nigelm

I am not talking about traffic cars but why does the average cop in a car ignore 30mph limits, park on double yellows collecting his Sun or fish and chips?
What exemption to road traffic laws does a Class 1 permit give you? And more importantly what exemptions do you get if you are an ordinary bobby. How does this all change if responding to an emergency?

alexf

I know a lad who joined GMP a few years ago and he said he had to pass a very basic driving test before being allowed to drive any sort of police vechile and respond to emergency calls. And guess which force has the worse accident rate in England - a while ago they were averaging one "incident" a day if i remember correctly

Veracocha

Police have the same rights as normal civilian scum, unless they are on an emergency callout.

Mike Burton

So does that mean when they sit on the motorway slip road waiting for a catch, they are actually breaking the law? Probably. But try doing something about it.

blp

There was a thing a couple of months ago on TV where some bloke was so pissed off about getting parking tickets and clamped, that he noticed most coppers ignore basic parking laws, especially around the local cop shop. So he would make a big effort to check out the local station, spot the cars breaking the law, and then politly pop into the station and ask the cars to be moved. Most interesting...cause the coppers had to move them! The upshot of it was, they are subject to the same basic laws as average John Doe.

nevr

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by alexf:
<B>I know a lad who joined GMP a few years ago and he said he had to pass a very basic driving test before being allowed to drive any sort of police vechile and respond to emergency calls. And guess which force has the worse accident rate in England - a while ago they were averaging one "incident" a day if i remember correctly [/quote]

Courses cost money thats why most police force driving schools are training other organisation instead of police officers.. traffic drivers no longer have to reach a mark to gain a first class just a competent drive. A police vehicle should not be stopped on the Hard shoulder of a motorway to carry out speed enforcement, ACPO policy

BOB.T

The police round here park on a rounabout! It's so annoying, you have to go out of your way to avoid them! I might park up one day and go for a walk or have a picnic just to see what they say!

Bob

WREXY

"Do as I say, not as I do son"

WREXY.

Sideways

The thing that really annoys me is if some little mugget steals your pride and joy, breaks into it damages it or just generally abuses your car. If you call the Police they are always too busy to even be bothered to come to your house and look at the damage.
However the motorist pays a vast percentage of all the fines generated revenue. We all know speeding kills but I get annoyed when I am punished for doing 50 in a 30 at 2 in the morning. I could understand their logic if it was when the school is finishing as 30 is too fast then but...........
Sorry just got annoyed I'll get off my soapbox now. Regards.

babber

I drive quite a few motorway mile and see many incidents. I must express my opinion, and I realise the there are a few coppers that read and post on here. But the motorway coppers are "In my opinion the lowest form of life that exist on this planet" I'm sure someone will quote they are only doing their jobs, etc. But are they really ? Why do they drive at 68 mph, and hence all the traffic won't overtake them, and there's normally miles of traffic backing up behind them. Why do they always stare at you when you drive past them ?

Then off they go at some silly speed, just to slow down and do the same a few miles up the road.

They really pi55 me off. I have less respect for them than I do for MPs.

Cheers all (just fallen off my soap box) Phill C


[This message has been edited by babber (edited 02 July 2001).]

TonyNesta

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen Police cars exceeding the speed limit for no apparent reason.

If its a response to an emergency, fair enough, get out the Blues and Twos and 'make good progress', but if not STICK TO THE SPEED LIMIT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE IS SUPPOSED TO.

Its almost enough for me to go and buy my own radar gun, tripod, dayglo jacket and silly hat. "Excuse me officer, but do you know what the speed limit on this stretch of road is ?"

Citizen's arrest anyone ?

babber

TonyNesta,

I think you got a very good point mate. I wouldn't mind contributing to raise money for the equipment. Maybe we could have a fund raising event, and get the equipment ?

GaryC

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by Veracocha:
<B>Police have the same rights as normal civilian scum, unless they are on an emergency callout.[/quote]


Emergency services are are not 'allowed' to break any traffic laws (including speed limits and going through red lights) even when the are on an emergency callout!

craigamungos

I know theres alot of you out there who don't like police. Mainly because at one time or another you been done by them ie; speedind How ever lets remember that day in and day out they put there life on the line to protect and serve the public, It's not an easy job unlike most people think.
When your in trouble who do ya call?
Sorry but just my own personal opinon

Devils Advocate

For anyone to effect a citizens arrest the offence in question would have to be deemed "arrestable" by judges rules, i.e. has a maximum permissible custodial sentence of 5 years associated with it.

Somehow I don't think the offences mentioned would warrant such action (no pun intended).

bren simpson

So are the police supposed to wear their seat belts because they sure dont wear them a lot round here!

Bren

babber

craigamungos,

I understand what your saying and agree with you to a certain degree. They do put thier lives one the line for the good of the people. Urban Police I mean.

I have a big problem with Motorway Police and Special coppers.

Motorway Police are normally the one that can't get a decent job in the force, sometimes due to chips on their shoulders and attitude problems.

Special Coppers well I don't even want to go there!! Give them a bit of power!!

I haven't been done by one of them (yet touching wood) but hate overtaking them, whilst they stare into my car, looking for an excuse to pull me and have a look around and in my vehicle.

I got pulled a few years ago, and I was carrying thousands of pounds of Cable TV test equipment. THEY ASKED ME TO PRODUCE RECEIPTS, even though my car was registered to a large cable company. Idiots!!!

Anyway, just "my" own personal views...

Cheers Phill C

WREXY

I find that the general duties police officers are more understanding, they generally do listen to your reason and usually give you a warning. The Motorway police always come up with smart **** remarks and without doubt will always book you without listening to reasons. This was the case in OZ, was not the same in Greece, but now is and it looks like it's the same in the UK.

Does anybody know the reason?

WREXY.

mattstant

traffic police are definitley a different breed a few years ago (well perhaps a few more)when i was a biker a mate of mine had his pride and joy stolen in matlock bath local pold in his mini metro was fine but then along came a big jam sandwich and when my mate (who was close to tears) coffed up the details and even helpfully suggested he could supply them with a photograph the ****holes in the jam sandwich responded by saying and i quote "oh yes sonny done this before have you" strongly implying it was a put up insurance job even the local plod was gob smacked and made a few choice references to them (after they had left)

JoeyDeacon

I know of a guy who is a special (friend of my girlfriends family) and basically he is a complete nobber. He works on the railway at the moment but because the police wouldn't take him he joined the specials instead.

Am I correct in thinking that you don't even get paid to do it??

When this guy parks his car anywhere he always has one of those police dayglo yellow vests on the front seat arranged so you can see it says police on the back. Maybe he thinks people are going to think he is in the police and give him respect or some such crap??

He was asking me about the Impreza and asking me what the performance was like and as I was talking to him telling him how fast I had gone in it he said "Maybe I should be taking a note of all this", thing is he was joking but half of me knows he would love to get me for something (apart from the fact he had asked out my girlfriend before I met her and she turned him down ) .

slippyr4

They're not all that bad- one of them wrote off my first car for me when blue-lighting it the wrong way round a roundabout. Might have been pissed off with him if the car hadn't have been a metro.

It was funny to see the blokes face though. ****ting his load he was.

polarbearit

I had my car broken into in the maternity hospital car park in Bristol. The police wouldn't come to fingerprint the vehicle or look at it. I know it was only a minor crime (20 CDs and a camera stolen - £700 loss) but I felt very they couldn't be bothered. I rang the main police station who couldn't take details of the crime, told me to ring the most local station, which was shut! Rang the regional office and they took down the details after about 10 mins of heated discussion. They told me to take the car for fingerprinting the next day a particular station at a given time. Got there and was told they wouldn't have time, go to a different station in 2 days, which I did, unfortuately it rained and when I went to the other station I was told it was too humid to take fingerprints. So back to the other station for the next session! They said that it had been too long since the crime to check it for fingerprints.

No wonder they don't catch thieves. This incident and many traffic experiences have made me loose all confidence in the police force.

Seems I could go round stealling all day without a problem, but go 100mph on the M5 and I am a criminal!

Grrrr

Jon

Disco

Quite right,

As yet another victim of car crime myself, I think people would be less irritated of speed camera's , radars etc if the police put as much effort into fighting real motor crime and other serious crimes.

I argued my way into having a scene of crime officer call round to take finger prints, when he arrived he told me I shouldn't have bothered because no-one would investigate or even check if they matched any on record!

JasonHook

Not all Specials are 'nobbers' or job-pi**ed. Its a little sad that some get in but you'll find them in all walks of life.
More a fault of the recruitment system I'm sure than of the job.
BTW many of the rural areas couldn't do without them.

Jason

[This message has been edited by JasonHook (edited 03 July 2001).]

GeeDee

iTrader: (2)

Originally posted by Babber:
"Why do they drive at 68 mph, and hence all the traffic won't overtake them, and there's normally miles of traffic backing up behind them."

Probably because their speedo is accurate and travelling at 60mph whilst your speedo is over reading and you think you are travelling at 68mph.

I find the "miles of traffic" a safety feature - gives you time to slow down a touch.

I find I can overtake at an indicated 75 to 80 with no troubles so far.

That was a risky thing to say, wasn't it?

Graham (MY99 WRX - a proper one!)