Police, stop! Stop! Sto... oh, ok then
The Magistrates Blog spoke recently about an incident in which a Detective Constable happened to look out of the window and spot four well known scrotes driving away from the police station in a Lexus. Assuming (correctly) that it had been stolen, he called for a uniformed officer to stop it, but unfortunately no one got there in time, and they got away.Its a real shame that. If only a uniformed officer could have got there, then they could have used their blue lights to require the vehicle to stop before they had to pull up and watch the scrotes drive away, as the vast majority of officers are not allowed to pursue vehicles.
One quick point here - I agree in every way that only highly trained drivers, in the best, safest cars should be able to pursue, if their judgement deems it safe to do so. What I don't agree with is that every response officer is NOT a highly trained driver in the best of cars. Instead, money is felt to be better sent on shiny leaflets, big signs, and policy makers.
posted by A non mouse
6 Comments:
Not directly to do with the post (although the incident sounds highly frustrating!), but a quick quezzie: my mum gave me a safety hammer for my birthday. You know, one of those things that should be in those empty holders on the bus. She wants me to carry it around "just in case I need it on the Tube". I assume she means in case of another July, not because I'd need to bop somebody with a loud iPod! Is it actually legal to carry this in my backpack? It's got a holder, but the business ends look pretty nasty. I know I'm a nice non-agressive law-abiding citizen, but others (i.e. somebody conducting a bag search) might not.
oh that would be possibly an intended offensive weapon or a pointed or bladed article depends on which CPS dude the old bill ring on that day.
( if your lucky it will just be a caution and the hammer taken off ya )
or a no futher action and a swift clip around the ear.. what ? no we cant do that? oh right yer (bugger)
WraP it up as a christmas prezzie ... safe. !
It could also fall into the 'going equipped' offence, as its used for breaking windows etc.
If you really are a law abiding citizen, with a clean record etc, the reason for which you are carrying it are innocent, and you are not committing any offence carrying it.
However, if we SUSPECT that you are carrying it for other reasons, you may well have to find yourself justifying those reasons in a police interview, and if you are REALLY unlucky, court, so I guess its up to you.
Please don't be silly...
"What I don't agree with is that every response officer is NOT a highly trained driver in the best of cars. Instead, money is felt to be better sent on shiny leaflets, big signs, and policy makers."
The trouble is that the policymakers of 'yesterday' were very short sighted (much like the policy makers of today it could be argued). Driver training was cut to the bone and then cut further in an effort to save money. Full blown driving courses were replaced with a quick spin around the block to get your 'ticket'. This led, as was predicted (but ignored) at the time by an unacceptable increase in accidents involving Police Vehicles until we are now at the point that we are at today - none of the people that need the training have had the training and so cannot respond appropriately - the cost of training the officers required to bring numbers up to standard is prohibitive - officers are becoming disillusioned at the fact that they are not able to do what they joined to do and so move on to other things - the turn over of officers at the front end of the machine is now so great that the chances of driver training ever catching up are unlikely.
Unfortunately the policy makers that implemented this policy have long since gone - they reaped the rewards of slimmer budgets back then without having to suffer the consequences that are appearing today.
The policy makers of today do not want to be the ones that consign forces to a larger than necessary driver training budget.
The answer is to spend some money where it is needed on driver training - perhaps another budget could be trimmed somewhere along the line and someone else could go without for a couple of years!
It is a oad of crap how things are right now. We get called to respond Grade '1' to a violent domestic, screams heard on the phone etc etc...oh look the light is on red I must stop. What a load of shite... Instead of all officers being response trained, why not teach officers to safely make their way through traffic using lights/sirens without speeding.. Maybe this is too simplistic......
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