The tyranny of self-appointed guardians of everyone else

[Derek Smith]

I wrote an article on road safety. Despite having a good idea of the facts I would use I looked for any recent research and found some from a number of universities from around the world, including Canada, Australia and various European countries. I learned something new and was able to write a fairly long article which I could support with references.

I forgot one thing. One vital thing. The client realised this and had it checked by a self appointed quango on road safety. They reckoned I was wrong. Or rather, the universities were wrong, the ones who did all th evidenced research.

My client is a bit miffed - and quite rightly as I should have checked. He knows the article is spot on but if it disagrees with the beliefs of this quango then I am wrong as it could have meant that his company would have been subjected to a deal of criticism.

It was a mistake on my behalf - I've done this sort of work for long enough to know that - but what this means is that the findings of universities are now worthless.

Some of my anger is because I made a basic error and put my client (hopefully still my client) at risk. I know, of course, that having evidence is not enough.

It is playing politics with road safety.

I've got to rewrite the article, resubmit it, but not before checking through the annuls of this charity to ensure I haven't said anything right which would be wrong to include.

[Derek Smith]

The article was on tiredness and I included all the caveats about not driving when tired, know your limits and such. I enjoyed writing it and, as I said, I learnt something new and the research was interesting. Times like that writing is a sinecure. But, it seems, the research on stimulants is 'wrong' because it suggests that stimulants work.

Well, the point is that stimulants do work. If you take caffeine in moderate doses after driving for a certain period, your driving will be identical to that of when you were fresh. There is a suggestion that it will actually be better, but whilst the data is statistically significant it might be due to other circumstances.

So if you are driving for 3 hours, then having a coffee after 2 hours, or chocolate, or coffee beans, whatever, can improve your driving.

Another point was that setting yourself tests can help. Talking to a passenger can help. Talking to yourself can help. Having an imaginary conversation with someone next to you can help (don't do this if there are passengers in the back seat, or at least without warning them). But these methods, because they don't include drugs I suppose, didn't trigger a response.

I stopped at motorway services and was approached by a young chap who asked for a lift. I said: I'll enjoy someone to talk with.

Almost by the end of the slipway he was asleep. I nudged him and told him that the reason I picked him up was for conversation. He said: I'm tired' I said: I've just driven from Chester (Lymm) and I'm tired as well. That's the point.

He said: Tough and curled up on my, MY, passenger seat and tried to sleep. I stopped at the next services and told him to get out. He refused. I told him that, as he stank of cannabis, I could search him and then the local police (I was nearish to Oxford) could have the job.

I tell you what, that woke me up. I kept thinking of different ways I could have dealt with the situation.

[Derek Smith]

toohuge said:

Catweazle said:

Publish and be damned.

I agree. Surely complying with these with an agenda is only making them stronger....

I can see my client's point of view. In fact, I agree whole-heartedly with it. If they are criticised it could spread on Twitter or other media where those waiting to become upset become upset. He runs a business.

The post was a rant, but I don't see that my client should risk his company.

[Derek Smith]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Derek,

Serious point. When I write "company car driver's handbook" for customers, I included a "no hitch hikers" rule. For 2 reasons.

1. I have known 2 cases of hitch hikers just going mental after being picked up, maybe on drugs or just with mental health issues. One of them grabbed the wheel and cause a major accident.

2. Even if the hitch hiker is perfectly decent, if you have an accident, you have an unnecessary passenger and someone else to make an injury claim against the driver (employer's fleet insurance).

There's research out there to show that hitch hikers have about average levels of issues with drink / drugs/ mental heath issues and also research to show hitch hikers are more likely to make an injury claim if involved in an accident.

And before any hitch hikers come on here and go crazy, I know this isn't always the case, and I know many in the motor trade hitch hike on a regular basis after delivering vehicles etc. But you ain't being picked up by any of my clients I'm afraid.

Point taken. It was on impulse. I was driving a 998cc car without a radio and I was worried that my concentration might slip.

Oddly enough, I have a little story on giving lifts:

I'd nicked two little scroats one evening, around 6pm, in another force area. At first the local police weren't interested but it started to escalate, with lots of expensive property, and CID took it over.

After a busy night I was driving home, towards Blackwall Tunnel, when I saw the pair of them walking along East India Dock Road thumbing. I thought; Why not? and picked them up. I asked them about their own evening and they told me what had happened to them. I got some honest feedback. But the odd thing was, they didn't recognise me. Fair enough, I'd changed out of uniform.

[Derek Smith]

OpulentBob said:

Derek Smith said:

Point taken. It was on impulse. I was driving a 998cc car without a radio and I was worried that my concentration might slip.

Oddly enough, I have a little story on giving lifts:

I'd nicked two little scroats one evening, around 6pm, in another force area. At first the local police weren't interested but it started to escalate, with lots of expensive property, and CID took it over.

After a busy night I was driving home, towards Blackwall Tunnel, when I saw the pair of them walking along East India Dock Road thumbing. I thought; Why not? and picked them up. I asked them about their own evening and they told me what had happened to them. I got some honest feedback. But the odd thing was, they didn't recognise me. Fair enough, I'd changed out of uniform.

I like that. Out of interest, was the feedback informative? Did it tell you anything you didn't know about how you worked, or how you came across doing the job? (If that sounds loaded, that's not the intention)

It was extremely useful and what they said proved that they were talking sense.

They mentioned me and the much more experienced officer I was working with. He was always chatty with suspects and I followed his example. Given his results I'd have been stupid not to. Both the chaps said how 'nice' the uniformed officers were but once CID got involved they got a bit miffed and just shut up. We got a cough to the earlier offences - we caught them near the location - and the other stuff was a bit iffy.

I followed the same MO from then on. I'd chat to offenders. I've gone through every major campaign in the second world war in my time. One chap told me about a time he was surrounded by half a dozen Germans with them not knowing he was there. He tried to find a way out but it would have meant crossing an open space "If you're happy with the statement, sign there, thanks and there, and finally at the bottom, thanks. Now you couldn't escape so what did you do?" Well, there was a lorry, about to go out, so I crept up into the back and then . . .

I couldn't walk through Brighton without some of my prisoners saying hello, some saluting me. I took my elder boy's in-laws into Brighton and he asked me not to acknowledge them. So I dropped them near to the Pavilion, went off to park the car, and walked to it on my own.

I had a few informants who were ex prisoners. And once I had a complaint at an inopportune time - I was going for promotion - and a prisoner, whom I charged and prosecuted at court, was my defence. I didn't brief him but I knew he'd not put me away.

Not that I had said anything to the complainant of course. Honest.

strudel said:

If they had recognised you, could that not have been some serious trouble?

No. They weren't violent. Just stupid. Anyway, it was something to tell the lads that afternoon so worth a bit of a risk.

As an aside, most prisoners were all right. You could chat to them. Once they got to know you they often found it difficult to tell a lie to your face. I've gone to the houses of juveniles to search their rooms and the parents have made me a cup of tea and told me their problems. I've been handed a pack of cannabis by a mother and asked what to do about it. I told her that she should think carefully about being a witness against her boy and she asked me to dispose of it. I told her that if she flushed it down the loo, there'd be no problem.

The following day I suddenly realised the major problem with my idea. I phoned her to tell her not to write a letter of thanks and she said she had been going to.

I'd forgotten about that. I'll have to put that in my new book.

My career: the Sweeney it wasn't. I've had more, many more in number and percentages, arguments and aggravation from lawyers and senior officers than I've ever had from prisoners, and I was a busy lad at times.

[Derek Smith]

fblm said:

Derek I can understand why your client wouldn't want to publish a potentially damaging article for whatever reason. Why don't you publish it here?

Can't really do that as a search for a phrase would give away who he is and I don't think he'd like that.

That said, I might produce a little article that has no similar phrases . . .

On the matter of prisoners, I dealt with my fair share of stroppy ones, and really nasty ones. I was once followed home from work by a violent drug dealer. He waited until I left the car park. I started to go home then decided to go on a drive, making out I was trying to get away from him. In the end I pulled up outside his house. I got out and walked over to him, got a good look, then he drove off.

In those days it was not a crime so it was just recorded.

But in general, if you treat you customers with some degree of respect then the general rule is that they'll do the same. You don't have to like them.

Doesn't go for burglars so much.

Later on, when running ID parades, I had a succession of utter dregs, the real pits of scum, parade after parade, day after day, week after week, for two years. Not quite the same. I treated them respectfully but towards the end it became very hard not to just ask them why they were such selfish bds.

The odd thing is that many sexual offenders saw themselves as a step above the general hoi poloi of criminals.

One bloke subjected a girl to a whole series of sexual assaults in an orgy of debauchery, much too nasty to repeat here. There was only one real solution for him, and that was to wipe him out. I had to sit next to him and say, in a polite, quiet manner, 'You were identified that time. Do you wish to stay where you are or would you like to change position? [for the subsequent parade]'

Everything inside you is telling you that you could probably get off slamming his face into the partition, opening up his cheek to the bone. After all, who wouldn't lose it after hearing what he had done? I spoke with a brief some time later and she reckoned she'd have given it a go.