Well done Mr BiB!!

[nightdriver]

Earlier today I was heading along the M4 from Swansea back towards London.
Travelling just around Cardiff at a steady 80-85mph making good progress , road clear and conditions A1. I pass a line of trucks and pull back to the inside lane and see a marked volvo coming up behind me , queue me getting a bit worried. Decide to drop down to 80 and stay there, if he's been following me he would have already clocked my speed so I'll stick to what I feel is safe and explain my actions.
He sits a few car lengths behind me for about 1/2 mile whilst I keep making steady progress simply waiting for the inevitable.

Well, as I pulled back to the inside lane Mr BiB stayed out and accelerated past me. I glanced over to him as he drew level and he gave me a quick thumbs up and he dissapeared off into the distance ! I really was amazed and impressed that he had seen my driving was obviously putting no-one in danger and was suitable for the conditions. He could have easily pulled me and given me a FPN.

It really has restored my faith in sensible policing of out roads, ok we still have the scamera partnerships trying to empty our wallets but at least some of the police are being sensible.

[turbobloke]

[monkeyhanger]

nightdriver said:

He could have easily pulled me and given me a FPN.

Clearly an example of the type of Plod we get (mostly) on here rather than the "rules are rules" type we all know and errr..."love"

[chilli]

I might have mentioned this before, but I remember a colleague telling me that he was in his Mondeo ST200 on the M25 at around 03:00. Was well into three figures, before he noticed headlights catching him up. When the lights caught him up, he relaxed the foot a tad, but too late.....The blues came on. The Bib pulled along side, opened the window and said "I know there's no-one else here mate, but for f's sake, slow down a bit". Wih that the Bib took off, and that was the end of it.

Nice one!

[supermono]

chilli said:

Wih that the Bib took off, and that was the end of it.

Presumably taking advantage of the clear conditions by, erm, exceeding the speed limit.

SM

[yellowvette]

There are some genuinely excellent BiB out there, I've been lucky enough to have encountered one or two in my time (although never to have encountered any on th eroad would have been far luckier ). I've also encountered some right ts too. Like any walk of life - you get good and bad.

[xxplod]

All good to hear and in my experience very typical of 90% of the roads policing out there. Most BiB I know work this way, and certainly on motorways in good conds etc... you've got to be doing 90+ to really attract their attention.

[puggit]

I think the majority of PHers would agree that there are 3 different schools of road policing.

Majority of BiB as per above - using common sense
Scamerati - Money making scum
Minority of BiB - chip on their shoulder, by the rulebook etc

[cheeky]

Shouldn't this BiB instead have been gesticulating for you to get your eyes back on the road?!??!?!

[jasandjules]

I have only ever experienced good cops whilst travelling on the roads, the scamera operators excepted..

[bridgland]

Going up the A3 having joined from the M25 junction and I was accelerating hard. Saw in my rear view mirror that a police car was pulling out behind a car on the A3 and slowed my pace rapidly down to 70 MPH ish (using the gears and not the brakes). The car came along side me and the police officer in the passenger seat looked accross at me and pointed to the back of his car. I thought that I was being asked to follow him and about to be pulled, when I saw the red LED sign in the back window just saying "70 MPH".

All I can say is thank you.

[I HATE GATSO]

Id like to know where all the sensible BiB are then?? Only ever had to deal with tossers who have got chips on their shoulders. Maybe better luck next time

[vonhosen]

I HATE GATSO said:

Id like to know where all the sensible BiB are then?? Only ever had to deal with tossers who have got chips on their shoulders. Maybe better luck next time

Perhaps the problem isn't them then.
Maybe you need to look closer to home if every contact you have with every Police officer is an adverse one.

just a thought

[turbobloke]

vonhosen said:

I HATE GATSO said: Id like to know where all the sensible BiB are then?? Only ever had to deal with tossers who have got chips on their shoulders. Maybe better luck next time Perhaps the problem isn't them then. Maybe you need to look closer to home if every contact you have with every Police officer is an adverse one. just a thought

You are right vh, but it works both ways. Most public services train employees in customer care skills. Often the first line of communication comes from BiB, you are trained to take the lead aren't you? So if there is an arrogant superior condescending attitude people will sometimes react in one way. If there is a matter-of-fact business like approach with an element of courtesy then that might well produce a different MoP response. What you are assuming is that with the balance of power so uneven then the MoP should know his place. Any treatment by BiB with that as the central tenet is only ever likely to receive fake niceties in return purely because of the power imbalance, it will leave a permanently poor impression of police as you read on here so often. Good sense and decency work both ways. In most routine encounters, power trips are for the immature, not professional men and women in demanding emergency service roles.

[streaky]

bridgland said:

Going up the A3 having joined from the M25 junction and I was accelerating hard. Saw in my rear view mirror that a police car was pulling out behind a car on the A3 and slowed my pace rapidly down to 70 MPH ish (using the gears and not the brakes). The car came along side me and the police officer in the passenger seat looked accross at me and pointed to the back of his car. I thought that I was being asked to follow him and about to be pulled, when I saw the red LED sign in the back window just saying "70 MPH". All I can say is thank you.

Same thing happened to me on the M40 (when there were no service areas and so no heavies, and so could make progress. BiB have discretion, scameras have none! - Streaky

[vonhosen]

turbobloke said:

vonhosen said: I HATE GATSO said: Id like to know where all the sensible BiB are then?? Only ever had to deal with tossers who have got chips on their shoulders. Maybe better luck next time Perhaps the problem isn't them then. Maybe you need to look closer to home if every contact you have with every Police officer is an adverse one. just a thought You are right vh, but it works both ways. Most public services train employees in customer care skills. Often the first line of communication comes from BiB, you are trained to take the lead aren't you? So if there is an arrogant superior condescending attitude people will sometimes react in one way. If there is a matter-of-fact business like approach with an element of courtesy then that might well produce a different MoP response. What you are assuming is that with the balance of power so uneven then the MoP should know his place. Any treatment by BiB with that as the central tenet is only ever likely to receive fake niceties in return purely because of the power imbalance, it will leave a permanently poor impression of police as you read on here so often. Good sense and decency work both ways. In most routine encounters, power trips are for the immature, not professional men and women in demanding emergency service roles.

I am quite aware of Betari's box.

I am just pointing out that on the balance of probabilities you are going to find people relatively easy to get on with in all walks of life & if you never find them, then perhaps that says more about you than them. You are of course correct that it cuts both ways & that goes for Police officers & the public. Just because you disagree with someone though, it doesn't mean that the meeting has to be an antaganositic one. We are all going to have to different views on matters & those views are going to be based on our experiences. That is the baggage we bring with us to any meeting & in any meeting we would do well to try to see & understand what shapes another's viewpoint, even if we don't agree with it. Healthy discussion is no problem, regarding everyone who doesn't hold your view as t*****s, won't do anything to help.

[turbobloke]

Yes reasonable discussion is the way.

Personally, in one of those views that we may differ on, I believe that the power imbalance places a greater burden of responsibility on BiB than MoP in every respect during any meeting between the two.

[vonhosen]

turbobloke said:

Yes reasonable discussion is the way. Personally, in one of those views that we may differ on, I believe that the power imbalance places a greater burden of responsibility on BiB than MoP in every respect during any meeting between the two.

I don't disagree with that, but equally Police can't be responsible for every adverse encounter, particularly where somebody places themselves so far at one end of the scale, that they would fall out with anyone in a large group.

You may not agree with a Police officer, but there is no need for either party to be rude or aggressive in their dealings. Also you may not like the outcome of the encounter, but that doesn't mean that in dealing with you that the Police officer hasn't been perfectly charming, it's just the end result (whether you are reported or not if it were for an alleged offence) that you don't like & that may be because your terms of reference differ.

>> Edited by vonhosen on Saturday 13th May 11:54

[turbobloke]

vonhosen said:

I don't disagree with that, but equally Police can't be responsible for every adverse encounter, particularly where somebody places themselves so far at one end of the scale, that they would fall out with anyone in a large group. You may not agree with a Police officer, but there is no need for either party to be rude or aggressive in their dealings. Also you may not like the outcome of the encounter, but that doesn't mean that in dealing with you that the Police officer hasn't been perfectly charming, it's just the end result (whether you are reported or not if it were for an alleged offence) that you don't like & that may be because your terms of reference differ.

The end product may be disagreeable but that's not the critical factor in the encounter. Attitude is everything, on both sides but with the greater burden on BiB. The nature of the encounter may even determine the outcome to a degree, so there's a link to play with. I'm not biased against front line BiB at all even though it could be said I have good reason to be - my disgust is directed in general at politicians and senior ranks (also politicians) when the cap fits.

>> Edited by turbobloke on Saturday 13th May 12:04

[I HATE GATSO]

Thats the the thing, ive never been anything less than polite when ive been stopped??