Same thing :) As a Sergeant I knew once said, "If we can't get them on the swings, we'll get them on the roundabouts..."

whats a 'special'??

...nxg you got it..gc8 you didnt.. the caution on arrest is completely different

never heard of street cautions??WTF to qoute you

So guilty until proven guilty :cuckoo: The cornerstone of any modern day dictatorship!

gc8 thats the caution after arrest.Not the answer. Very easy to do though.
Never heard of "on the spot cautions "WTF,,,, been around for 5 years at least

Special = voluntary work

I guess they do more harm than good so i didnt see the point of making a meal out of it.

In theory he was right to caution you (as in "you do not have to say anything....") as the offence is failing to produce your documents to an officer. However, the law gives you 7 days grace to produce these at a police station, but if you fail to do this, then the offence of failing to produce etc is committed when you were stopped. So, in theory (if you did not have your docs with you) he should have cautioned you and then provisionaly reported you for failing to produce your docs.

Okay to clarify things further. I was driving within the law, but it was at about 11.30pm, so pub kicking-out-time. I was followed by a police car at a distance (I had an idea that it was a police car as I passed it and watched it pull out about 200m behind me) for about 1 mile. After a minute or so, he raced up behind me and started flashing his headlights - trying to make me stop or race:wonder:. When I did neither eventually on came the blue lights, so I pulled over. The 'Special' was quite upset that I hadn't reacted to his light flashing (remember I'd done NOTHING wrong) and proceeded to inspect the car, checking lights, tyres, etc. I produced my licence at the road side as requested and his female partner inspected the tax and made a call to check the registration etc, she came back and told me everything was okay and checked out. The 'Special' was still looking over the car trying to find something wrong and eventually gave up and wrote me a HORT1(?) - a producer even though this colleague had already said that everything was in order. He passed it to me and as I went to take it - I had a hand on it - he pulled it back and we had a tug of war over it :lol1:. It was then he cautioned me "Anything you say .............". I said it wasn't needed as no offence had been committed etc. When I asked him why he had said it he replied "because I like to" - WTF. His colleague looked a little embarrassed to say the least. I then had to produce my documents at my local police station. I wrote a letter to the Devon and Cornwall Police Chief and got a very watery response and an apology of sorts.



[quote=NXG;8414050]Just FYI, a caution will still show on your Police record and may affect things in the future.
quote]

I hope not!






As above - no offence had been committed

Oh and sorry to Boro for the thread hijack

needs

from previous experience

haha

Nothing new/modern about the caution system :wonder:
25 years ago (or maybe slightly more) I was 'forced' to accept a caution as the alternative was to go to court, without witnesses, and argue that I 'had not' assaulted a lune who had, without provocation, pushed me from a footpath and down a steep embankment :freak3:
Damn right I 'assaulted him' good and proper having made my way back to the path and chased him down.
He made the complaint about me. The local cop (whom I knew well and he knew the local nutter well) 'advised' me to take the caution as the result of any court case could not be guaranteed. :(

You actually earned the caution in that case, as you took the matter into your own hands instead of reporting to the Police. You only got a caution, instead of a charge of assault do to the circumstances, but it would have been close, and the local cop's advice was correct.

I totally agree (I accepted the caution on advice from the cop who 'understood' the circumstances). But accepting the caution was a bitter pill, I'm sure you would accept.
Given all the evidence, if it could be reliably provided, I don't think a court/jury would have convicted me, do you?

Sorry, the point was that the caution system, without a charge or trial, is not new.

those w@nks with 'community support police' stamped on their back????

I've had my rights ready to me once by the road side by a police biker, in Sheffield of all places

I hadn't done anything, apart from look too young to be driving the car I was. The guy was a bit of a cock and eventually sent me on my way with a talking to - for what I'm not quite sure

Just your luck if you get a good cop or a bad cop really

Technically (with a strong emphasis on technically) it had when you could not produce all of your docs at the time - so he was right to caution you so long as he pointed out that specific offence. Obviuoly its not safe or practical to carry all of your docs, so the law allows 7 days to produce such docs at a local police station - and if done so nothing happens.

If you fail to produce any of the docs however and you are summonsed to court, the offence will relate to the moment you were stopped by police as opposed to the time you attended (or didn't) the police station

A bit harsh.... :nono: The vast majority do a good job. Just having a uniformed officer, even if it is a PCSO, around your streets is usually enough to deter 'oiks', as they're too stupid to tell the diff between the volunteer and the full-on bobby.

The problem is with the training. There's not enough of it and it's done to an inadequate budget, BUT the REAL problem (and here comes the can of worms) is the government's use of cheap PCSO's to make up the numbers of officers on the beat that they promised in their various manifesto's. They keep banging on about the extra coppers we now have, but they're not fully trained, full-time officers.

Just to clarify a PCSO, or CSO as they like to be known are NOT specials.
CSOs are full time civilian officers who work for the police, with few powers. However the provide a direct link from the "streets" back to the police. They wear a different uniform to Police (specials and regular) and should be mainly blue, with blue bands on their hats. They are starting to get more powers, but in general they cant do much - that said you should not really be being stopped by a CSO whilst driving your car... IYWSIM. They are mainly involved in community patrols, crime watch, schools etc etc.


As for specials 9 times out of 10 you wont know the difference between a Special Constable and a regular Constable and they have the same powers as a regular officer, through all of England and Wales.

In most forces they will wear the exact same uniform as a regular, and a lot of forces have now even dropped the title "SC" and use "PC" instead. Some of them are not exactly the sharpest tools in the box - but you get the same with the regulars, but a lot of them are good at what they do. Some are quite highly trained and can be involved in all sorts of policing from specials tactical aid units to traffic to plain clothes work.

I dont know if this is different around the UK. But the guy on the desk knew he was a special by his "number". Anything starting with a 7 denotes a special.

Force specific numbering, each force is different.