Police
 

Now normally I have no issue with the Police, but I'm a bit miffed with the standard of driving from one of the officers from North Wales Police.

I was heading back to work in my van along a typical side street, wide enough for two cars but with parked cars on one side leaving room for only one car to pass at a time. I was approaching some of these parked cars. (not on my side of the road) and a Police BMW X5 pulls out of the side road and comes straight onto my side of the road causing me to have to stop pretty quick to allow him room to get through. Not even so much as a thank you or a sorry.
I thought you had to have been on an advanced driving course to drive a police car...... I also thought that if the obstruction is on your side of the road you have to give way to oncoming traffic...... or is it a different rule for them??

ps. no blues and twos either ;)

I'm sure if I'd have done that to him it he'd have ticketed me :nono:

If you raise this to NWP, they'll come up with some answer to justify themselves. I agree with you, though. Once I was at Mold/Buckley roundabout petrol station with my son one weekend night. It was past midnight, so the main entry to the store was closed, just with one overnight counter person inside at the small side window for transactions. A Police car turns up with a male and female coppers, they don't fill any fuel but beckon at the counter person to leave serving his customer queue (there were about 6-7 people queued up) and open the main entrance for them. While my son was in the queue, I was sitting in the car watching those coppers. They browsed for a few minutes, and all they got was some snacks. Again, they interrupted the check out person who was in the middle of serving others, and paid. May be they didn't pay enough, sussing that they were on a power trip. Then they made that checkout boy to let them out, and arrogantly sped off.

I thought it was out of order on their part, and they misused their authority. They should have used the small window like anyone else.

I also thought that if I questioned it to their superiors, they'll say to me that they were simply on the watch, although they'd realise that the Big Brother was watching them.

You should raise Police conduct related question freely to them. Write to them, no matter what the answer comes out to be. At least it'll make them think not to operate in such a manner again.

I must add that I have plenty of positive stories about Police conduct as well where they deserve praise than bollocking.

Always makes me wonder, if you reported them, would they and their kind come looking for you ?

Had a similar thing,Police car overtaking on a blind bend.

To my understanding, you can report anonymously. You can have them visiting you to hear you out, but it doesn't mean they'd start hounding you. They're busy as it is, they have no time to hound anyone.

Basically, never be afraid to question or complain, formally or informally, about Police conduct. They're a law abiding 'service' for public, and their job is to enforce the law. They don't make the law, so they're NOT the law and the order themselves. They have Professional Conduct officers and independent committees to look into Police's conduct. So, you, as a Joe Bloggs, has a right to raise your concerns about Police conduct.

I don't think They're that bad to ignore your concern outright.

I have had 2 near misses that spring to mind...a traffic cop in a volvo cutting straight through a roundabout almost wiped the front off my van...totally ignored me and drove on,another in a large van absolutely flying no blues n twos straight across a junction I was turning into..another very close call...ignored again ...also a few months back I followed an unmarked police Volvo and was shocked to watch them try and gall the car in front into speeding up( he was doing 50 in a 50) whilst they had loads of room to pass...they slowed down then accelerated onto his rear at rate then repeated several times...fortunately the driver didnt bite.

You should have pulled him over

They say not, but I wouldn't be surprised if some officers did!

I'm not anti Police in any way and feel on the whole they do a fab job, its just a small minority who seem to get a power trip when they put the uniform on that annoys me!

The manoeuvre was a typical bully-in-a-BMW move, just the BMW in question had a Police livery. I should have got the reg number really.....but never mind, a Scoobynet rant always makes me feel better!!

I raised a complaint earlier this year about erratic driving by a copper and all I heard back from the duty inspector was excuses - the guy was speeding without blues and twos which I was informed was okay if he was on a way to a shout that didn't require the urgency of sirens but he couldn't then explain if the speed was justified why the copper then braked sharply at a speed camera:wonder:

In the end they'll have each other's backs:(

Precisely the reason I won't bother complaining.

I had a permit to drive a police car before I even spent a day out on patrol. The basic permit is the same as a learner driver needs to pass to obtain a road licence. That allowed me to drive around in a bog standard 1.8D Focus Estate, but not use the blues and twos, and any unmarked vehicle.

The next level was response, which allows the use of the same car, but with blues and twos.

The following advanced levels were then required for the more powerful/specialist vehicles.

All forces will probably differ slightly, but if someone is out in an X5, they probably are more advanced up the permit ladder.

Look on the bright-side, at least it wasn't an Audi!

see them going into our local tesco all the time, for shopping while on duty, wish i could get paid to shop

It looked like a full on traffic car to me!

North Wales Police have (or did) have a few un-marked Audis :lol1:

Do all tescos sell krispy kreme donuts then:D

Possibly on their lunch break. We didn't have a canteen anywhere in Notts, apart from at HQ, which only the top brass were allowed to use. We had to book on our break before going to buy something, others may not.

must eat a lot then lol i never need a carrier bag, when i guy my luch a sainsburys

I would suggest that the fat *******s are the higher ranked officers, but they never leave the fecking station anyway... :lol1:

The reason the guy braked for the speed cam is probably because that force has what is known as a red ring limit. That means any speed limit under NSL you have a +mph limit - mostly +20mph. So you can do 50 in a 30 for example. (this only applies to standard drivers)

Re the way an officer (regardless of their driving qualification) can drive - so long as its not dangerous you can basically do what you want when on duty. The limiting factor is force policy. Some forces have some fairly strict policies, others not. As for complaints, unless there is a crash or several people all complain at once it will almost always be a local level resolution (a "don't do that again" chat").

Some forces prosecute their officers for minor stuff, others you have to put the patrol car on its roof.

Also, a lot of it depends on how much the boss likes you...

HTH!

His vehicle will be tracked and by the sounds of it I think it could possibly be the ARV (Armed Response Vehicle)boys as an X5 aint the beat designed traffic car. What i suggest you do is if you can write down the date,time, road, conditions and send them off to the police and request why he was driving in such a manor. The only exception they can try and claim is they was attending a shout that required the officers to attend on a stealth blue light run so as not to alert the suspect. If this proves to be the case then fine I'd accept that but if not, no emergency vehicle is allowed to exceed the speed limit with out the use of lights and sirens unless its confirmed as a genuine emergency and that certainly dont include going to the local kebab shop. Even on a genuine call the recomended speed is only 20mph over the current limit. Anything higher then you better have a bloody good excuse to warrant that call

There's a road near me (A77) which is often used for high speed pursuit training usually using unmarked cars without blues and sirens. I used to see them often, although not for the past few years. I believe they're from the Police training facility at Jackton.

Considering how close he came to crashing into me,I was to shocked to do anything else.Thought the police were better trained than that.

Over here in N Ireland they would get you back, so if I reported anything, I would do it anonymously for fear of retaliation.

I had an experience last Christmas when my father-in-law was very ill & was staying with me. We had gone down to the local chip-shop late one night in my girlfriend's car, & as I got out of the car there was a 20 year old man standing pissing up against the wall of my father-in-law's house.

I challenged him, told him that the old man whose house he was pissing up against wasn't well, & was sitting in the car having to watch him do it. I asked him how he would feel if the house belonged to one of his family, & told him to come over with me & apologise to him.

He did come over & apologise, which I thought was a bit odd at the time, especially as he had 2 other men in his car to back him up if necessary.

I arrived home from work a couple of days later, & my father in law & girlfriend were laughing as I came into the kitchen. My father in law jokingly asked me which prison I wanted to go to.

I asked why.

He said because the youth I had made apologise & his 2 friends in the car were undercover police officers, & they had tried to check out my girlfriends car Reg No in my local police station, but by luck the sergeant the request had come through to knew the car because she knew my girlfriend & was a close personal friend of my father in law, who was a retired police officer himself, & told the person requesting the information this, so nothing ever came of it.

They all thought it was a great joke, but to me it was an abuse of police powers, & I was angry about it.

It was only dropped because my father in law was an ex-police officer, but I couldn't help wondering what the undercover police officers had in mind when they were checking my girlfriend's car details out.

I could give you other examples of where my father in law used his influence as an ex-police officer with the current police officers, a sort of unspoken agreement or brotherhood exists between the old police officers & the current ones, over here in N Ireland anyway.

My father in law passed away a few days after the above incident.

Get a dash camera - difficult for them to deny video evidence. Plenty around that are very discreet and hardly noticeable when driving - I use the Mobius (as do many), and besides - you can always put the video up on here and then we can all take the p out of them all.....

It's simple, her majestys revenue inspectors are above the law.

:hjtwofingBacon

That doesn't surprise me from the PSNI tbh. I'm only based over here, however I can see a massive difference from back home in London where I live.

Could it be a case that every now and then mistakes are made by individuals...?

I wouldn't say erratic driving is a 'mistake'. Especially those who are there to enforce the laws.

^^^^^^what he says^^^^^^