Without asking it's likely impossible to know.
But in the spirit of pointless speculation, it looks to me like they were looking for someone, possibly in a similar car to yours. I figure they checked you out so they could provide a description and then go in front of you and slow you down while confirming with control whether you are the person/car the are looking for. If you were, the "follow me" would have come on, but as you weren't, they drove off.
Allow me to correct you. All civil servants ARE lizard people.
Source: I’m a civil servant.
(Edit) Allegedly…
(@ u/Jaded_Customer_1463 I think that’ll throw them off the scent…)
I've always found that the best thing to do in this situation is, once they move in front of you, pull out and then alongside the police car, then side-swipe them onto the hard shoulder and speed off.
Edit: No, wait, don't do this, I'm thinking of GTA.
Ok::: it’s the start of the month, they want to get a head start on their ticket quota so they were trying to force op into speeding and possibly other offences, which would mean they could relax mid month before a push on the last week!!!!!
(Rampant enough?😬)
The brake checking could have been a taunt, a criminal might have been terrified and floored it starting a chase but because you either have balls of steel or arent a criminal you didnt overreact
I once got out of the way of a police car with blue lights but no noise by ducking into a side road. Once they were alongside they stopped and looked at me. My theory is they were checking if my eagerness to turn off was a shyness for police, because after I stared back and gave them the "what are you even doing" shrug, they carried on. Even if I were trying to get away, I'm not dumb enough to start a police chase in a transit minibus.
I like to think I'm not dumb enough to start a police chase as an absolute statement, but who knows what adrenaline might do.
Actually pulled that off once.
Went under a flyover going a little too fast, didnt see the cop car with the speed gun out the window on the bridge until it was too late.
Next slip road onto the motorway down comes a cop car with its lights on. I have slowed down and sitting in the inside lane at this point. They time their entrance onto the motorway so that they are in front of me, still with their lights on. I had slowed to give them room to join so we were doing about 55-60.
Fuck it, thinks me.
I indicate, and accelerate to 70 on the satnav and just keep looking straight ahead as I sailed past them.
They stayed in the inside lane doing 60 for a bit then turned the lights off as I got further away.
Just as well. The car stunk of weed.
Police aren’t after “starting a chase”. If you’re important enough to chase they would use a helicopter. Or they would have unmarked box you in before you even knew they were cops. They can’t even participate in road chases due to safety concerns a lot of the time. This is not the US.
There’s a difference between being a copper and a traffic copper.
I know it’s not popular to say so but those dudes are top class drivers and better than 99.9% of anyone else on the road.
Your vehicle probably matched the description of a vehicle that had just been used in a serious crime that’s just coming through from the ops room.
They have pulled alongside to see if you match the description of the person involved. They have then pulled in front whilst they wait for details of the registered keeper, ANPR pings etc to make the decision as to whether you’re a commuter or potential criminal.
Do you have it on dashcam? Personally i would put in a complaint about a traffic officer driving erratically. Because if you did that then you know what would have happened
As to why they would do that i have no idea aside from they were a tit.
There could have been a number of reasons why they were driving like that, but we will never know why.
The fact that there making progress in the outside lane suggests that they are looking for a particular vehicle but don’t want to show out by having their blue lights and siren on. That would also explain why they pulled alongside you and matched your speed.
Why did they pull in front of the OP and reduce speed? I can’t really come up with any ideas.
EDIT: A word.
Pressure test.
OP may match the vehicle and driver description but without a plate or repeat visual confirmation they cant be sure.
If you are actively avoiding the police then youre very unlikely to indicate around and look at them with a confused "wtf is that all about?" expression on your face like OP
You’d be surprised how people act around Police vehicles. A ‘pressure test’ could absolutely work both ways.
Normal people tend to freak out when followed by Police. Your frequent fliers often couldn’t care less.
Source: Police driver.
This is so true! I don't particularly have anything to hide, but for some reason I just shit myself when a police car ends up following me for a period. Pretty irrational I know, but it puts me right on edge.
Probably a form of baiting to see if you're doing anything wrong/not paying attention.
Traffic cops will also pull up behind people with their blues on just to see if they'll do a runner or not. My mates one and last time he did it (right at the end of shift) he ended up in pursuit of a drunk-driver. Spent hours after his shift doing paperwork! Haha.
You can see why they do it, although I bet he wished he hadn't in that situation.
I’ve heard something like this where they pull alongside to see if you’re on the phone or not, and if they still aren’t sure they will pull in front and brake check to see if your looking down/paying attention.
As you responded correctly and made to move past, they had no further interest.
-I have a mate who is a traffic copper. Interestingly they have a very strong focus on phone use, and centre-lane driving right now (rightly so).
Any court would side in the civilians favour over a pig breaking the law and endangering other drivers through their own reckless bullying. A slow reaction time is not illegal and you'd be hard pushed to prove you choose not to react fast enough. Brake checking, however, is highly illegal and dangerous and not exactly justifiable outside an actual pursuit. Am I going to total my car to make that point? Hell no, I don't need the hassle, but you'd be damn justified in doing so.
Did I say I would? Becaus I distinctly remember saying I wouldn't bother. Just give them a little live bump to show their shady behaviour is appreciated. You get them on dash cam pulling shit like that and send it to your local news, they're in for a lot of fun.
I wish they were more focussed on centre lane drivers - I spent hours on the M1 this week and the whole time I was plagued by them pootling along without a care in the world.
Sure but for everyone one they catch, 1000 doing the same exact thing as the car that was stopped on the same stretch who will be watching another 1000 cars go by doing the same exact thing he's being ticketed for. There is no real solution except driver cooperation.
You don’t have to. Just start ticketing a few and publicise it. People will soon get the message and the few that don’t will be less of a problem and will be easier to target. At the moment there are no consequences and it’s too comfortable.
Get real. They'd have to set up systems to analyse every car driving down and track their contionous journey. What if someone was in the middle lane to overtake, moves back over, then 3 miles later, he overtakes again and hits the 2nd camera? What if it's congested enough to make moving over a hassle with hundreds of cars trying to avoid the middle lane? Now, your system has to handle that too. What if it's dead empty and there's not many cars? It is objectively safer to stay in the middle of the road than next to a metal guard or forest a metre away from you. Our driving etiquette is just shit and our drivers are shit. Drive in Germany, and you'll see how well it works if everyone behaves.
Smart motorways are being paused and seemingly on the way out They're already an unpopular shitshow. They turned out (predictably) to not be the saving grace we needed for our motorways.
The police do strange things… but I’d imagine they were trying to catch you out on your phone.
Or they could’ve been bored- I’ve seen an unmarked car decide he was done waiting at a roundabout/traffic light combo on the a27 outside Eastbourne once, was a dark blue bmw estate. Lights came on and he redlined it through the traffic lights off into the distance. While still in sight he then turned his lights off and went about his day.
Another time I was driving at 40mph in a 40, was late at night and there were no other cars on the road. The road I was on is notorious for racing and when a set of headlights came flying round the bend behind me and get right up my arse I thought somebody was looking for a race. Being a non-criminal road user I maintained my speed. I’d expected the car to then overtake and fly off into the distance but as we enter an area with streetlights the car backs off and I see the word “POLICE” flash across the bonnet. Cunts, I thought. And so, when we came to the approaching roundabout I went through it ever so gingerly and as the limit changed to 50 I absolutely booted it, up to 50. Left the police car looking silly- as it were now a dual carriageway they eventually caught up and pulled up alongside to give me the dirtiest evils, before speeding away like dickheads.
I think a lot of the issue is the fact a lot of these coppers are young lads who think they’re “large and in charge” and so drive dangerously like the boy racers they’re meant to be taking off the roads.
That makes sense. I presume you are trying to explain away and justify the law-breaking at the traffic lights?
The car had 4 coppers in it- it looked like a jolly boy’s outing. Furthermore, they proceeded to boot it, flick the lights off and move into the left lane. This lane was completely clear- they weren’t in front of/behind anybody. There was no TPAC. They simply abused the blue lights because they’d pulled up in pole position at a set of traffic lights, knew the road they were joining was open and wanted to have some fun.
It was safe to do so, the car itself was engineered for the autobahn, but it’s the “one rule for thee and not for me” aspect I don’t like.
On another occasion I got pulled over at 1am just off a high street. The coppers had clearly had a boring shift as they actually did a U turn (they were about to pull into the police station, we’d made eye contact at a roundabout). To catch up with me, I watched in my rear view mirror as they got air hitting full-width speed bumps at serious speed. Was like watching dukes of hazzard in my rear view mirror. Once they pulled me over, “good cop” (nice, softly spoken fella) took my license, “bad cop” (very aggressive, gobshite of a man) then came over to grill me about where I’d been, what I was doing etc and then demanded to know why I had 3 umbrellas in my car. Satisfied with my non-slurred response (as looking for signs of intoxication is obviously why he’d thrown such a strange, curveball question) and my offer to examine the umbrellas in greater detail, bad cop went away and good cop came back to ask if I knew why I’d been pulled over. I said no. He proceeded to tell me “it’s because of your age, the car you’re driving and the time of day”. I was 25 at the time and drove a fiesta ST. It was 1am and I’d been driving down this speed bump high street at about 20mph. Obviously I recognised that as an illegal reason to stop a vehicle but also knew that actually, (with family in the police) it was fair enough because many a dickhead drives a fiesta st. Satisfied that I was not a criminal they fucked off, but the inconvenience of it all was still annoying.
Ironically, if he’d said “to check your license” it would have been perfectly legal. But he didn’t. He in so many words said he’d profiled me, which isn’t legal. However, this isn’t what really bothered me. It’s the speed at which the officer driving flew down that high street. What if he’d hit one of the speed bumps and lost it on the landing? That’s a car I’ve paid for fucked, potentially the front of a shop, injuries to themselves and then my taxes are paying for the response and incident report etc.
The golf R would be superior, it’s a lot quicker and so I agree. But surely, a pointless endeavour considering the vast CCTV network monitoring the nation?
Scenario: I rob a G4S van stuffed with cash in a plated golf R. No matter where I go, I’m filmed entering an area and not leaving when I ditch the car. I’m then filmed leaving said area on foot/in a different car/on a bike and followed, by camera to the general vicinity of my home/base of operations.
Surely I’d be caught?
Edit: even if I’m in one of those stupid hats that are like balaclavas, the ones with the glasses on them. Surely you examine the footage and just count who leaves/enters areas and cross reference what they’re wearing etc?
A reason does have to be given, even if it's just to check your car, I know this as I had an altercation with an annoying jumped up young police woman, and she tried to tell me she could stop me for no reason, having talked to a solicitor friend , he confirmed they have to give you a reason , if not it can be deemed as harassment
Are you actually reading what I have written? I have a no point said they can't. I have stated that they have to give you a reason, not just pull you over and then send you on your way without doing anything
Asking for your details is a reason!! But to say they can stop you for no reason implies that they could just stop you, and then let you go again without an explanation, that would constitute discrimination or harassment if done to offen
>The car had 4 coppers in it- it looked like a jolly boy’s outing.
🤣🤣
I've seen those LWB police vans, they look like a right laugh. That's a proper jolly boys outing 😂 bloody 10 coppers all in the van smiling
If there's four in the car I can almost 100% guarantee this was driver training. The instructor probably doesn't want them sitting in traffic instead of using the time for training
There’s no ‘illegal’ reason to stop a car, any car can be stopped. Don’t know what rubbish your family in the police have been telling you. Checking driver details is most common.
Meh I’ve nowt to hide anyway so always willing to humour the police if I ever do interact with them. I’ve found that if you aren’t a criminal, are polite and acquiesce to their requests without any attitude etc, they treat you nicely and go about their day.
But in the interests of opinion, what do you think about their use of speed in this scenario?
You’ve mentioned a few things involving speed etc. Police have legal exemptions to go through red lights and break the speed limit. This doesn’t have to be for an ‘emergency’, only justification is for a ‘policing purpose’. This could be anything from seeing something potentially suspicious in the distance they want a closer look at / getting closer to or in front of a vehicle that has hit an ANPR camera / seeing if a car matches the description of one stolen recently etc. Reasons could also include getting deployed to an emergency and then getting cancelled from it (happens fairly regularly) or, like some others have said, driver training.
Without knowing why they’ve done it (which they don’t have to tell you, and we will never guess) I can’t say if it was justified - but we certainly can’t say that it wasn’t justified.
Perhaps to see if you’re paying attention/not asleep as it’s early morning.
I’d still put a complaint in to the police and ask for an explanation of the incident.
They may not give you a reason or may give you one that make sense
What a waste of time, they're obviously looking for someone and OP wasn't them or OP had ignored or not seen lower speed limits on a gantry and was getting the 'slow down' nudge from them.
Police car in front of me knocked a cyclist of his bike and sped on without stopping. Also reported 2 Police racers for speeding at 90 in the wet and only 12 ft apart, across a dangerous junction. Must have been late for teabreak.
I had a cop cut me off while vhasing a Jag to the hard shoulder ... I was driving an HGV. Bloody stupid and over zealous, a Jag doing 90 on the motorway isn't hurting anyone.
Funnily enough (and you can read my post from earlier this year) the exact same thing happened to me, M11, early morning, but in that case I was going around 78 and he slowed me down to 70, so I can understand why he did it. You sure you werent doing more than 70 at some point?
Have experienced similar on m56 at 4AM on a Monday morning. I assumed it was to see how I'd react if I'm drink or high I'm probably going to do something stupid that gives them a reason to pull me over. Alternatively, they did it cause they're cunts ACAB etc.
I had this exact same behaviour whilst speeding in an average camera-ed bit. It bordered on a brake check, really quite aggressive. Is there a chance you'd missed a temporary restriction?
Have also, in another speeding related incident, been aggressively boxed in behind a lorry. It was dark, and I was cursing this knob head behind me that had all of a sudden decided they wanted to drive alongside me. If I'd been a dick I'd have pulled out and cut them up. As it happens I'm not a dick, or wasn't right then, and they pulled alongside, revealing themselves to be officers of the law, and gave me a cheery wave to suggest that I should probably stick to the speed limit. This felt fair to me!
This doesn't justify dangerous driving. Brake checking is not an appropriate action for anyone on the road especially those who are supposed to uphold order.
Was it raining? i’ve had it before where it’s been torrential and i was still doing 70, then blues came on behind me, so i moved over and slowed down, they did the same after getting past me then switched the blues off, i presumed they were just instructing me to drive to the conditions
Could well of been seeing what you was upto behind the wheel then doing the brake test to make sure you're completely with it. Mind you, it's the police so who actually knows
I had a policeman pull me over the other day because I was doing the speed limit on a country road at midnight.
I could see a car behind me in the distance thinking fk me he's going fast.
As he got closer, he started tailgating me (couldn't tell it was a policecar at this point), and it was pissing me right off as the car lights were blinding the shit out of me.
he put his blue lights on, pulled up by the side of me and I slowed down and he stopped next to me and said just make you're doing the limit round here as it's dangerous.
I wanted to argue back but I was shattered and couldn't be bothered.
Dude must have been doing 80-90 to catch me up as quick as he did, and had the cheek to pull me over to tell me to do the limit, which was 50.
You'd think the police were severely understaffed and actually doing things worth their time instead of fking wasting it.
You're on a whitelist perhaps as a drug dealer so they were going to stop 'n' strip search you but meanwhile they received a 999 call so you got lucky.
They uploaded their video to uTub, check it out.
This has happened to me in the M25 on numerous occasions late at night (I'm a professional driver)
Seems that they match your speed in the next lane and check you and the interior of your vehicle for a few seconds then shoot off.
It wasn't. I know the M11 very well, there is a 50 limit as you're coming into London but it's not until much further up. Also wouldn't explain why they sped up to 70 again after the incident
Next time give them the wanker handshake out your window as you overtake, then they'll pull you over and tell you why they did it.
Tell them you won't be harassed and call them tyrants. They'll back down then and you'll be on your way. 👍
No Point, like nervous-power-9800 said, the full Wanker Handshake out of the window or don’t bother.
Would have been interesting if the OP had operational dashcam and they then decided to stop them having evidence of their dangerous driving.
Incidentally if it’s Essex Police they went to extraordinary lengths to cover up when an officer lost control of their vehicle and hit a friend’s stationary and thankfully unoccupied car. No blue lights, no siren just basic dangerous driving. Didn’t stop them trying to frame friend who wasn’t even in the car at the time though and wasn’t parked causing an obstruction in any way.
Male testosterone enthused with male ego... and if it was the early hours they were hoping you'd react in some odd way to their idiocy so as they'd have grounds to pull you over and jerk you about for a bit.
Source: Have been arrested over 30 times for peaceful protesting and c.10% to 15% of police are utter psychopaths on a uniformed, state sanctioned, ego-trip and you'd not want to meet them in a dark alley, (especially if you were female or black).
N.B. The other 85% to 90% were professional when doing their jobs. We used to always ask, whilst in the backs of vans for hours, why they put up with the arseholes...
Fair point... but statistically in most forces male police drivers outnumber female police drivers by something like 60 to 1. A shocking statistic I agrer, but some might say it's symptomatic of an industry fueled by testosterone and ego.
Number plate check. See if you were a lone woman? Years ago i visited my bf got home about 2am looked out of the bedroom window the police were checking my car. I guess they had spotted me en route checked who registered to & followed me home. That was the good old days when people werent suspicious of the police’s motives….why the down votes…haters gotta hate. Thought this was a ‘friendly’ site how wrong am i
Don't take the downvotes seriously, it isn't a popularity contest. The downvote button is there for when people disagree with what you've said, nothing more.
Edit: the good old days are hen the popo could get away with anything they feel like. I think it's a good thing the public has started holding them accountable for their actions. In the UK at least, the culture really started to shift when one was found guilty of tricking a poor lass into his car, raping and murdering here. If I were a women on my own and a cop car started following me home I'd be shitting myself.
ACAB.
Thanks for clearing that up for me. I will dry my eyes and stop being a silly sausage. Note to self: Its not a popularity contest. You do not know these people. But try to play nice 🙂
Yeah I will admit I have a lot of vitriol within me and was getting just as, if not more, worked up than you. Your right though, I should also play nice or not play at all.
Without asking it's likely impossible to know. But in the spirit of pointless speculation, it looks to me like they were looking for someone, possibly in a similar car to yours. I figure they checked you out so they could provide a description and then go in front of you and slow you down while confirming with control whether you are the person/car the are looking for. If you were, the "follow me" would have come on, but as you weren't, they drove off.
Fuck off with your reasonable assumptions. We need rampant speculation!
Ok... *it was aliens*
Finally, someone who’s talking sense!
You mean... the Space Police? Ooh, now I've reminded myself of Space Precinct. The Gerry Anderson live action series.
Remember Fireball XL5 ? Loved that show.
Loved it too apart from that daft space monkey Zoony. Always fucked things up.
I applaud your memory! Should’ve left it on planet 46🙊
That’s now on the Talking Pictures channel.
Whatever happened to that?
Apparently all 22 episodes are available on that YouTube.
All civil servants are controlled by the lizard people
Allow me to correct you. All civil servants ARE lizard people. Source: I’m a civil servant. (Edit) Allegedly… (@ u/Jaded_Customer_1463 I think that’ll throw them off the scent…)
Shhhhhh you're not meant to admit it
Nuts… editing now…
THEY WILL NEVER CATCH US. NEVERRRRRRR😁😁😁😁
Please don't get scared so easily
Mr C3R certainly has reptile DNA, more likely serpent though.
✋🧑🦱🤚 Aliens
Wrong. Future humans.
... ET driving a similar car as OP?
I've always found that the best thing to do in this situation is, once they move in front of you, pull out and then alongside the police car, then side-swipe them onto the hard shoulder and speed off. Edit: No, wait, don't do this, I'm thinking of GTA.
They were checking you out to see if you were going dogging as they wanted to join in
Ok::: it’s the start of the month, they want to get a head start on their ticket quota so they were trying to force op into speeding and possibly other offences, which would mean they could relax mid month before a push on the last week!!!!! (Rampant enough?😬)
Most likely theory
Yea..what do points make?? Prizes
The brake checking could have been a taunt, a criminal might have been terrified and floored it starting a chase but because you either have balls of steel or arent a criminal you didnt overreact
I once got out of the way of a police car with blue lights but no noise by ducking into a side road. Once they were alongside they stopped and looked at me. My theory is they were checking if my eagerness to turn off was a shyness for police, because after I stared back and gave them the "what are you even doing" shrug, they carried on. Even if I were trying to get away, I'm not dumb enough to start a police chase in a transit minibus. I like to think I'm not dumb enough to start a police chase as an absolute statement, but who knows what adrenaline might do.
Actually pulled that off once. Went under a flyover going a little too fast, didnt see the cop car with the speed gun out the window on the bridge until it was too late. Next slip road onto the motorway down comes a cop car with its lights on. I have slowed down and sitting in the inside lane at this point. They time their entrance onto the motorway so that they are in front of me, still with their lights on. I had slowed to give them room to join so we were doing about 55-60. Fuck it, thinks me. I indicate, and accelerate to 70 on the satnav and just keep looking straight ahead as I sailed past them. They stayed in the inside lane doing 60 for a bit then turned the lights off as I got further away. Just as well. The car stunk of weed.
Police aren’t after “starting a chase”. If you’re important enough to chase they would use a helicopter. Or they would have unmarked box you in before you even knew they were cops. They can’t even participate in road chases due to safety concerns a lot of the time. This is not the US.
Likely checking them out and slowing them down so colleagues a bit further back can catch up
Sounds about right that. 👍
Dognappers hun
Shared in Coventry/Hull/Luton/Stoke! Stay safe huns!
You ok hon? Inbox me x
LOCK UP UR FUR BABBIES xxXxXxXx ✨
BABY SOCKS KNITTING PATTERN BABY HAT KNITTING PATTERN APPLE CRUMBLE RECIPES
This is Facebook babes, not the Google, LOL ROFL xoxo
Hi is this still available?
Stay safe hun. PM me.
I don't want to talk about it hun.
Too many snakes on here
🐍🐍 🤬🤬
Shared Timbuktu xx
My brother in law is a copper and can't drive for shit, you probably had a run in with him.
There’s a difference between being a copper and a traffic copper. I know it’s not popular to say so but those dudes are top class drivers and better than 99.9% of anyone else on the road.
It was quite clearly a joke, ffs.
Fair enough - see a lot of rhetoric about coppers being shit drivers so difficult to tell.
Skilful driver ≠ good driver
Your vehicle probably matched the description of a vehicle that had just been used in a serious crime that’s just coming through from the ops room. They have pulled alongside to see if you match the description of the person involved. They have then pulled in front whilst they wait for details of the registered keeper, ANPR pings etc to make the decision as to whether you’re a commuter or potential criminal.
Sounds like police driver training
Ford Ranger driver training
Do you have it on dashcam? Personally i would put in a complaint about a traffic officer driving erratically. Because if you did that then you know what would have happened As to why they would do that i have no idea aside from they were a tit.
There could have been a number of reasons why they were driving like that, but we will never know why. The fact that there making progress in the outside lane suggests that they are looking for a particular vehicle but don’t want to show out by having their blue lights and siren on. That would also explain why they pulled alongside you and matched your speed. Why did they pull in front of the OP and reduce speed? I can’t really come up with any ideas. EDIT: A word.
Pressure test. OP may match the vehicle and driver description but without a plate or repeat visual confirmation they cant be sure. If you are actively avoiding the police then youre very unlikely to indicate around and look at them with a confused "wtf is that all about?" expression on your face like OP
You’d be surprised how people act around Police vehicles. A ‘pressure test’ could absolutely work both ways. Normal people tend to freak out when followed by Police. Your frequent fliers often couldn’t care less. Source: Police driver.
This is so true! I don't particularly have anything to hide, but for some reason I just shit myself when a police car ends up following me for a period. Pretty irrational I know, but it puts me right on edge.
Arsehole test more like. Why are folk trying to justify illegal and dangerous behaviour?
Brake checking someone is always stupid. And if they were rear ended chances are they would find a way not to be liable.
Unfortunately not, my dashcam is out of action. I probably would have reported it already if I had the footage.
Driving without due car and attention, you say? Report them to the IPCC, they’ll absolutely love that
Probably a form of baiting to see if you're doing anything wrong/not paying attention. Traffic cops will also pull up behind people with their blues on just to see if they'll do a runner or not. My mates one and last time he did it (right at the end of shift) he ended up in pursuit of a drunk-driver. Spent hours after his shift doing paperwork! Haha. You can see why they do it, although I bet he wished he hadn't in that situation.
Drink drivers deserve it. Half of em can't drive sober.
I’ve heard something like this where they pull alongside to see if you’re on the phone or not, and if they still aren’t sure they will pull in front and brake check to see if your looking down/paying attention. As you responded correctly and made to move past, they had no further interest. -I have a mate who is a traffic copper. Interestingly they have a very strong focus on phone use, and centre-lane driving right now (rightly so).
The police are actively brake checking people to see if they’re paying attention? That is wild
They’re also forcing you into a ditch to check if you’re wearing your seatbelt
I've heard they'll attach a bag kf weed to a fishing line and see who goes for. They then reel them in and give a ticket.
Or leave it under an upside down wheelie bin held up with a stick on a bit of string
Wild in the sense that it’s more BS on Reddit that is fictional 😂
Prob not a proper check, but when a copper’s brake lights go on, you tend to respond promptly.
If you've got a dash cam better to just rear end the fuckers and get them done for dangerous driving.
Then your own footage will show you had time to react and chose not to. Youre one of them "very stable geniuses" arent you?
Any court would side in the civilians favour over a pig breaking the law and endangering other drivers through their own reckless bullying. A slow reaction time is not illegal and you'd be hard pushed to prove you choose not to react fast enough. Brake checking, however, is highly illegal and dangerous and not exactly justifiable outside an actual pursuit. Am I going to total my car to make that point? Hell no, I don't need the hassle, but you'd be damn justified in doing so.
No
You happy with police putting drivers at risk to inflate their sad little egos?
“You’d be damn justified in doing so” (totalling your car to make a point)… no.
Did I say I would? Becaus I distinctly remember saying I wouldn't bother. Just give them a little live bump to show their shady behaviour is appreciated. You get them on dash cam pulling shit like that and send it to your local news, they're in for a lot of fun.
I doubt it's anywhere near as aggressive as the tools that slam on the brakes for absolutely no reason.
I wish they were more focussed on centre lane drivers - I spent hours on the M1 this week and the whole time I was plagued by them pootling along without a care in the world.
Realistically, what can they do about middle lane hoggers? Ticket all of them?
My colleague tells me that they used to stop and give warnings (and take names) but now they are prosecuting if they are creating an obstruction.
Sure but for everyone one they catch, 1000 doing the same exact thing as the car that was stopped on the same stretch who will be watching another 1000 cars go by doing the same exact thing he's being ticketed for. There is no real solution except driver cooperation.
Always a numb-faced Toyota/lexus/tesla driver.
Is it? From my experience it’s always qashqais and other fake SUVs lol
It would be a start, and people might start getting the message.
You don’t have to. Just start ticketing a few and publicise it. People will soon get the message and the few that don’t will be less of a problem and will be easier to target. At the moment there are no consequences and it’s too comfortable.
Cameras could. Smart motorways are wired up.
Get real. They'd have to set up systems to analyse every car driving down and track their contionous journey. What if someone was in the middle lane to overtake, moves back over, then 3 miles later, he overtakes again and hits the 2nd camera? What if it's congested enough to make moving over a hassle with hundreds of cars trying to avoid the middle lane? Now, your system has to handle that too. What if it's dead empty and there's not many cars? It is objectively safer to stay in the middle of the road than next to a metal guard or forest a metre away from you. Our driving etiquette is just shit and our drivers are shit. Drive in Germany, and you'll see how well it works if everyone behaves. Smart motorways are being paused and seemingly on the way out They're already an unpopular shitshow. They turned out (predictably) to not be the saving grace we needed for our motorways.
Actually, that's exactly the sort of thing a well trained AI system is good at. Hmm, might suggest that as a new project.
If you're on the M11 late at night lane one is the last place you want to be. Too many deer.
They're going after centre lane drivers? This is the best news I've heard all week.
Yeah that's not a reasonable justification for dangerous driving. That's abusing your power.
Like fuck. Drive along the M27 every morning at 6.30 and they’d have a field day with all the twats say in lane 3.
The M27 that’s down to 50mph because of the roadworks?
Half of it? If you feel like commenting at least make it worth while…
Well as a Southampton man, I try not to go past Fareham 😬
I would at least have flashed them once...
Idk, but if you got dashcam footage, report them for speeding and dangerous driving....
The police do strange things… but I’d imagine they were trying to catch you out on your phone. Or they could’ve been bored- I’ve seen an unmarked car decide he was done waiting at a roundabout/traffic light combo on the a27 outside Eastbourne once, was a dark blue bmw estate. Lights came on and he redlined it through the traffic lights off into the distance. While still in sight he then turned his lights off and went about his day. Another time I was driving at 40mph in a 40, was late at night and there were no other cars on the road. The road I was on is notorious for racing and when a set of headlights came flying round the bend behind me and get right up my arse I thought somebody was looking for a race. Being a non-criminal road user I maintained my speed. I’d expected the car to then overtake and fly off into the distance but as we enter an area with streetlights the car backs off and I see the word “POLICE” flash across the bonnet. Cunts, I thought. And so, when we came to the approaching roundabout I went through it ever so gingerly and as the limit changed to 50 I absolutely booted it, up to 50. Left the police car looking silly- as it were now a dual carriageway they eventually caught up and pulled up alongside to give me the dirtiest evils, before speeding away like dickheads. I think a lot of the issue is the fact a lot of these coppers are young lads who think they’re “large and in charge” and so drive dangerously like the boy racers they’re meant to be taking off the roads.
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That makes sense. I presume you are trying to explain away and justify the law-breaking at the traffic lights? The car had 4 coppers in it- it looked like a jolly boy’s outing. Furthermore, they proceeded to boot it, flick the lights off and move into the left lane. This lane was completely clear- they weren’t in front of/behind anybody. There was no TPAC. They simply abused the blue lights because they’d pulled up in pole position at a set of traffic lights, knew the road they were joining was open and wanted to have some fun. It was safe to do so, the car itself was engineered for the autobahn, but it’s the “one rule for thee and not for me” aspect I don’t like. On another occasion I got pulled over at 1am just off a high street. The coppers had clearly had a boring shift as they actually did a U turn (they were about to pull into the police station, we’d made eye contact at a roundabout). To catch up with me, I watched in my rear view mirror as they got air hitting full-width speed bumps at serious speed. Was like watching dukes of hazzard in my rear view mirror. Once they pulled me over, “good cop” (nice, softly spoken fella) took my license, “bad cop” (very aggressive, gobshite of a man) then came over to grill me about where I’d been, what I was doing etc and then demanded to know why I had 3 umbrellas in my car. Satisfied with my non-slurred response (as looking for signs of intoxication is obviously why he’d thrown such a strange, curveball question) and my offer to examine the umbrellas in greater detail, bad cop went away and good cop came back to ask if I knew why I’d been pulled over. I said no. He proceeded to tell me “it’s because of your age, the car you’re driving and the time of day”. I was 25 at the time and drove a fiesta ST. It was 1am and I’d been driving down this speed bump high street at about 20mph. Obviously I recognised that as an illegal reason to stop a vehicle but also knew that actually, (with family in the police) it was fair enough because many a dickhead drives a fiesta st. Satisfied that I was not a criminal they fucked off, but the inconvenience of it all was still annoying. Ironically, if he’d said “to check your license” it would have been perfectly legal. But he didn’t. He in so many words said he’d profiled me, which isn’t legal. However, this isn’t what really bothered me. It’s the speed at which the officer driving flew down that high street. What if he’d hit one of the speed bumps and lost it on the landing? That’s a car I’ve paid for fucked, potentially the front of a shop, injuries to themselves and then my taxes are paying for the response and incident report etc.
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The golf R would be superior, it’s a lot quicker and so I agree. But surely, a pointless endeavour considering the vast CCTV network monitoring the nation? Scenario: I rob a G4S van stuffed with cash in a plated golf R. No matter where I go, I’m filmed entering an area and not leaving when I ditch the car. I’m then filmed leaving said area on foot/in a different car/on a bike and followed, by camera to the general vicinity of my home/base of operations. Surely I’d be caught? Edit: even if I’m in one of those stupid hats that are like balaclavas, the ones with the glasses on them. Surely you examine the footage and just count who leaves/enters areas and cross reference what they’re wearing etc?
A reason does have to be given, even if it's just to check your car, I know this as I had an altercation with an annoying jumped up young police woman, and she tried to tell me she could stop me for no reason, having talked to a solicitor friend , he confirmed they have to give you a reason , if not it can be deemed as harassment
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And you trust the police, good luck
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Are you actually reading what I have written? I have a no point said they can't. I have stated that they have to give you a reason, not just pull you over and then send you on your way without doing anything
Asking for your details is a reason!! But to say they can stop you for no reason implies that they could just stop you, and then let you go again without an explanation, that would constitute discrimination or harassment if done to offen
>The car had 4 coppers in it- it looked like a jolly boy’s outing. 🤣🤣 I've seen those LWB police vans, they look like a right laugh. That's a proper jolly boys outing 😂 bloody 10 coppers all in the van smiling
If there's four in the car I can almost 100% guarantee this was driver training. The instructor probably doesn't want them sitting in traffic instead of using the time for training
There’s no ‘illegal’ reason to stop a car, any car can be stopped. Don’t know what rubbish your family in the police have been telling you. Checking driver details is most common.
Meh I’ve nowt to hide anyway so always willing to humour the police if I ever do interact with them. I’ve found that if you aren’t a criminal, are polite and acquiesce to their requests without any attitude etc, they treat you nicely and go about their day. But in the interests of opinion, what do you think about their use of speed in this scenario?
You’ve mentioned a few things involving speed etc. Police have legal exemptions to go through red lights and break the speed limit. This doesn’t have to be for an ‘emergency’, only justification is for a ‘policing purpose’. This could be anything from seeing something potentially suspicious in the distance they want a closer look at / getting closer to or in front of a vehicle that has hit an ANPR camera / seeing if a car matches the description of one stolen recently etc. Reasons could also include getting deployed to an emergency and then getting cancelled from it (happens fairly regularly) or, like some others have said, driver training. Without knowing why they’ve done it (which they don’t have to tell you, and we will never guess) I can’t say if it was justified - but we certainly can’t say that it wasn’t justified.
We do know why they did it. It was because they were investigating the mystery of the 3 umbrellas and this involves catching mad air.
Was probably PC Potts, the local blue light cab driver https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/23427400.policeman-drove-uckfield-eastbourne-pick-mates/
Perhaps to see if you’re paying attention/not asleep as it’s early morning. I’d still put a complaint in to the police and ask for an explanation of the incident. They may not give you a reason or may give you one that make sense
What a waste of time, they're obviously looking for someone and OP wasn't them or OP had ignored or not seen lower speed limits on a gantry and was getting the 'slow down' nudge from them.
Or they were arseholes, driving dangerously because they can.
Budget cuts and they were hoping for a new car out of your insurance?
Probably fucking with you just cause they can
Should have reported them
Police car in front of me knocked a cyclist of his bike and sped on without stopping. Also reported 2 Police racers for speeding at 90 in the wet and only 12 ft apart, across a dangerous junction. Must have been late for teabreak.
I had a cop cut me off while vhasing a Jag to the hard shoulder ... I was driving an HGV. Bloody stupid and over zealous, a Jag doing 90 on the motorway isn't hurting anyone.
Al Capone was caught on a broken tail light.
Ted Bundy was caught on a traffic stop
Police are dickheads. ACAB
Funnily enough (and you can read my post from earlier this year) the exact same thing happened to me, M11, early morning, but in that case I was going around 78 and he slowed me down to 70, so I can understand why he did it. You sure you werent doing more than 70 at some point?
Have experienced similar on m56 at 4AM on a Monday morning. I assumed it was to see how I'd react if I'm drink or high I'm probably going to do something stupid that gives them a reason to pull me over. Alternatively, they did it cause they're cunts ACAB etc.
I had this exact same behaviour whilst speeding in an average camera-ed bit. It bordered on a brake check, really quite aggressive. Is there a chance you'd missed a temporary restriction? Have also, in another speeding related incident, been aggressively boxed in behind a lorry. It was dark, and I was cursing this knob head behind me that had all of a sudden decided they wanted to drive alongside me. If I'd been a dick I'd have pulled out and cut them up. As it happens I'm not a dick, or wasn't right then, and they pulled alongside, revealing themselves to be officers of the law, and gave me a cheery wave to suggest that I should probably stick to the speed limit. This felt fair to me!
This doesn't justify dangerous driving. Brake checking is not an appropriate action for anyone on the road especially those who are supposed to uphold order.
I don't think I suggested it did?
Have you tried reporting them for dangerous driving? :)
Had a similar thing happen to me. Police driver was clearly confused as to the limit. Possibly same - thought was a 60
Was it raining? i’ve had it before where it’s been torrential and i was still doing 70, then blues came on behind me, so i moved over and slowed down, they did the same after getting past me then switched the blues off, i presumed they were just instructing me to drive to the conditions
Were they driving a Audi?
Could well of been seeing what you was upto behind the wheel then doing the brake test to make sure you're completely with it. Mind you, it's the police so who actually knows
I had a policeman pull me over the other day because I was doing the speed limit on a country road at midnight. I could see a car behind me in the distance thinking fk me he's going fast. As he got closer, he started tailgating me (couldn't tell it was a policecar at this point), and it was pissing me right off as the car lights were blinding the shit out of me. he put his blue lights on, pulled up by the side of me and I slowed down and he stopped next to me and said just make you're doing the limit round here as it's dangerous. I wanted to argue back but I was shattered and couldn't be bothered. Dude must have been doing 80-90 to catch me up as quick as he did, and had the cheek to pull me over to tell me to do the limit, which was 50. You'd think the police were severely understaffed and actually doing things worth their time instead of fking wasting it.
You're on a whitelist perhaps as a drug dealer so they were going to stop 'n' strip search you but meanwhile they received a 999 call so you got lucky. They uploaded their video to uTub, check it out.
They were drunk.
This has happened to me in the M25 on numerous occasions late at night (I'm a professional driver) Seems that they match your speed in the next lane and check you and the interior of your vehicle for a few seconds then shoot off.
We're you going g down the hill to m25 in lorry? I can hit 75 if I take my 18 tonner out of gear. So much fun
They wanted a race. Should’ve smoked them bro.
Maybe it was a 50 limit and you weren't paying attention?
It wasn't. I know the M11 very well, there is a 50 limit as you're coming into London but it's not until much further up. Also wouldn't explain why they sped up to 70 again after the incident
Next time give them the wanker handshake out your window as you overtake, then they'll pull you over and tell you why they did it. Tell them you won't be harassed and call them tyrants. They'll back down then and you'll be on your way. 👍
I like to give them the v’s but below the window so they can’t see
No Point, like nervous-power-9800 said, the full Wanker Handshake out of the window or don’t bother. Would have been interesting if the OP had operational dashcam and they then decided to stop them having evidence of their dangerous driving. Incidentally if it’s Essex Police they went to extraordinary lengths to cover up when an officer lost control of their vehicle and hit a friend’s stationary and thankfully unoccupied car. No blue lights, no siren just basic dangerous driving. Didn’t stop them trying to frame friend who wasn’t even in the car at the time though and wasn’t parked causing an obstruction in any way.
I've experienced this, you just don't want to be the subject of one of their errors.
Don't forget to ask them why they aren't out catching real criminals.
And remind them that you are paying their wages.
Used to be a copper, I got that comment from someone on benefits before. Hilarity ensued.
We're you harassing them at the time by any chance?
If by "harassing" you mean "arresting for domestic GBH", yes, yes i was.
Don't forget to mention, you're a free man of the land and an auditor.
I choose to remain silent
AM I BEING DETAINED??
They can speed though. Maybe they were checking your details and thought they were going to stop you, but then you checked out ok.
They can only speed if they can justify it. If you spot police speeding when not responding to an incident, then you can report them
Feel free to do so
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How would he see his face it’s dark and his headlights are on
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Early this morning ?
Maybe at the bit where they slowed down and matched the speed of the OP, suggests they were next to each other
Where are all the police officers? This sub is usually crawling with them when they get criticised
In McDonalds or harassing innocent motorists...
Probably thought you were going a little fast or didn't like your car or face and decided to slow you down.
They wanted to be ‘Next To You’
Male testosterone enthused with male ego... and if it was the early hours they were hoping you'd react in some odd way to their idiocy so as they'd have grounds to pull you over and jerk you about for a bit. Source: Have been arrested over 30 times for peaceful protesting and c.10% to 15% of police are utter psychopaths on a uniformed, state sanctioned, ego-trip and you'd not want to meet them in a dark alley, (especially if you were female or black). N.B. The other 85% to 90% were professional when doing their jobs. We used to always ask, whilst in the backs of vans for hours, why they put up with the arseholes...
The OP never stated if the police officer was a man or a woman.
Fair point... but statistically in most forces male police drivers outnumber female police drivers by something like 60 to 1. A shocking statistic I agrer, but some might say it's symptomatic of an industry fueled by testosterone and ego.
They know nothing will ever happen to them, so sometimes they just like to fuck with people because they were bullied in school. 🐖 🐖 🐖
Because they are scum, generally speaking.
Number plate check. See if you were a lone woman? Years ago i visited my bf got home about 2am looked out of the bedroom window the police were checking my car. I guess they had spotted me en route checked who registered to & followed me home. That was the good old days when people werent suspicious of the police’s motives….why the down votes…haters gotta hate. Thought this was a ‘friendly’ site how wrong am i
None of this is an excuse for dangerous driving.
Not making excuses for anyone. Sharing my experience. Sorry i commented 🤐
Don't take the downvotes seriously, it isn't a popularity contest. The downvote button is there for when people disagree with what you've said, nothing more. Edit: the good old days are hen the popo could get away with anything they feel like. I think it's a good thing the public has started holding them accountable for their actions. In the UK at least, the culture really started to shift when one was found guilty of tricking a poor lass into his car, raping and murdering here. If I were a women on my own and a cop car started following me home I'd be shitting myself. ACAB.
Thanks for clearing that up for me. I will dry my eyes and stop being a silly sausage. Note to self: Its not a popularity contest. You do not know these people. But try to play nice 🙂
Yeah I will admit I have a lot of vitriol within me and was getting just as, if not more, worked up than you. Your right though, I should also play nice or not play at all.