imlach

I've only ever been stopped a few times, but the times I was stopped by PROPER traffic cops, they went about their business sensibly, without any condascending attitude, gave me a warning which said politely but sternly (what I'd expect), even admitted that my driving was actually good, but just perhaps a bit quick, and let me go on my way without penalty. I took their points on board. They were, overall, quite friendly......

Had no complaints and I was in the wrong, and they dealt with it as you'd expect.

Another time, I got stopped by a Panda car. Totally different - the PC came over all condascending, arrogant, silly, but as he couldn't prove anything, he had to let me go. Fair enough, again, I was in the wrong, but he attitude stunk. Tne WORST thing about that one was that it was the Friday before Xmas at 11pm at night, and yet he didn't even want to breathalyse me (I had not been drinking anyway) - I found this astounding given the enforcement of drink driving at xmas!!!

The other time stopped by a Panda car, I was followed for 2 miles after turning at a mini-roundabout to go back the same way I'd arrived at the roundabout - ie, u-turn if you know what I mean.
I got 20 questions when they stopped me as to why I'd gone back the way I came........errr...none of your business matey (I had just done an oil change and wanted to run it through the engine).
They sat me in the back of the Panda car for 15 minutes while they waited on anothre Panda car to bring a breathalyser kit (I hadn't drunk for 2 weeks!). Was tempted to tell them to stick it, but what can you do??????




[Edited by imlach - 4/3/2003 10:58:46 AM]

GordonShek

Got stopped earlier on tonight from an Ayrshire (Strathclyde) Panda car. I was supposed to be speeding but I was following them!.

[officer#1]: Were you in a hurry son?
[me]: When?
[officer#1]: Just there.
[me]: Nope. Why?
[officer#1]: You were going a bit fast.
[me]: Don't think I was (as I was following you guys thinking to myself)
[officer#1]: Believe me son, I can assure you you were. (at this point getting upset with me).
[me]: If you say iwas, then i was, and I'll take what you have just said to me aboard (not wanting to argue).
[officer#1]: Oh you will? Is your speedo working properly? Were you looking at your speedo?
[me]: Yes it does.

This goes on for about another 10 minutes asking if my car was insure, taxed, mot'd etc, etc, etc. The at the end of it, this car drove past, must be doing at least 40..........

[me]: Now that car is speeding....
[officer#1]: I'll decide son, you just make sure you keep to the speed limit.

The moral of the story really is:

1) How can I be speeding if I was following him?
2) I'm not an idiot and would not speed around in a built up area where there's loads of screaming kids running about.
3) I was driving a Nissan Bluebird for crying out loud!
4) If you try to be honest and truthful about anything, it'll either offend and upset them or they think you're taking the pi55...

I feel victimised here but I don't want to rock the boat incase it blows up back in my face. Where i stay is not a very big town and everybody knows everyone if you know what i mean........

Just thought I'd get this off my chest as it really pi55ed me off.

Gordon Shek

ozzy

The local panda plod blow hot 'n cold. If one of them's in a pi$$er of a mood, they'll take it out on you. Pointing out the fact the if you were speeding and following them, then they must have been speeding too might not be a sensible idea (or worth the effort). If they were trying to give me 3 points, I'd fight for it.

Generally, the proper Traffic cops have always been reasonable. Whe I was *cough* testing *cough* the DeltaDash dyno run, I stopped at the side of the road and a traffic car pulled up behind me.

I then spent the next 10 mins showing them DeltaDash and they were well impressed. Turned out the guy is another Scooby owner and does visit Scoobynet.

If I get stopped for breaking the law, it's a fair cop and I'll take it on the chin. When you get stopped by some smart@rse, it's difficult to take the smarm.

Glad you kept your cool.

Stefan

moses

lol @ gordon yeah their a bucn of fannies sometimes

Ciaran

iTrader: (16)

well one night when driving my mates car back from the pub. sober of course i saw a mate of mine behind me and he was right up my **** but in the 30 up ahead i knew their were some traffics sitting with a gun. but as we came round the corner just where the cops were sitting behind a hedge my mate decided to overtake me doing bout 80 in the 30 and i stayed and 30 and as we passed the traffic car we must have been side by side.
And guess what they pulled out behind me and i got stopped and got a court appearence for dangerous driving and £30 for no seatbelt.

My mate who over took me got nothing but as i mate i said the the police i had no idea who he was and i told them nothing. in the end my mate paid half the fine for the seatbelt and i got found not guilty of dangerous driving.

moral of the story only race out of 30's (joke!) and always wear ur seatbelt.

GordonShek

Still actually really annoyed with this. They weren't speeding so therefore I wasn't speeding, so where did they get this speeding idea from ???????

I know a few traffic cops and they never bother with me, in fact I get a wave from them when I'm in my Scoob !!!

This is the second incident with a Panda car, first one I was stopped because one of my letters on my number plate was 5mm out. 5MM! He got his ruler out and measured it and told me i had to change it.

Fair enough, I was wrong but later in the week, same guy stopped me at a set of traffic lights, and these were his exact words "Are you ******* stupid?" I was very surprised at his attitude towards me as he didn't need to swear at me. He accused me of being thick, dumb, stupid, you name it, I was it because he thought I never changed the plates..................

But I did change the plates and kept the illegal ones in the boot as proof. After 10 minutes or so with his ruler out measuring the gaps, he couldn't find nothing wrong with them. So i said to him cheekily, "Is that us mates again?" and his reply was, "You'll know all about it if I fell out with you in the first place".

What am I doing wrong? I pay my road taxes, my insurance and make my car road worthy and I still get abuse. Not abuse from anybody but abuse from the people who are supposed to protect you, the people that your grannies and kids are supposed to trust? Or do I pay my taxes to pay them to give me abuse?

What is this world coming to? Anybody got any ideas where I can move to so I'd get a bit of peace and quiet from the plod?

SCOSaltire

somewhere where there is no police...

90% of the panda cars ive been stopped by were ok
couple were a bit arsey... and saying i had done stuff when i haddnt

been followed for 12 miles by a traffic cop once... but never stopped.

but its the minority of arsy cops that are a problem.
we should be able to report them, as u can when ur customer service goes wrong in a shop etc...

imlach

So why don't you report them?

I would say the one about the number plates is worthy of "mentioning" in the local cop shop - if it was only a tiny bit out that he couldn't tell when it was actually correct, then is there not a charge of "wasting the public's time" as much as there is a charge of "wasting police time"!!!!

I would say that jobsworth should have been given a talking to by his manager and told to worry about more important things.....as well as the idle threat he gave to you - that is abuse of power if ever I heard it - police have no right to issue threats when you have not shown to have done anything wrong.

Power trip.......

mike16v

Yeah, I'd say that a letter or visit to the local cop shop would be in order about harassment or generally wasting your time. As for being sworn at without any provocation, I'd have taken his number and been straight there.

To think that I am considering leaving my current job to become a copper!!

GordonShek

Guys

Thought about reporting them but I don't see the point. As I said in my first post, don't want to rock the boat as it's a small place, where I live.

I know it'll come back to haunt me. Spoke to my parents about it (they've got good relationship with the force) and they said just to leave it for the moment. But if the same coppers stop me again, file for harassment. So I think I'll just bide my time and see what happens. Not very chuffed about it but I think that's the best way. Besides, I've a feeling they'll stop me again real soon.

We'll just have to wait and see.......

Gordon Shek

imlach

If you are being absolutely turthful, and have no "history", and no reason to believe your general driving behaviour is bad enough to get you a "reputation" ie, commented on a lot by locals, THEN this does sound like harassment of sorts.

I can understand your feelings on the local community thing, and I'm in no position to judge your local circumstances, but these cops should not be abusing their powers - ie, almost sounding like they are a bit over-zealous.

If so, you have nothing to lose in mentioning it to a superior at the local cop shop. Take a diary in your car and note down the times & places of every time they stop you ...it should tally with their logbooks etc....

Present diary at copshop as evidence if it continues...if it looks like you are always being targetted for no reason, it'll soon be clear to the manager.......

SiPie

At least they didn't go to the lengths of setting a road block up for you

PS And no I wasn't doing anything silly (or nothing silly enough to merit a road block)

imlach

I got stopped by a road block once. My own fault.

Was driving through Edinburgh with a friend and he had a scanner with him (10 years ago - silly). We heard a police report of a robbery in a street my friend lives in, so drove to see what was going on. Next thing we know, the car we were in was sent out on radio to all cars to stop us & search us - so we knew we were oging to be stopped! Had to hide scanner rapidly!!

We must have looked very guilty....but got searched and told to move on.....they didn't find the scanner thankfully....

GLIM

The thing to remember is that in all walks of life you get people who aren't very good at their jobs.

It shouldn't surprise you that the police are no exception to this rule.You have responded in a mature and proper manner to one of the many in the force who let the side down.

Be careful that if keeping pace with a traffic patrol car in the future and exceeding the limit, you could be subject to a vascar check and be booked for speeding.

The normal panda's cannot carry out any form of speed detection and this cop sounds asif he's out of order.

If bit happens again might be an idea to take his number and suggest to his supervisor the need for re-training.

Hope this helps,

Glim.

TylerD529

just spent 3 days in court for similar - except i passed 2 cycle officers in excess of 60 in 30!

strathclyde police have a serious bug up their ***, don't like fast cars - don't like young guys in fast cars - to the extreme of lying in court

3 points and £250 fine to prove it

oh and i'm on a 3 month ban for being ton up

thats why the cars for sale

sick of it all i'm buying a mini

150bhp of mini with nitrous all the same though LMFAO

might need to relocate outa strathclyde now though they all know
me by my first name now lol

Ciaran

iTrader: (16)

if u report an officer then your car is marked for believe me do not do it.

GordonShek

Ciaran

That's what I thought so decided not to report them, just yet. I feel I will have no choice but to report them if they decided to stop me again.

The thing is, I'm being 100% honest, I was not speeding, I was behind a panda car going slow because he was suspicious of me! He kept looking at his rear view mirror at me so he couldn't have been going that fast either!

I'm 30 this year but look about 22 (I age well) so to them it looks as if I'm a young idiot wanting to drive fast all the time. There are alot of those type (young idiots with Novas and Fiestas etc, etc, etc) round this neck of the woods and i'm not one of them.

Cheers

Gordon Shek

AlanG

Perhaps he thought you were driving too close to him and took umbrage at it?

If someones up yer proverbial, you can be fine about it for so long but after a time these type of drivers can get on yer t*ts and before you know it, you have a real grudge against them.

thecirsch

Gordon,

Get the number plate transferred from the Scoob onto the Nissan. That way they'll recognise you and think you've fallen on hard times at the same time!!

Ed.

BTW, Sunday is wash the car day

GordonShek

Ed

You seem to appear as quick as you disappear.................... Yep Sunday is wash day and I WON'T be transferring my number plate from the scoob to the Nissan!

I think that's how the traffic boys know me and the panda cars don't.

Will probably wash mine's too as it hasn't been washed for a while. I know, it's not like me but I've not been using it for a very long time. Might need my trusty old Nissan to jump start it....

JasonO

Gordon,
Too small a community to report the officer concerned, too many Novas and not enough real cars around here....Take it on the chin mate, and it'll all boil over soon enough.

Your attitude towards them sofar is probably what has kept you conviction free up until now. Keep it going, you'll wear them down.

Incidently, you need to keep a diary of the times / reasons / officers (both officers if accompanied) stoping you, as if it does become a case of harrassment, you'll have all the info to hand.

thecirsch

Gordon,

Can't believe you're not out and about in the Scoob, and what with being stopped, it's not a good time for you .

Weather is ****e down here today so I can't even wash the Terz, . Never mind, about to upgrade the brakes, that should take my mind off the cleaning for a bit (Milage now 31,400!).

Best of luck,

Ed