I got pulled by armed police!
Discussion
Driving up to Bradford tonight from Manchester, passing Hartshead Moor services I saw a police range rover on the hard shoulder. No lights, no other vehicle. Odd I thought, but carried on. Got to the end of the M606 and there was a police volvo on the bridge the slip road led up to.
Straight away the Volvo slotted in behind me as I drove towards the city centre. The blue lights came on, and we pulled in. I got out of the car and the officer asked me to sit in the back. I noticed as the officers got back into the car, they both were wearing pistols on their belts!
I was completely clueless as to why I'd been pulled, and more than a bit 'errr.....ooookkkkk' at the guns! Tax - ok. MOT - ok. Insurance - ok. Licence - ok. Driving - ok.
One of the officers said my car had been flagged up as there was some 'intelligence' on it. Odd I thought, then the officer said "We don't really know what it is, we're just doing a routine stop to check it out".
It was then that I remembered that last week I'd been filming in Dudley, enacting a scene with a load of kids who were in a competition playing computer games. Enacting a game called 'counter strike'. A game where players run around with guns and rifles, shooting eachother.
While we were driving between locations on this shoot, the cameraman was 'playing' with the plastic toy pistols we'd bought from a toy shop. I hadn't thought it the greatest idea he'd had, and said to him that he probably shouldn't be waving what looked very much like a gun around in my car, especially when the guy in the car behind me was gesticulating and going a bit loopy, obviously having seen the gun.
Anyhow it turns out that this bloke had phoned the police, told them what was happening, my car then gets flagged on the system, an ANPR camera somewhere on the M60 in Manchester picks me up (the police said they'd been following me from Manchester), and poor old me gets pulled over!
When I told them about this job I'd done, and showed them the bootfull of sound recording equipment I had in the car (to prove I do indeed work in telly), and even that I still have one of the guns at home and they were welcome to it if they wanted, they were happy to let me go. They knew exactly why they'd pulled me, and exactly what the intelligence was, I guess they just wanted to test me to see how honest I was.
I was quite impressed by the ANPR system, and I must admit slightly concerned at how easy it was to track my movements once I'd appeared....
Should I be expecting to have my front door kicked in tonight then?
Straight away the Volvo slotted in behind me as I drove towards the city centre. The blue lights came on, and we pulled in. I got out of the car and the officer asked me to sit in the back. I noticed as the officers got back into the car, they both were wearing pistols on their belts!
I was completely clueless as to why I'd been pulled, and more than a bit 'errr.....ooookkkkk' at the guns! Tax - ok. MOT - ok. Insurance - ok. Licence - ok. Driving - ok.
One of the officers said my car had been flagged up as there was some 'intelligence' on it. Odd I thought, then the officer said "We don't really know what it is, we're just doing a routine stop to check it out".
It was then that I remembered that last week I'd been filming in Dudley, enacting a scene with a load of kids who were in a competition playing computer games. Enacting a game called 'counter strike'. A game where players run around with guns and rifles, shooting eachother.
While we were driving between locations on this shoot, the cameraman was 'playing' with the plastic toy pistols we'd bought from a toy shop. I hadn't thought it the greatest idea he'd had, and said to him that he probably shouldn't be waving what looked very much like a gun around in my car, especially when the guy in the car behind me was gesticulating and going a bit loopy, obviously having seen the gun.
Anyhow it turns out that this bloke had phoned the police, told them what was happening, my car then gets flagged on the system, an ANPR camera somewhere on the M60 in Manchester picks me up (the police said they'd been following me from Manchester), and poor old me gets pulled over!
When I told them about this job I'd done, and showed them the bootfull of sound recording equipment I had in the car (to prove I do indeed work in telly), and even that I still have one of the guns at home and they were welcome to it if they wanted, they were happy to let me go. They knew exactly why they'd pulled me, and exactly what the intelligence was, I guess they just wanted to test me to see how honest I was.
I was quite impressed by the ANPR system, and I must admit slightly concerned at how easy it was to track my movements once I'd appeared....
Should I be expecting to have my front door kicked in tonight then?
Sold a paintball gun to a young lad (19) several months ago, decided to drive around with his mates shooting at pedestrian "targets" from his car window.....
Now he is looking at doing a stretch at HMP.......
Do NOT fool around with guns........
WR. (Registered firearms dealer)
ps: Well done to the traffic Police btw.
Now he is looking at doing a stretch at HMP.......
Do NOT fool around with guns........
WR. (Registered firearms dealer)
ps: Well done to the traffic Police btw.
Sounds about right that the Traffic Cops were armed. The force I work for the majority of the Roads Policing section are also Armed Response Officers. My guess is that West Yorkshire operate a similar dual role for their officers. In the grand scheme of things, genuine firearms incident are few and far between, so that tends to be a secondary role, albeit a highly trained and specialist one, but the majority of the work is traffic and roads policing related.
I know I posted it elsewhere, but be afraid, be very afraid:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/670...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6974625....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6960020.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6768453.s...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/esse...
Cops and guns, whilst being a necessary evil, don't mix well. At least they used to be able to get extra familiarisation training at civilian clubs before the post-Dunblane gun ban.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/670...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6974625....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6960020.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6768453.s...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/esse...
Cops and guns, whilst being a necessary evil, don't mix well. At least they used to be able to get extra familiarisation training at civilian clubs before the post-Dunblane gun ban.
jshell said:
I know I posted it elsewhere, but be afraid, be very afraid:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/670...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6974625....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6960020.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6768453.s...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/esse...
Cops and guns, whilst being a necessary evil, don't mix well. At least they used to be able to get extra familiarisation training at civilian clubs before the post-Dunblane gun ban.
I won't be at all happy when it happens - but I see it as highly likely that before long all police carry firearms.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/670...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6974625....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6960020.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6768453.s...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/esse...
Cops and guns, whilst being a necessary evil, don't mix well. At least they used to be able to get extra familiarisation training at civilian clubs before the post-Dunblane gun ban.
CmdrBond said:
Sounds about right that the Traffic Cops were armed. The force I work for the majority of the Roads Policing section are also Armed Response Officers. My guess is that West Yorkshire operate a similar dual role for their officers. In the grand scheme of things, genuine firearms incident are few and far between, so that tends to be a secondary role, albeit a highly trained and specialist one, but the majority of the work is traffic and roads policing related.
TrafPol not armed in Manchester or W.Yorks. They have their own units. Motorway Police would have been alerted by the ANPR ping in the Control Room, done a follow (notice a BMW X5 tailing you until the top of the hill?) and then W.Yorks took over until their Firearms could catch up. Firearms are not allowed to stop vehicles on the m-way unless an absolute last resort due to the fact they are watching through the sights and not their backs (which is where 50% of the danger now lies).Little bit off topic but...
Several years ago on the run up to Nov 5th we could hear fireworks going off, and they sounded VERY close. After the second loud bang we decided to have a look out of the back window to see what was going on, being careful to turn the lights off first. Saw a group of "young lads" setting off fireworks inside the phone box which was just outside our back gate and within 5 yards of our parked cars. None to happy about this, dialled 999, and within 5 mins up pulls an unmarked silver Vectra, and out get 2 very serious looking BiB who were obviously armed, (definitely firearms). Can only conclude it must have been the local ARV. Result, one very worried and sheepish looking bunch of about 6 teenage lads who got quite a long talking to, before a van pulled up and carted them all off. Proper policing in action, cracking good job. Either the ARV was the nearest unit, or they decided it would be a good idea to make a point about loud bangs given the political climate. Either way
To all those narrow minded twunts who accuse me of always knocking the BiB, yes I am praising the BiB in this case, because the praise was deserved. I always give credit where it's due.
Several years ago on the run up to Nov 5th we could hear fireworks going off, and they sounded VERY close. After the second loud bang we decided to have a look out of the back window to see what was going on, being careful to turn the lights off first. Saw a group of "young lads" setting off fireworks inside the phone box which was just outside our back gate and within 5 yards of our parked cars. None to happy about this, dialled 999, and within 5 mins up pulls an unmarked silver Vectra, and out get 2 very serious looking BiB who were obviously armed, (definitely firearms). Can only conclude it must have been the local ARV. Result, one very worried and sheepish looking bunch of about 6 teenage lads who got quite a long talking to, before a van pulled up and carted them all off. Proper policing in action, cracking good job. Either the ARV was the nearest unit, or they decided it would be a good idea to make a point about loud bangs given the political climate. Either way
To all those narrow minded twunts who accuse me of always knocking the BiB, yes I am praising the BiB in this case, because the praise was deserved. I always give credit where it's due.
CmdrBond said:
Sounds about right that the Traffic Cops were armed. The force I work for the majority of the Roads Policing section are also Armed Response Officers. My guess is that West Yorkshire operate a similar dual role for their officers. In the grand scheme of things, genuine firearms incident are few and far between, so that tends to be a secondary role, albeit a highly trained and specialist one, but the majority of the work is traffic and roads policing related.
Saw a quite worrying video a while back where a traffic cop pulls over a guy for speeding and weaving - it then turns out that the guy is carrying around a 3' sword in his car and isn't afraid to get himself in a lot of trouble by trying to use it.If that kind of scenario is remotely likely I can see why you'd want traffic police to be armed.
The most frightening thing I ever had was in N. Ireland in 1976, at the height of the 'Troubles'. I had to catch a flight from Belfas-Aldergrove at 09-30, but a friend who was with me had to catch an earlier flight at 07-00. We had a late night and when I arrived at the airport at 05-30 I dropped my friend off then went a mile out into the countryside, set my alarm clock and put the seat back for a kip. I was awakened by a loud banging on the roof, opened my eyes to see two men, one with a bloody great machine gun which was pointed at my head. It was an RUC police oficer and a soldier. Apparently, some IRA guys had attempted to mortar the airport from a place 100 yards from where I was parked just a few days before and they were taking no chances. All was OK after I slowly sat up, slowly got my passport and ID papers plus the hire car papers. They told me to clear off, return the hire car and go to the airport.
I've never been so scared.
I've never been so scared.
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