Police presence in Wiltshire!

[gruntygiggles]

This is something that Squirrel_Hunter and I have become incredibly aware of over the last couple of months. During Steve's redundancy period, we were regularly travelling to each others, which is a trip between J16-17 of the M4 and the use of the Chippenham ring road and Swindon by pass.

I am yet to make a trip where I haven't seen an unmarked car or three on that one stretch of the motorway.

About a month back I was doing a steady 75 on the babyblade and an astra van (silver) was overtaking me, pulling in in front, leaving plenty of room and slowing right down, but gently, not dangerously. I'd pass at 75 and then the same would happen again...but the astra would never get too close so I suspected maybe it was an unmarked car trying to get me to just lose my rag and get on the throttle. It followed me at the exit and with the lights red, I was able to see the dash and driver and yep...unmarked police car.

On one day I saw 3 blue unmarked Saabs and an unmarked black BMW X5 (prob the one that pulled us all over...lol).

DI a trip to Steve's where I saw two BMW 3 series, one silver and one charcoal on the hard shoulder having pulled peoples over with light boards in the rear windscreen saying "police" or with directional arrows.

On the way back to mine with Steve that same day, saw a grey BMW 3 series that had pulled someone on the opposite carriageway and two other marked cars.

Steve has also seen an umlarked convertible.

They are everywhere, so watch out in Wiltshire peeps.

Anyone else have the same in their region?

[gruntygiggles]

Forgot to say, this is linked to this thread...

http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=155175

I think the police presence on the roads may be due to the Cameras being covered!

You're a lot better than I am at spotting unmarked cars. Swindon scrapped speed cameras ages ago, so maybe that's why they have more unmarked cars about.

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by wyrdness

You're a lot better than I am at spotting unmarked cars. Swindon scrapped speed cameras ages ago, so maybe that's why they have more unmarked cars about.

Yep....it's crazy. Anyone riding/driving around here should watch their speed on the main roads.

Thanks for the tip. Our route to the AR joins the M4 at J17 after the Chippenham ring road...

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by RichT

Thanks for the tip. Our route to the AR joins the M4 at J17 after the Chippenham ring road...

Yep...was going to post in the other thread, but you've see n now. Just keep your eyes peeled

[Spikenipple]

Cheers for pointing them out, I've been doing quite a bit of driving on the M4 between Bath and Swindon recently so I'll take it easy!

You've got to bear in mind that Wiltshire is the favoured retirement place for many ex-cabinet ministers, and some of them are awarded police protection for the rest of their days, particularly any who have held office as Northern Ireland Minister. That's why Wiltshire's police budget is always stretched to the limit and normal policing duties suffer. It's not uncommon to see lots of unmarked cars in the villages around that way, and you understand why when you find out who has an estate close by.

[gruntygiggles]

Originally Posted by Lozzo

You've got to bear in mind that Wiltshire is the favoured retirement place for many ex-cabinet ministers, and some of them are awarded police protection for the rest of their days, particularly any who have held office as Northern Ireland Minister. That's why Wiltshire's police budget is always stretched to the limit and normal policing duties suffer. It's not uncommon to see lots of unmarked cars in the villages around that way, and you understand why when you find out who has an estate close by.

Ha.....I'm hoping we never have to find out ourselves, but apparently, when you dial 999 from our area, you can end up with police and army helicopters and police and army cars/trucks everywhere in no time.

All due to the fact that Ray Mill is at the bottom of the hill...about a mile and a half from ours and it's where Camilla lives. It's well known locally that her and Prince Charles spend a lot of their time there away from Highgrove which is about 20 minutes away as they prefer the peace and quite. Goodness knows why as Highgrove is hardly in the city...lol.

Originally Posted by gruntygiggles

Ha.....I'm hoping we never have to find out ourselves, but apparently, when you dial 999 from our area, you can end up with police and army helicopters and police and army cars/trucks everywhere in no time.

All due to the fact that Ray Mill is at the bottom of the hill...about a mile and a half from ours and it's where Camilla lives. It's well known locally that her and Prince Charles spend a lot of their time there away from Highgrove which is about 20 minutes away as they prefer the peace and quite. Goodness knows why as Highgrove is hardly in the city...lol.

That's the sort of thing I mean, it all comes out of Wiltshire Police's budget and costs them a bloody fortune for which they get no extra govt help