Police high performance vehicles

Bit of a discussion and opinions thread (someone get the popcorn)

I was watching police interceptors earlier and they had an unmarked s1000rr and Hayabusa as patrol bikes, I've also seen an unmarked blade and a few vfr1200's down at H Caf.

With the rise of police using high performance bikes and cars like Audi's, evo's and scoobys are the days of people getting away from the police just by pinning it, And the mentality of 'If I get stopped I'll just do one, they won't be able to catch me' over?

Do you think the police really need vehicles like this? Would you stick around or take your chances? Do you think some people see it as a challenge?






Sent via Crayola using the black crayon.

Saw a police Ducati 1199 panigale at silverstone last weekend. Had the full livery but not sure if it was operational or just a show piece.

Will upload a pic later as I'm on my phone.

Would I run?.... No.

[ChrisCurvyS]

Of course they need to be able to catch the bad guys, but unmarked bikes do often seem to be used to bait other bikers into speeding.

And a lot of police bikers seem to have a habit of taking high-performance machines out for a bit of fun and binning them in single-vehicle accidents - as MCN found out when they FoId various forces.

Re people running - unless it's stolen, or unless you're planning to ditch it, run home and report it stolen, what would you gain from not stopping? Would be rare that the police were close enough to see you're speeding but not close enough to get your reg.

[JamesMio]

More to the point, I dare say the average Joe on a 'Blade / S1000RR / Ninja wouldn't have a hope in getting away from a half-decent police rider on a typical RT/Pan anyway, unless they're on a very long, very long, very straight bit of road.

Having just done a track day in the company of a couple of retired police riders, (both of whom pretty much tore me a new one at every opportunity), those things tend to be very, very well ridden.

I suspect the Busa's et all are more of a show thing as much as anything - same as that force down south (London somewhere I think) that had the fully marked up Lambo.

[PyroUK]

Kinda pointless really, most forces if the speed of the vehicle is too high or would put others at risk would ease off the pursuit and call in a chopper anyway and do it that way.

Think in a lot of cases it's more of a deterrent than anything else, they can say it doesn't matter what you have, we can catch you. Although as above doesn't really work.

It's like a stupid situation that occurred a while back in Sandbanks. A very rich area and some residents wanted the council to get a Porsche as a patrol car so it fitted in with the area.

Oh and no I wouldn't run, whatever you were initially caught for I think it's stupid to add failing to stop and resisting arrest to the charges!

Alot of would be bank robbers on this site.

If you are daft enough to run................

I agree that a lot of it is for show and a deterrent, I'd be interested to know if the deterrent/just having them actually cuts down the amount of vehicle offences and if the benefits out way the cost. Personally I wouldn't run, don't think it's worth it in the slightest.


Sent via Crayola using the black crayon.

Originally Posted by TheRuffellator

I'd be interested to know if the deterrent/just having them actually cuts down the amount of vehicle offences

I highly doubt that perps consider whether they're likely to encounter pc plod on his S1000RR before they hoon it up tbh. As said, most people on most machines won't escape a well trained biker cop on a standard issue bike.

I think the show bikes are aimed at building bridges with the biker community in general.

[NTECUK]

You can out run a police radio......

[Paul the 6th]

I think a lot of it is for public relations tbh, like at brands hatch the fully graphic'd up police R1... got me talking to a couple of on duty lads who were there to educate riders and hand out their latest accident reduction leaflets/keyrings etc... randomly, a real nice ice breaker which made me engage with them rather than walking on without stopping to see what they were all about.