The Police - Your Review?

Seeing how some of the posts have gone recently (here and on other forums). How have you been treated by the police?

This is both positive and negative comments to them. Have they helped you before? Has an officer gone above the call of duty to aid you? Have they ever been nice or just informed you of a law change out of curtosy. Or have they been useless, arrogent to you, not come out at a robbery etc etc....

Not just a flaming post (well, we'll see people own opinions).

I have only had a few dealings with police in my life:

Dad had a bike stolen from outside the house. Police never even turned up.
GF had car broken into outside mothers house, fingerprints everywhere, police didn't even bother turning up.
Got done for 46mph in a 40mph limit when I first past my test. My next door neighbour was a copper, she couldn't believe it. I was treated as scum at the time.
I got pulled for a rather high speed of 131mph peak. Police officers (undercover) treated me like I had just killed someone and pulled their heart out with a wooden spoon. I was treated like dirt, even though fully realised my mistake (of being caught) at the time and was as white as sheet with fright.
The whole "cycle box" post......
I used to go to the naughty illegal cruises when I was younger. Never ever ever met a copper at those events who wasn't high on caffine and on a power trip.
Quite a few more.....
I've only ever had one good encounter with a copper after he pulled me over when I was younger. When I spoke to him, he saw I was no boyracer, and we had a really good natter about cars and bikes. He was an older officer, kinda like the friendly village bobby...

Basically, in nearly 27 years, i've had only 1 good experience with a copper. I accept my flaws and don't tend to give any lip unless provoked, in which case, all guns come out blazing.

Do the police force create their own problems sometimes with regards of attitude towards the (guilty until proven innocent) public?

Okay.

I had my moped stolen - No police interest.
Dad had his car broken into 12 times in the past 8 years - No Interest
I decide to take a leak in a bush after a long night out(there was nobody about) - Bingo!!! Panda car comes round the corner and whisks me off for a night in the cells.

I recently applied to join the police as a special constable, got through interviews and waited for approval, various eyesight tests and a small medical. Took about a year and a half.
Only to be turned down two weeks before training begins because i had a bad reference from an agency, who said they would not re hire me.
All because i decided not to go into work when they wern't paying me.

I dont like the police very much at the moment....

[fizzwheel]

I've only had two bad experiences.

First time I was Mr Cocky and I gave the police officer backchat, lesson learnt fast and the hardway I got an almight rollocking but no points fine.

Second time, they guy was quite frankly a moron, he was rude to me before I had even spoke to him, I didnt say anything to him and answered his questions politely and no matter what I said he was rude and antagonising towards me. I suspect he never had to actually nick me, so he was trying to wind me up so he could nick me for that instead. I didnt give him the satisfaction and he eventually let me go on my way.

Every other time I've been dealt with politely and with respect and I used to get pulled over alot when I was younger as I used to drive like a tw*t.
Three instances stick in my mind, once after being pulled for 95.3mph on the M5 a few years ago, officers were polite and courteous and actually complimented me on my driving, except for the speed.

2nd time was 3 days after I got my GSXR when I was in Weymouth, in teh rain with dark visor, deballfed race can and I got pulled over, The officer was a pains to re-assure me I hadnt done anything wrong and they were doing a insurance and tax check on bikes that day. He asked me if my bike was insured and taxed, to which I replied it was, he did a few checks to verify what I had said and he then said thanks for stopping and when I had put my earplugs and lid back on he stopped the traffic so it was easy for me to rejoin and carry on my journey.

The third time I thought I was right royally screwd after being caught for 70mph in a 30mph limit. The officer that day was a gent, he gave me a right royal b*ll*cking and then read me my rights and I thought I was going to be arrested their and then and I was sh*tting a brick and he had me bang to rights, he then said beacuse I had been polite when i was speaking to him and honest about my speeed he was going to let me go, it made a big impact om my driving especially in built up areas and was the thing that finally got me to slow down.

I had nothing but respect for traffic officers, but don't get me started about speed cameras.

I found you reap what you sew, i.e if you are quiet, speak when spoken to and are honest and polite, you'll get treated that way in return, if you are rude and start being clever with backchat they you'll get the book thrown at you.

I bought one of their records once, "Walking on the Moon", it was rubbish.

[the_lone_wolf]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

I bought one of their records once, "Walking on the Moon", it was rubbish.

git, beat me to it...

[G]

Mainly been 99% good except when calling them out to break ins etc, but they are understaffed, and other things take priority which is fair enough.

If your decent towards them then generally they have no reason to be abrasive towards you. I have followed that line of thinking and done okay so far and got away with stuff I perhaps shouldnt have done.

You occasionaly get the odd jobsworth like you do in any profession. One of my incidents with one of these went like below....

Has anyone seen the Thin Blue Line? The gay guy...........

I had a guy that acted, talked and looked exactly like him. We had a car parked on private property and the car had no front number plate which is what he picked up on intially.

He was trying to tell me he could give us a £30 fine etc and talking rubbish whilst on his high horse, trying to get one up on me us........ It didnt work.

He then started checking the tyres and picking faults with everything. He tried telling us alsorts and that the car could get us 12 points etc if he wanted to.

In the end we got frustrated and pointed out the car was not insured, not taxed and had not MOT etc, and would he like to arrest us straight away. Before he could say anything, we then pointed out...

'actually no you cant its on private property so you cant actually do anything and if you look under the bonnet you will find it does not even have an engine installed......so please leave us to it before we file a harrasement complaint against you'

He prompty got in his car (with a brake light out) and got on his way.


Because most people have so little known contact with the Police, incidents like that above stick in their minds and assume they are all the same. Its the minority acting like that which paints all Police with the same brush.

I've had good and bad with the police, Strangely the only Bad I've had was to do with break in's and thefts where they just aren't interested though in once case it was more the CPS's fault as they didn't want to go to court when they got the guy who left his prints all over my bike because I didn't see his face :sigh:.

Getting pulled over I've had it pretty good.
True the first time I got a rollocking (a polite one though) and banned for 2 months and a grand fine.

2nd time I'm very confused about....got not only a right rollocking but this time the two officers seemed quite rude and abrupt but one of them seemed pretty young..probably a rookie getting shown the ropes...
Then the older officer who was doing all the talking sent me off and I was half way home when I realised he written me a producer then put it away whilst looking at me...it hadn't clicked at the time because I was too busy kicking myself and feeling stupid...but I'm fairly sure to this day he did it on purpose, suffice to say I never heard anything more of it but the lessons stuck...well...for another 5 years at least....

Most recent was my bike being nicked at 3am, police didn't want to come to take prints from the bins etc that had been taken from the neighbours house to barricade the door just in case.

Dumbest was when I had, quite drunk....got a pint from the bar only to turn around and be told by the bouncer I'd have to have to drink that NOW or leave they were closing, eerr...drinking up time no? bah...so as soon as his back was turned I did a Eddie (bottom) and put it in my pocket and left...

Out the door, pint out the pocket and turn around with a big grin...staring right at a police officer....wow it's so embarrasing remebering how stupid I could be back then >_<

He asked me if that was alchol and I stupidly replied, "Don't know, just found it..." thankfully he didn't take offence to me trying to be a smart ****, asked me to pour it down the gutter and return the glass and go on my way....nice chap ^_^.....shame about the pint...

Originally Posted by graemepaterson

He prompty got in his car (with a brake light out) and got on his way.
.

Hahaha classic.

Originally Posted by Lozzo

I bought one of their records once, "Walking on the Moon", it was rubbish.

Yeah, The Jam were much better

My dealings with the police have been fairly unspectacular really.

Got stopped for undertaking once and given a caution (only because he said they were carrying no measuring equipment and neither him or his buddy could quite agree what speed I was actually doing). I had just undertaken a Ford Fiesta that was doing 40mph in a NSL dual carriageway, however as we passed a 40mph speed limit sign I was probably still doing 60mph

Anyway, copper told me he could understand my frustrations but had I not actually performed the silly undertaking then he would have actually stopped the Fiesta and told him about his lane discipline (that has to be a first!). The copper told me he didn't think I was wearing my seatbelt either, and that was the only point I argued with him about - and I suggested that perhaps his visibility wasn't helped by the small rear window of my MR2 - and fair play - he accepted he could have been mistaken.

After a crash on the motorway I had good-cop-bad-cop in one person (must have been a schizophrenic copper) ... he started by berating me for not calling the police first when I told him I was on the phone to my insurance company to actually get the vehicle recovered! Then he noticed how shocked I was and went a bit easy on me - he could have done me for BOTH rear tyres being under the legal limit, but he only did me for one (blessing in disguise that was when I later gained a further 3 points for speeding to take my tally to 10 - GULP!)

I find that there are certainly a mix of coppers out there ... some don't take the job too seriously and can have a laugh and a joke with you (depending on circumstances), but some take it waaaaay too seriously, the power goes to their heads, and they seem to have had the "sense of humour bypass" and go on to carve a blinding career in the Brunstrom mould

I try to be courteous whenever I can (as I once got done for speeding and had the audacity to say "What do you mean it's 30 here? Where's the bloody signs that say that then??", to which he replied, "As soon as you come out of the tunnel sir, and if you are still in any doubt, can you tell me how far apart the street lighting is sir?" ... needless to say that one was a £40 fixed penalty and 3 points).

I'm sure some of them purposely try and rile "offenders" to try and provoke a reaction out of them, but I'd like to think that those tw*ts are in the minority

Most of the coppers I've had dealings with have acted very professionally and used their discretion when dealing with my heinous offences, but you do get the occasional exception.

On one Saturday night when I was 19 I was arrested for taking a leak up the side of a car when out of my tree on Red Stripe Lager, the fact that it was a marked panda car with a sergeant inside it hadn't deterred me. He waited until I had finished, gently opened the door and treated me with surprising civility considering the offence. I cooperated and vaguely remember calling the sergeant a 'proper gent' at the time.

I was in front of the beak the next Monday, where I got a 20 quid fine, but I got a further 50 quid fine and a week in the cells, plus punishment duty from my CO when I got back to barracks late.

On the other hand I've come across a 2-man traffic team who attempted to bully me into admitting doing a runner from their Ford Granada on a Beckett tuned RD400 late one night. Ok, so I had, but I knew for a fact they couldn't prove it, or they'd have arrested me straight away. The intimidation was quite severe, until I pointed out that they had been invited into my house and I didn't like the way they were speaking to me, and told them to leave. Throughout the 10 minutes they were inside they had left the blue flashing lights on the car going, at 11-30 at night. My neighbours and I made a total of five complaints about this at the time and the next day, which got the officers a serious bollocking