Volunteering at an event over the long weekend.
The local council have erected a warning sign at the entrance to a nearby path from the centre which reads "ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK" and the sign includes the local council, safety partnership and local police.
At the end of the path, on to a road, whilst walking on the pavement I was approached by a police car.
The police officer didn't bother to get out of the car but just wound the window down and asked for my name and address.
I replied "No thanks".
He replied "You have to".
Me "err, under what legislation"
Him "section 50". (I guess Police Reform Act)
Me "what anti-social behaviour do you expect me to have committed"
Him - "that path is a trouble spot, you've been probably been up to no good".
About half a minute later, the wife of one of the local sergeants exited the same path with a couple of other volunteers and that I was with.
Him: window up, drove off. Quality policing!
Last edited by: zippy on Tue 6 May 25 at 13:09
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Well there's always next weekend's interaction. ;)
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The only time I have been asked by the police for my address was 60 years ago for riding my bike without lights. This was so he could dob me in to my dad, also a copper.
Clearly I am not getting my fair share of police interest.
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How do you do it Zippy? Was it the hoody?
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>>Was it the hoody?
I was wearing jeans and a rugby shirt.
I probably looked a bit dishevelled because I had been packing up a few dozen trellis tables (heavy hardwood with iron legs).
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"The police officer didn't bother to get out of the car but just wound the window down and asked for my name and address."
They were his first words then? "what is your name and address"? Didn't ask you what you were doing or why you were there? And you has said nothing?
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Yes he did, but that's not interesting because he didn't take any notice. I told him I was at the church hall stacking chairs and tables.
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What I wouldn't do for tea and bickies or cake.
I have one of those faces I think. I used to get asked to volunteer to do identity parades and the local nick. Got paid £5 a time I seem to recall. (Used to work in a building with 2,000 odd staff and the police would often turn up if there was an urgent need for blokes to form an ID parade.)
Got picked out a couple of times too. Absolutely no comeback from it because the BIBs already had their man.
Last edited by: zippy on Tue 6 May 25 at 18:55
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Zippy, may have asked before but how would you describe your ethnicity?
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Caucasian (white).
Or in police parlance IC1 male.
When I've not been grooming, nowadays, I look a bit like Santa Claus.
Not all my police interactions were bad. I have been stopped numerous times for traffic infringements and nearly always have been let off with good humour, a couple of times the officers had to turn away because they would have been seen laughing.
Used to get stopped weekly when travelling between towns on a Friday or Saturday night (early morning really), breathalysed etc. but the vast majority of officers were decent.
Was parked up in a town centre one morning in the 1980s when a van pulled up behind me and an "army" of boys and girls in blue surrounded my car and enquired ever so politely what I was doing. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I was waiting for a shop to open.
Had been stopped on a moped once in the evening with loads and loads of keys, by two motorbike police. Keys raised an obvious suspicion but I had good reasons. Police asked lots of questions and I was able to name each key and what it was for. Didn't have my driving licence on me but did have a base ID and was very politely offered an escort back which would have been smart because it was about 140 miles away.
Last edited by: zippy on Tue 6 May 25 at 22:03
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How many interactions do you think you've had with police? By the sounds of it it must be in the hundreds.
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>>How many...
Motoring / motorcycling: at least 40. So on average about one per driving year. All but about two have been absolutely fine. One was particularly stern but I have no complaints about, because he was totally polite and fair. High mileage, often late at night. I must be doing something right as the only "ticket" I have received was from an average speed camera and considering it was rush hour on the QE2 bridge, I am convinced it was in error :-D but I took the course.
Serious: 1 major event. Cost me an absolute fortune due to the lies of a now defunct bank. House raid, cells, court. Thrown out of court. Convinced that there were back handers - through bank's security employees who were ex-senior officers. This included one midnight raid on my home, searches etc. Unfortunately this was before no-win-no-fee solicitors and I couldn't afford to sue the b******s after the legal fees that I had already paid. We're talking selling the house money lost.
Others: Loads and loads of minor interactions. Often wrong time / place. Like in a Midlands city on a works meeting, when we left a restaurant, an Indian colleague was searched for drugs but everyone else was ignored. I called it out for the bull crap that it was and of course, got agro from the BIB for it.
I'm the first to admit that 95% of police are fine and decent people, but there are a few who let the power go to their heads and abuse it or just don't have the people skills. For example, this weekends interaction could have been so different if the police officer wasn't so aloof.
A friend of mine who is a sergeant thinks that I show signs of being on the OCD / autistic spectrum at times and whilst I'm mostly warm and cuddly to those who know me, I can come across as brusque and without filter, especially when I feel that I am wronged and it shows on my face, which can bring out the worst in some authoritarian types.
Even Miss Z in her role as a doctor has seen both sides. Most police officers that bring injured suspects in have been absolutely fine and have let her get on treating them. One or two she has had to order out of the ward because of their behaviour. When Miss Z dealt with a victim patient who was in the news, a police officer accompanying the ambulance recognised her even though she was leaving the hospital and called her over to help. The subsequent harassing for her witness statement from another officer was unpleasant to say the least. Another time, she was driving and caught up in a traffic jam due to a bad RTA. A police officer went up the queuing cars asking if anyone was a medic. She offered to help and was driven to the scene. Afterwards she got a lovely note from the officer thanking her. So all sorts really.
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That's honestly an incredible number. I think I've one interaction with the police in public that lasted about 5-10 secs and then stopped on a non public road once by the police.
I could go months these days without seeing any police at all let alone stopped despite driving all over the place day and night, nothing at all.
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My dealings I think, are about once or twice every decade.
Last one was funny, was hauling the caravan up to Norfolk last year, when a police van pulled up a slip road onto the main dual carriage way dangerously in front of me, no attempt to do a safe merge, the anti collision warning came on and I had to brake quite sharply.
Annoyed I hooted and flashed him, and he scooted off. We met again at a roundabout with lights where I was turning half right and he fully right and pulled a car or two in front of him
Anyway he gesticulated at me to stop when the lights changed wound down his window and said he was thinking of reporting me for an illegal rear plate on the van (spacing, yes its not compliant). I told him I was thinking of sending my dash cam off to his chief Constable, and he rogered off.
In 2012 at 5 in the morning I got pulled for a highly illegal 50 in a 30, and smarmed my way through the attitude test and got away with a telling off.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 7 May 25 at 11:06
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.*******
Copper laughed and sent me on my way.
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Been driving 38 years. Been stopped once, when I was 18 and driving my dad’s Vauxhall Carlton. Wanted to know who’s car it was and I pointed to the back seat where my dad was fast asleep, very drunk swear word, after his Xmas night out.
Copper laughed and sent me on my way.
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In the car stopped twice.
First c1982 in my newly acquired Mini 1000. Been out to a YHA group meeting in Wembley and driving back to Golders Green. Copper steps out from under tree and stops me. Points out I've a defective light. Got off with finger wag and 'producer'.
Twenty years later in our Xantia with Mrs B at the helm. Copper car that had joined the main road behind us put blues on on the outskirts of Chester. Asked a few questions to which I'm pretty sure, having done a PNC check, he knew the answers. On our way in less than five minutes.
Probably either a practice for a new recruit or fulfilling a quota.
Guess I'm overdue another.
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Lost count:
Pulled over for no tail light, pointed out I'd been pulled over less than a mile before when it must've been working and gave the light a kick - it came on. Black Moggie Minor van with scouts camping equipment on board. Got rid soon after - stopped too often.
Stopped at 'silly-o-clock'. "Where are you going and where have you come from"? Replied "Cerney Wick". "Where's that". "Near South Cerney" I honestly replied". I've just come on duty and got all night" he said. Told him I'd been visiting my girlfriend, who was camping with a load of disadvantaged children and going home. We parted on good terms.
There's loads of others, I can't be bothered with, this time of night.
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When I was 18 (60 years ago) I went thro a period of 3 months when I was stopped locally about once a week, it started just after I had acted as a witness against the police following an accident involving a police car and another car containing a family of colour. Rare sight in in Totteridge N20 in those days. Early example of racism in the Met. The police were certainly guilty of careless/dangerous driving and aggressive behaviour and of distorting the truth. IIRC I was interviewed by an Inspector ( from a different station) who did not take kindly to being told that if he wished to interview me, it would be at my convenience, not his!
Seems odd looking back, not sure what access local cars had to a database of known problem people.
Only stopped twice since then, in my early 20s. Must have modified my driving habits?
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"....Seems odd looking back, not sure what access local cars had to a database of known problem people."
Fag packet maths makes that around 1965. Even the PNC (Police National Computer) didnt start until 1974. Every thing was on card indexes.
Maybe mugshot on the 'Most Wanted' board. :)
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Yes, card index. I ran Manchester's stolen car index for a couple of years in the information room. It could be faster than any computer. If the officer radioed in a reg no. If the letters were first and you were listening, you could have that card out before he'd finished asking !
I got stopped on M62 heading east near Oldham. Came off slip road, all lit up and sat behind me for a while. I thought it was a fire engine and as it didn't pass, that he'd be off at the next gate. So, I sped up. He pulled me, showed me the Vascar...93mph.
I was an agent for Mondial Assistance and was delivering an old sick couple from Manchester airport to Pontefract as part of a medical repatriation. 2200 hrs New Years Eve and not a soul on the road, either way. Dry, good visibility. Citroen BX.
Told me it was the worst piece of dangerous driving he'd ever come across and if he caught me again ' he'd take my licence off me ' ! Arrogant b******. I didn't tell him of my past career and grovelled a bit...he let me go.
I think he just wanted to smell someone's breath but I was really annoyed about his approach !
Ted
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In a life now reaching nearly 80 years, I have been stopped by the police three times.
The first was when I was around 19 and was driving my father's Jaguar Mk 1 (2.4 litre) back from Scotland on the A1, with my parents inside. In one of those notorious stretches where a 40 mph speed limit can just pop up out of nowhere, I entered said zone at an excess speed - though not by a gross amount. I failed to notice I was being tailed by a police car. I was given a verbal warning, the officer explaining that they had not been following me over a sufficient distance to allow prosecution. That was what happened in those days, before speed cameras.
On the second I was a little older - maybe mid-twenties. At around midnight on a Sunday evening I was walking back to my flat in the affluent area of Amersham-on-the-hill, and was about a couple of minutes from my destination. Two officers asked where I was going and seemed satisfied with my reply. This was in the days when drugs were starting to be a serious problem. I thought afterwards that perhaps they had merely wanted to find out if I smelled of weed and seemed coherent.
The third occasion a few years later was another traffic stop for speeding - in a rural area - and again I was sent on my way with an informal warning.
In fact, the other times when I've had a conversation for any reason with the police are equally sparse. An officer came to my front door a few years ago and asked if I had any info about a van that was stolen from my neighbour's drive. (I didn't.) About 15 years ago I was sat in a traffic queue in the south of France, when a gendarme walked down the line of cars and I asked him what was going on. (There had been a bad collision and traffic had been stopped to allow a helicopter ambulance to land on the road.)
I can't think of any others.
Last edited by: James Loveless on Fri 9 May 25 at 09:30
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My god-daughter was (very sadly died in her 30s), was a young, new, bus driver.
There was an accident on a stretch of road. The police were diverting traffic in to an adjacent car park and out the other side, diverting around the traffic.
She pointed out that the barrier was too low but the officer insisted on threat of arrest for obstruction (no basis for that what so ever).
There was a coming together of metal and god-daughter got out of the bus and remonstrated with the officer and demanded their details - but was whisked away by colleagues.
Remaining officers tried to do her for careless driving.
Luckily there were enough witnesses on the bus to back up her version of events and was acquitted at the magistrates.
Her dad was an old school mechanic and had a mk1 Sierra. One early morning the entire family were awoken by armed police. Unbeknown to them the car had been stolen in the night and used in an armed robbery.
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This Weekends Interaction With Police - sooty123
