hes been pulled a few times on way to a shout and the police have usually gave him an escort ;o) quite fun when u passenger in the car

CrisPDuk

A lad I used to work with who was a retained had something similar happen to him, his station officer managed to get the two coppers responsible (rural N Derbys, where 90% of coppers are jobsworth hitlers anyway) suspended & disciplined for causing the pump to be delayed en route to a serious RTA.

Spoon

First and foremost it wasn't lenient. His £450 fine and 6 points were in line with many other convictions for a similar speed.

santa2000

appreciated spoon but the words "setting an example" spring to mind.

Spoon

Sure, but that's another 5 pager.