Plod: They're not as mean as you think you know!

Well we've had plenty of police bashing threads on here so its only fair that following my interaction with one of the good ones I should share that on here too.

I've tended to side with the law on most our threads and I like to think it could be some type of karma based on that mentality which helped me out last night.

When leaving football I turn right at a major set of lights and head out on the ring road. Last night as I turned right I noticed a police car which had been heading into town do a U-turn at the same junction.
Doing what they seem to do when they're stalking thier pray I noticed they'd made an effort to hang back but noticed they'd copied every manourver I made. As traffic lessened and I was making progress down one of the main roads out of town the inevitable neon blue lights illuminated the honda interior.

Pulled over, was asked to take a seat in thier car but ended up just having a chat on the pavement. New to me was that the officer in the passenger seat who'd come to my window then procedded to takes names and details from my passengers. Someone in the know can let me know if thats common practice now. Anyway the officer I was speaking too informed me my MOT has shown up on thier system as expired in January,
Me: It is january, but it does run out on the 19th.
PO: We've got it showing up as expiring on the 13th.
Me: Today is the 13th, but honestly Im certain it expires on the 19th. I've just recieved a tax reminder which prompted me to dig out the MOT and insurance certificate and had you not pulled me over I'd have been 100% that I'd read the 19th.
PO: We'll Im running it through to check if it remains valid, it could just be a mistake with the system. Are you known to the police Matthew?
Me: I know a couple
PO: No, [laughs] I mean have you been in trouble with the police before?
Me: Oh sorry, no I've had a couple of points on my licence but nothing more serious than that.
PO: Ok not to worry, -
{some chit chat, about football as I was in my kit at the time}
the PO from the passenger side returned to the police car and at that point she asked, how he was getting on and he replied that it appears that the MOT must remain valid.

PO informed me that had it been a traffic car, at the very least I'd be required to make an appearence at the police station, and that I should get the car back home and double check my MOT certificate before driving it again, gave me a smile and told me to take it easy.

Needless to say, got home checked the MOT cert which was still on the side with my tax reminder.
Expired 4th Jan!!! - NO idea where I'd gotten 19th from although the bike expires on 19th April but that may just be coincidence as that cert was still in the file.

So a great big thank you to the officer who pulled me over, you must have known it had expired but let me go anyway so thank you thank you thank you thank you for not giving me any licence points and double those thank you's for not taking away and crushing my car!

MOT booked for 9.30am tomorrow!

So they let you break the law?

[Bluepete]

MOT is only worth the paper it's written on for the daythe vehicle is tested!

Lets say you get a warning about a tyre that is coming close to it's limit. You leave, and a few days later, after some spirited driving, the tyre is now bald, yet the car is still MOT'd.

In my area, we tend to have a word if the PNC shows the MOT expired and most people get iit sorted.

As for taking details of everyone in the car, yes, sometimes it's done, sometimes it isn't. Depends on the day, the Cop, the people in the car and so on.

Glad you enjoyed your experience, care to fill in a customer satisfaction form Sir?

Pete

Originally Posted by reeder

So they let you break the law?

I like to think he recognised the genuine mistake and decided that the punishment far exceeded my stupidity.

Originally Posted by Bluepete

Glad you enjoyed your experience, care to fill in a customer satisfaction form Sir?
Pete

Naaaaa its ok pete, I'll just wait until a time when I feel hard done by and then fill in one of those complaints forms convieniently forgetting this experiance. I mean, thats how it works isnt it?

[Geodude]

Way jammy, it must be karma or they liked the look of you in your footy kit

Originally Posted by Owenski

I like to think he recognised the genuine mistake and decided that the punishment far exceeded my stupidity..

So what if you were involved in a RTC after he had spoken with you.. I'm sure your insurance would have loved to void you insurance on the grounds that you never had a current MOT.

Originally Posted by The Guru

So what if you were involved in a RTC after he had spoken with you.. I'm sure your insurance would have loved to void you insurance on the grounds that you never had a current MOT.

Lets report this negligant officer.

[Paul the 6th]

they used 'police discretion' I guess

Although they pulled because the MOT allegedly ran out on 13th Jan (their system) there was obviously something a miss since the real expiry was 4th jan!

I tend to side with the police 95% of the time - unfortunately you get d*cks in every work place and the police are no different. They're usually always the first of the public services to get a roasting in the media or the pub or wherever anyone has been caught doing something wrong, but the majority of police are nice down-to-earth human beings.

Like last march when an un-marked traffic car recorded me on my sv1000 "making a little more progress than is probably necccessary" at 89.6mph. I was wearing my hi-viz and explained my positive attitude to road safety, he let me off with a £60 fine for no MOT (the dealer told me it came with a year's MOT so I was 100% certain it was due at the end of april - it had expired in the previous august!). He said he would have liked to have let me off altogether but the fact they had stopped me would show up on their system, and a ticket for no MOT made it look like they'd done their job, but I wouldn't get any points on my licence = a pretty fair deal to be honest.

He did the explanation about "build your speed up on the hard shoulder before rejoining lane 1" - I nailed it through 1st & 2nd upto 70mph in the hard shoulder and waited for them to catch me up..... as they passed me the officer in the passenger seat gave me the thumbs up nice fella's.

[carelesschucca]

For every ying there is a yang.

Originally Posted by The Guru

So what if you were involved in a RTC after he had spoken with you.. I'm sure your insurance would have loved to void you insurance on the grounds that you never had a current MOT.

On the other hand, he brought to my attention my lack of MOT prompting me to get one. Otherwise I'd have been driving around for a few days with equally invalid insurance for a greater time period increasing the likelyhood of an RTC whilst the MOT was void.

Im sure he was aware the odds of me having a bump on the remainder of my journey home were far slimmer than had I driven around blissfully unaware for any significant amount of time.

FACT: Yes in the event of an RTC my insurance would have been void
FACT: His actions reduced the amount of time I'd be on the road with a void MOT
FACT: His actions generated a positive experiance based on interaction with the police, when it could have very easily turned very sour.

If more officers thought like this one then maybe there wouldnt be such an "US and THEM" attitude towards the police.
Lets apprechiate they have to walk a tough line and instead of abuse for it when it needs to be done, lets praise them for when as Paul puts it "police discression" is used.