Dad pulled out on traffic cop on M6

[GreatAuk]

Good to read about this outcome for OP's dad, presumably the officer / a police lawyer had another look at their dash cam and realised he was at fault.

As others have said I'd be putting in an official complaint now. Partly for stringing you along and wasting the court's time, and partly for the initial incident, which given they haven't even bothered to come to court sounds like it was dangerous driving on the officer's part.

 

[Burnsy2023]

ep totally agree, it's absurd that a copper can go to that length and not turn up. I would have thought if they make an arrest/dish out a penalty then they would be compelled to turn up at court. By not doing so, they're not doing their job.

@Burnsy2023 is this true?

It varies from force to force. Where I am, cases that get dismissed like this are included in "case attrition" reviews and are usually monitored by senior officers as to why they happen. Whether anything comes of it depends though; communication between courts and forces are often crap and so the officer's non-attendance might not be their fault. I've turned up to court and spoken to the prosecutor who was surprised I was there as they stood me down a week ago but that message didn't get through. That's not uncommon, unfortunately. If he didn't just turn up, I'd hope that this would be picked up by the court and referred back to the force, but it's difficult to have full confidence in this given the communication issues.

 

[casaubond]

Case Dismissed. Copper didn't even show, After postponing too.

Looks like he didn't show as the poor standards of his driving and the admittance of driving in excess of 100mph without blues on a busy motorway would have been on his record.

Glad to hear it, doing 120mph on motorway in the dark is no joke, even for professionally trained drivers.
One thing though is worse checking, considering as you mentioned your dad was a driving instructor so he probably looked properly before moving, it is possible he might not have ''seen'' the police car. I would suggest to ask him to see an optometrist to check for Glaucoma

 

[Semple]

It varies from force to force. Where I am, cases that get dismissed like this are included in "case attrition" reviews and are usually monitored by senior officers as to why they happen. Whether anything comes of it depends though; communication between courts and forces are often crap and so the officer's non-attendance might not be their fault. I've turned up to court and spoken to the prosecutor who was surprised I was there as they stood me down a week ago but that message didn't get through. That's not uncommon, unfortunately. If he didn't just turn up, I'd hope that this would be picked up by the court and referred back to the force, but it's difficult to have full confidence in this given the communication issues.

Good to hear. Yeah you'd hope failure to turn up at court would reflect badly for them.

 

[mattyg]

Glad to hear it, doing 120mph on motorway in the dark is no joke, even for professionally trained drivers.
One thing though is worse checking, considering as you mentioned your dad was a driving instructor so he probably looked properly before moving, it is possible he might not have ''seen'' the police car. I would suggest to ask him to see an optometrist to check for Glaucoma

Hes had both eyes lasered and his eyesight is not a concern

 

[EdGey]

It's funny this thread should pop up.

It was only a few days ago that I was on the motorway and a traffic cop bombed past at easily 150mph with no blues on.

It may be within their rules but the fact is if I'd pulled out to overtake, he'd have had no chance to stop in time, and I'd have had no chance of knowing the speed at which he was closing the distance. I love a bit of speed on occassion but It struck me as dangerous and unproffessional.

 

[bainbridge]

My driving instructor was ex police and he taught me to: "mirror, signal, mirror, manoeuvre". This extra check is useful on motorways for judging the speed of vehicles in the mirror.

 

[Gaygle]

communication between courts and forces are often crap and so the officer's non-attendance might not be their fault. I've turned up to court and spoken to the prosecutor who was surprised I was there as they stood me down a week ago but that message didn't get through. That's not uncommon, unfortunately.

This is what will have happened. The system between courts and police is *SO* inefficient and I cannot overstate how disorganised it is.

When someone pleads not guilty, a court date is set and a notification gets sent through from the court to police which goes straight to the resourcing unit and witness care who alter your shifts and tell you that you're going court that day. Sometimes you get these at such short notice, and often when you might be on a course/2 weeks annual leave/rest days and they want you in court in 2 days time. They don't seem to comprehend that sending an email to someone doesn't mean they've picked it up. Sometimes you don't even get a notification telling you you are needed at court. Sometimes you get a notification saying you are needed at court, then you get there and after sitting around for 4 hours, a prosecutor looks at you blankly and says one of four things:

"Who are you? Why are you here?" (6 times out of 10)
"Ah Officer XXXXXX, yes they're hoping they might get enough time to hear this one after lunch, so come back in 2 hours" (2 times out of 10)
"Ah Officer, Mr XXXXXX hasn't turned up today so they're going to set another date, possibly in 2025 and hope he turns up then. But don't go anywhere today as he might still turn up at some point" (2 times out of 10)

You don't just have the option to say "Nahhh i don't feel like going" as it's the equivalent (or even worse!) than just deciding not to turn up at work one day because you can't be bothered.

 

[mattyg]

This is what will have happened. The system between courts and police is *SO* inefficient and I cannot overstate how disorganised it is.

When someone pleads not guilty, a court date is set and a notification gets sent through from the court to police which goes straight to the resourcing unit and witness care who alter your shifts and tell you that you're going court that day. Sometimes you get these at such short notice, and often when you might be on a course/2 weeks annual leave/rest days and they want you in court in 2 days time. They don't seem to comprehend that sending an email to someone doesn't mean they've picked it up. Sometimes you don't even get a notification telling you you are needed at court. Sometimes you get a notification saying you are needed at court, then you get there and after sitting around for 4 hours, a prosecutor looks at you blankly and says one of four things:

"Who are you? Why are you here?" (6 times out of 10)
"Ah Officer XXXXXX, yes they're hoping they might get enough time to hear this one after lunch, so come back in 2 hours" (2 times out of 10)
"Ah Officer, Mr XXXXXX hasn't turned up today so they're going to set another date, possibly in 2025 and hope he turns up then. But don't go anywhere today as he might still turn up at some point" (2 times out of 10)

You don't just have the option to say "Nahhh i don't feel like going" as it's the equivalent (or even worse!) than just deciding not to turn up at work one day because you can't be bothered.

Sounds like its worth the risk of going to court then....