Uncalled for prosecution

pastymuncher said:
That's just disgusting. One rule for them and another for us. Just because he was on a shout doesn't give him the right to put others at risk.
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You think so?

He may still lose his job. Unlike a LOT of jobs out there, if you are cleared by the courts of an alleged criminal offence as a police officer, you then have to go on trial again by the Professional Standards dept.

In most other jobs, if this was to happen you could get back on with your life and job, not have to stand trial twice.
 
muon said:
An unmarked car Driving on the wrong side of the road and through junctions forcing vehicles to take avoiding actions? Do that one hundred times and see how many people end up hurt.

It even says the driver lost control of the vehicle twice.
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I've seen police do the above before, was a high way patrol car chasing after someone else, the copper went on the wrong side of the road into the oncoming traffic lane, probably so he could see what was happening at the round about a few hundred metres down the road though but he still did it.

also
He sped through the countryside in a police Land Rover Discovery - typically used by armed response units
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Surely they have sirens or blue lights in the front window?

What about when it's an actual armed response unit, they drive at a leisurely pace?
 
AFAIK it was the public that reported his driving to the police. IME, when I see an emergency vehicle coming in my direction with the light and sirens going, I get out of the way. If they go on the other side of the road, around roundabouts the wrong way or just generally "rally it", the last thing on my mind would be to pick up the phone and complain.... They have the lights etc on for a reason.

Should they hit you then that is different but people need to stop getting butthurt over something which is probably minor in comparison to the call the police etc are going to and being a little inconvenienced by an emergency vehicle.
 
Do you know the roads he was doing it on? I do and what he was doing was reckless as hell. There is no excuse. The Haudagain roundabout which he went the wrong way around is a nightmare at the best of times and the last thing you need is a muppet in a Discovery (or any other car) coming the wrong way around it at speed barely in control. It is extremely difficult to get out of the way of anything at that roundabout. It's a major bottleneck in Aberdeen and they can't do anything about it until they build the bypass.
 
I've not read the whole thread but I reserve judgement tbh. Newspapers love to exaggerate.

I saw an ambulance on the wrong side of the road (with an island/barrier between both sides/lanes), at a junction yesterday and was a bit :eek: they were driving fairly slowly but it's still pretty risky. Hope they got to the emergency in time, guessing it's only life-threatening situations when they do this.
 
TheyCallMeAndy said:
The police are insane when it comes to driving one guy nearly hit me when i was driving so it is very risky to be honest with you, although if they were in a serious chance i can understand it because they are trained to chase the ******s down
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I was driving down the M42 the other night doing "night time 70" as it was empty, saw some blues in my mirror catching me up at a pretty scary speed to be honest, before I even realised 3 cars come bombing past me they were *easily* going well over 120+ mph within meters of each other.

I have no idea what they were responding to, but I have to admit, the speeds they were going seemed completely excessive, if one lost control all 3 woulda been wiped out.
 
Richie said:
Did you see him driving? The courts did and they thought differently...
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He admitted driving dangerously and made a guilty plea to the charge.

The court hearing was about sentencing and an absolute discharge means he receives no punishment from the court.

The court may give an absolute discharge, which means it decides not to impose a punishment because the experience of going to court has been punishment enough. However, the offender still gets a criminal record.
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He still has a criminal conviction for dangerous driving and may have to face a misconduct hearing.
 
I know all that. My point is - if the courts thought it was dangerous enough to impose a punishment then they would have. They didnt. The courts also didnt decide on his conviction, the driver took it out their hands and pleaded guilty.

People here are saying it was dangerous, reckless etc etc. The only people that will know for sure are the people who have viewed the video and not the armchair pundits here. The courts viewed the video and other evidence and they decided no punishment should come from it. Had he pleaded Not Guilty, they may have found in his favour as well but we will never know given he removed that outcome from the courts' hands.
 
Richie said:
I know all that. My point is - if the courts thought it was dangerous enough to impose a punishment then they would have. They didnt. The courts also didnt decide on his conviction, the driver took it out their hands and pleaded guilty.

People here are saying it was dangerous, reckless etc etc. The only people that will know for sure are the people who have viewed the video and not the armchair pundits here. The courts viewed the video and other evidence and they decided no punishment should come from it. Had he pleaded Not Guilty, they may have found in his favour as well but we will never know given he removed that outcome from the courts' hands.
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Exactly this!

No point being sucked into media hype and manipulated like sheep. The driver decided that the best way forward was to plead - this could be down to many things, most of all, to end the trial sooner rather than later, and also to face lesser punishment for not wasting court time.

Unless we were present and saw the circumstances and occurrences, we have absolutely no right to judge him.
 
I hope I read it all, but I didn't see anywhere that he'd hit anyone or caused an accident. Clearly the training paid off. Just to summarise though - copper gets a call about firearms+children, he gets there fast without hurting anyone. How is this anything other than a win-win and why was a prosecution on the cards?
 
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