Okay to overtake a police car?

Will Gill said:
I sometimes get pulled weekly, they use "we want to make sure the car isnt stolen", it gets a little bit tiring but I suppose if it was stolen I'd be very impressed with their diligence, fortunately it's not yet annoyed me or held me up for anything important and they are usually nice enough so I'm happy to oblige
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I've only been pulled twice.
The last time was just after I picked up the Lolvo and that was when I was running around on Dutch export plates in the centre of Brussels.
And of course the one time I had forgotten my car papers. €50 fine. Weak.

Still waiting for the bill though and it happened in late July..
But then I've been waiting for a court summons for 3 months, so I shouldn't complain :o
 
kenmare said:
What right does a policeman have to ask you what you are doing? Last time I looked, driving around is a legal thing providing you are taxed, insured etc.


Nosy sod.
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A policeman can ask whatever they like! Doesn't mean you have to answer them.
 
kenmare said:
What right does a policeman have to ask you what you are doing? Last time I looked, driving around is a legal thing providing you are taxed, insured etc.


Nosy sod.
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Answering that question will give them the information that they require (namely it will give them some inkling as to whether you are up to no good or not) and thus they can be on their way to catch some real criminals and also leave you to carry on with your journey as quickly as possible.

Of course, you can argue with them that they don't have any right to ask what you are doing, where you are going on so on, thus wasting your own time and that of the officers, whilst also appearing to have something to hide at which point you may find their attitude towards yourself gets worse.

The police are doing a job and will occasionally ask questions of someone who isn't a criminal - deal with them politely and so long as you are legit yourself generally they will have you on your way in short order. Become obstructive, refuse to answer what are generally harmless questions, and argue the toss and you are likely to find things taking even longer. They'll get annoyed at you being unhelpful, you'll get annoyed at having your evening drive disrupted....its not a hard concept to grasp but it seems a lot of people can't deal with being pulled over in a sensible fashion.
 
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kenmare said:
What right does a policeman have to ask you what you are doing? Last time I looked, driving around is a legal thing providing you are taxed, insured etc.


Nosy sod.
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Stop and accounts are the bread and butter of a lot of police work. Remember, the Police are here to prevent crime as well at detect it etc.

Will Gill said:
anti terrorism laws have given the police the power to stop and search anyone they like, that was my understanding anyway.
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No, far from it. There is strict guidance on when you can and cannot search people.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Maybe they thought you were a drink driver and when they were talking to you they smelt your breath, didn't smell any alcohol and so let you go?

As for the second instance, maybe someone had just dumped a car after being chased and they wanted to know if you knew what direction he went in?
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Why would they think he was a drink driver? Surely a drink drivers driving is fairly obvious to police officers who deal with it on a daily basis?

If someone had just dumped a car, wouldn't the police have been on the same length of road as him and therefore would have had the opportunity to see all that he saw? Don't they usually also have two pairs of eyes?

Making enquiries door to door, in public places, etc is fine and dandy. Stopping people when they're driving for no legitimate reason and wasting their time, police time, and the taxpayers money really isn't. Sure, it may only take 10 minutes or so, but how many times do they needlessly stop people in a day? A week? A year? How better could that time have been spent? How many people have been made 10 minutes late for work, had 10 minutes of their life taken away from them because the police aren't aware of their own surrounding, aren't trained to recognise drink drivers accurately, etc etc?

I'm not having a 'DOWN WITH POLICE!' moment. I'm just pointing out that both of those stops and questions could have been avoided with better training and greater awareness, which would have in turn given the police more time in the day to deal with another crime, finish more paperwork, whatever.
 
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Captain_Slick said:
Why would they think he was a drink driver? Surely a drink drivers driving is fairly obvious to police officers who deal with it on a daily basis?
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They can be obvious, but they may not be. It could have been his manner of driving, where he was driving or a multitude of other things.

Captain_Slick said:
If someone had just dumped a car, wouldn't the police have been on the same length of road as him and therefore would have had the opportunity to see all that he saw? Don't they usually also have two pairs of eyes?
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That's a random assumption that often doesn't hold true.

Captain_Slick said:
Making enquiries door to door, in public places, etc is fine and dandy. Stopping people when they're driving for no legitimate reason and wasting their time, police time, and the taxpayers money really isn't.
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It's not a waste of money, it's what the police do day to day. They engage with the community, sometimes this is to get information sometimes it to see if any offences have occurred.

Captain_Slick said:
How many people have been made 10 minutes late for work, had 10 minutes of their life taken away from them because the police aren't aware of their own surrounding, aren't trained to recognise drink drivers accurately, etc etc?
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Police officers are also trained to fly and read minds. You do realise we're all human right?

Captain_Slick said:
I'm not having a 'DOWN WITH POLICE!' moment. I'm just pointing out that both of those stops and questions could have been avoided with better training and greater awareness, which would have in turn given the police more time in the day to deal with another crime, finish more paperwork, whatever.
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You cannot beat just talking to someone. Despite what you see on TV, this is the most important tool for any constable.
 
I don't quite get the people that get annoyed if a police car is doing the limit on a multiple lane carriageway and it causes all the lanes to be blocked up by a wall of traffic.... As far as I was aware, you should be driving in the leftmost lane unless overtaking the vehicles in front therefore there should not be 2-3 lanes of traffic all doing the same speed....
 
I think they were refering to people who stay fixed behind the police even tho they are going slow. what really annoys me being in cornwall is there are only 2 lanes and normally the person in front is trying to overtake the police like 1mph faster and they take about 5mins to pass them even tho you can go a lot faster so you get a que in the second lane as well :(
 
I overtook one doing about 70 once in a 60 by accident, the road was dead straight for about a mile and there was a line of about 4 cars doing around 50, so as I approached I pulled out and sailed past.

I then proceeded to crap myself as I realised the car at the front was a Ford Focus police car and i'd only been driving 6 months. I thought the best plan of action would just to carry on past as if everything was normal, nothing happened.
 
Will Gill said:
I sometimes get pulled weekly, they use "we want to make sure the car isnt stolen", it gets a little bit tiring but I suppose if it was stolen I'd be very impressed with their diligence, fortunately it's not yet annoyed me or held me up for anything important and they are usually nice enough so I'm happy to oblige
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If you did express annoyance at it keep happing they might make a note to not pull your car randomly for that reason, then if it does get stolen... well :)
 
Edit: I just realised this was a thread about overtaking police and I went on a rant about the times they've pulled me or my friends over for the most ridiculous reasons.

In Jersey there's only one dual carriage way (40mph) otherwise you'd pretty much have to break the speed limit to overtake them, that and they'd get you on any number of reasons. "Dangerous corner to over take on/wreckless maneuver etc etc".

I could go on and on about the silly stories I have about police and the reason they have for pulling over cars here. But that's for another thread :p
 
Burnsy2023 said:
It's not a waste of money, it's what the police do day to day. They engage with the community, sometimes this is to get information sometimes it to see if any offences have occurred.
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And sometimes it does just waste time, no?

Police officers are also trained to fly and read minds. You do realise we're all human right?
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Perhaps that's my biggest problem with this country and the world. I expect the same of everyone else as I would expect of myself, and it just doesn't happen most of the time.
 
Captain_Slick said:
And sometimes it does just waste time, no?
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It uses time, I wouldn't call it a waste.

Captain_Slick said:
Perhaps that's my biggest problem with this country and the world. I expect the same of everyone else as I would expect of myself, and it just doesn't happen most of the time.
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I think you might have unrealistic expectations of yourself too.
 
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