Police tick off driver for snow on car roof
Discussion
www.eastkentmercury.co.uk/news/default.asp?article_id=24418
A FORMER special constable has made an official complaint to the police after an officer ticked him off for driving with snow on his car roof.
John Padwick at first thought it was a joke when the policeman followed him into the Co-op car park in Faversham Road, Kennington, Ashford, and gave him a dressing-down.
The incident happened on Thursday, December 29, when the area had experienced heavy snowfalls.
But the plain-clothes officer told Mr Padwick, of Canterbury Road, Ashford, that he should remove all the snow from his car before driving as it had been billowing off the roof.
“I couldn’t believe it. I asked him if he was serious,” said the 52-year-old, who served in the police force for three years.
“I had brushed the car off and the windscreens, mirrors and windows were clear.
There was no snow on it apart from on the roof – and all the cars in the car park had snow on their roofs. I thought it was absolutely ridiculous.”
Mr Padwick, a retired sales manager, is a member of the League of Safe Drivers and an advanced driver.
“I used to drive thousands of miles a month up and down the country in all sorts of conditions and I have never been stopped,” he said.
A police spokesman said: “Our Kent Policing Standard states we will be professional, courteous and fair and we treat complaints such as Mr Padwick’s very seriously. All formal complaints made to us are investigated thoroughly.
“In dangerous weather conditions our prime concern is public safety and we would expect our officers to point out any potential hazards.
“Uncleared snow on the roof of a vehicle could obscure the windscreen and blow into the path of other vehicles or passers-by.
"At speed this would represent a significant hazard to those close by.”
JOHN PADWICK: "I couldn't believe it"
Report from Kentish Express
perhaps it could be a problem to anyone "following too close"!, perhaps the copper was following him at a distance of 2 feet as they normally seem to do, surely if a following driver is keeping their distance the snowfall would just fall to the ground in front of the following vehicle?
Given that's he's such an experienced advanced driver, I'm surprised that he thinks the police' position is so unreasonable. Yes it's a bit strange that they would go to the trouble of following and stopping him, but it's obvious that snow blowing off the roof *is* a danger to following cars. The pillock should have shut up and gone on his way. Making an official complaint about it is just plain stupid.
I don't see his problem .... the officer is doing what he thought was best and pointing it out. If he was such a good 'advanced driver' he would have scraped the snow as best he could off the roof. Large lumps of snow flying off a car at speed are most definitely a hazard and if it was particularly bad I am not at all surprised the officer had a word.
It was probably never the officers intention to do anything more about it than point it out. Someone who is prepared to put in an official complaint afterwards has either been dealt with by the police officer from hell - which is always possible - or, may I suggest, has a bit of an attitude themselves and thinks they know it all having been a special constable ......
It was probably never the officers intention to do anything more about it than point it out. Someone who is prepared to put in an official complaint afterwards has either been dealt with by the police officer from hell - which is always possible - or, may I suggest, has a bit of an attitude themselves and thinks they know it all having been a special constable ......
Unfortunately it has become all to common for people to run to the press and shout foul whenever the police do something toward them they dont think is right, when anyone with any common sense knows it *was* the right course of action for the police to take. Woman on the M6, The Woman stopped at the checkpoint a year or so ago and told her numberplate was illegal. This guy.
Bashing the police is fashionable is seems
Bashing the police is fashionable is seems
Agree with that.
I've been driving with snow on roof for 40 years.
<<<<<<< pause for smartarse gags >>>>>>>>>>
Never had a problem. In conditions like that, hard braking is the last thing you should be doing.
It all blows off at reasonable speed and joins the rest of the snow on the road.
I've been driving with snow on roof for 40 years.
<<<<<<< pause for smartarse gags >>>>>>>>>>
Never had a problem. In conditions like that, hard braking is the last thing you should be doing.
It all blows off at reasonable speed and joins the rest of the snow on the road.
big question is what was plain-clothes officer doing 
around and playing at being a traffic cop for?
what was he really supost to be doing at the time ?
if he was ununiformed he had no buisness doing a traffic stop anyway.
yes as the resident bibs will no dout confirm yes plain clothes can legaly stop a car but its not normal pratice as cid or plain clothes with normaly call a marked unit for a car stop unless it specile branch doing a hard stop on a major job.
as it wouldent take a half desent solisitor long to get his clint off a fail to stop in cases like thease ie my cliant fort it was some roadrage nutter chaseing me.
in this case if he had radioed is and ask for a marked unit to stop someone for snow on the roof my guess is there told him it pissoff and lathed at him in the control room.
>> Edited by OUTLAW-1 on Sunday 8th January 05:06
around and playing at being a traffic cop for? what was he really supost to be doing at the time ?
if he was ununiformed he had no buisness doing a traffic stop anyway.
yes as the resident bibs will no dout confirm yes plain clothes can legaly stop a car but its not normal pratice as cid or plain clothes with normaly call a marked unit for a car stop unless it specile branch doing a hard stop on a major job.
as it wouldent take a half desent solisitor long to get his clint off a fail to stop in cases like thease ie my cliant fort it was some roadrage nutter chaseing me.
in this case if he had radioed is and ask for a marked unit to stop someone for snow on the roof my guess is there told him it pissoff and lathed at him in the control room.
>> Edited by OUTLAW-1 on Sunday 8th January 05:06
nonegreen said:
This is nonsense we should not be paying people to busybody. There are crimes to be solved, perhaps the politicians are right traffic police are well past their sell by.
duty of care mate - i can't see the problem with a policeman having a quiet word. Rightfully so in this instance, flying snow from cars is a hazard and its smacks of laziness to not remove it from the roof as well as windows; for a start it would mostly likely slide down his rear window and sit on the wiper anyway, thus making his earlier efforts useless.
This blokes reaction seems mostly to be of embaressmentand probably indignation that he was stopped given that he obviously thought his driving record set him above others. Most people get over it, others mouth off to the press and look more of a tit.
Just think, if he hadn't said anything noone would have known about it except for him and the policeman - now he parades himself in the local rag and as far as i am concerned is making a tit of himself. Would have expected more from supposedly a "special constable" too.
>> Edited by Buffalo on Sunday 8th January 07:11
GreenV8S said:
Given that's he's such an experienced advanced driver, I'm surprised that he thinks the police' position is so unreasonable. Yes it's a bit strange that they would go to the trouble of following and stopping him, but it's obvious that snow blowing off the roof *is* a danger to following cars. The pillock should have shut up and gone on his way. Making an official complaint about it is just plain stupid.
agreed.
maybe the man in question is no longer a special constable because he found his own views at odds with those of the Police?
What an idiot! And I mean the complainant, not the BiB.
Snow blowing off a vehicle roof does not have "similar properties to rain" as one thread above states. "Spindrift" is not a major issue, but snow can blow off in large chunks (as also said above). I recall coming upon an accident at a roundabout where snow and ice from the canvas roof of a lorry had slid off and struck two cars causing extensive damage to both and requiring the attendance of an ambulance. I have seen around 4" depth of snow depart the roof and boot of a Jaguar in one go on a corner, causing the following car to understeer into the kerb buckling the off-side front wheel (I was following that car).
To offer another explanation for the special constable being "ex" ... he demonstrates a complete lack of common sense.
Streaky
Snow blowing off a vehicle roof does not have "similar properties to rain" as one thread above states. "Spindrift" is not a major issue, but snow can blow off in large chunks (as also said above). I recall coming upon an accident at a roundabout where snow and ice from the canvas roof of a lorry had slid off and struck two cars causing extensive damage to both and requiring the attendance of an ambulance. I have seen around 4" depth of snow depart the roof and boot of a Jaguar in one go on a corner, causing the following car to understeer into the kerb buckling the off-side front wheel (I was following that car).
To offer another explanation for the special constable being "ex" ... he demonstrates a complete lack of common sense.
Streaky
An ex special constable eh..........Could obscure the windscreen, could being the operative word.
There are countless stories on here of people reporting all sorts of criminal activity which is actually occurring at the time of report and the prescribed treatment is to issue a CRN.
There seems at the very best to be a disparity here, proactive policing on the back of ludicrous small mindedness, check. Actual good policing in the community, we'll get back to you.
I fully appreciate that the force is in the vast majority made up of decent hard working people but again its small mindedness on the back of very tenuous safety concerns thats doing the force no favours at all here.
There are countless stories on here of people reporting all sorts of criminal activity which is actually occurring at the time of report and the prescribed treatment is to issue a CRN.
There seems at the very best to be a disparity here, proactive policing on the back of ludicrous small mindedness, check. Actual good policing in the community, we'll get back to you.
I fully appreciate that the force is in the vast majority made up of decent hard working people but again its small mindedness on the back of very tenuous safety concerns thats doing the force no favours at all here.
Plotloss said:
Could obscure the windscreen, could being the operative word.
There are countless stories on here of people reporting all sorts of criminal activity which is actually occurring at the time of report and the prescribed treatment is to issue a CRN.
There seems at the very best to be a disparity here, proactive policing on the back of ludicrous small mindedness, check. Actual good policing in the community, we'll get back to you.
I fully appreciate that the force is in the vast majority made up of decent hard working people but again its small mindedness on the back of very tenuous safety concerns thats doing the force no favours at all here.
"Could" So therefore a potential hazard - we agree.
Would I have issued an FPN? Probably not - but I wasn't there so will not judge
Proactive Policing - great idea and fantastic in essence. However, when you arrive on an early shift to 30 odd delayed logs that need to be issued to Pc's on my team, plus prisoners in custody that need dealing with you are purely reactive most of the time. Sad, but in light of current staffing levels and high levels of work, its true. Trouble is, the patrol officers and Sergeants are the ones that feel it most as all they want to do is to get out there and be proactive, there is nothing more frustrating than being held back.
I would agree this isn't the best publicity process ever, but there was a hazard present, albeit something that is subjective to the officer dealing, who knows, that officer may have caught a burglar the shift before? I don't know that person, he may be a jobsworth, or may have witnessed an RTA (Sorry it's RTC now
)that involved views being obscured by snow, we don't know. OUTLAW-1 said:
big question is what was plain-clothes officer doing
what was he really supost to be doing at the time ?
if he was ununiformed he had no buisness doing a traffic stop anyway.
yes as the resident bibs will no dout confirm yes plain clothes can legaly stop a car but its not normal pratice as cid or plain clothes with normaly call a marked unit for a car stop unless it specile branch doing a hard stop on a major job.
as it wouldent take a half desent solisitor long to get his clint off a fail to stop in cases like thease ie my cliant fort it was some roadrage nutter chaseing me.
in this case if he had radioed is and ask for a marked unit to stop someone for snow on the roof my guess is there told him it pissoff and lathed at him in the control room.
>> Edited by OUTLAW-1 on Sunday 8th January 05:06
Outlaw is quite right, a plain clothes officer would require a marked unit to stop the vehicle legally.
The response from the control room, well..........who knows
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