police mans driving was it leagal?

[pesty]

Question for our BIB's

On my bike pull up to a roundabout on a dual carriageway.
exit on my right is a police car about 5 cars back I see him he sees me. I know hes going to follow me .
rounabout free for my exit but the other exit is having trouble beacause of heavy traffic going past it and trning off on my exit.( er not explaind well but makes sense in my head)
I pull onto A38 dual carriage way and procede up to 70
(which is about 66-67 on my Road angel)
look behind me until roundabout almost out of view no police car.
About a mile later police car right up my arse!!!!

Are the police allowed to speed just to follow some one? I wasnt speeding so how can they justify speeding just to follow me and check me out?

[john_p]

Yeah they're allowed to.. if they're on "police duties" anyway.

[pesty]

john_p said:

Yeah they're allowed to.. if they're on "police duties" anyway.

yeah but are they allowed to speed (which is dangerous)to catch me up even though i gave them no cause to suspect me of breaking the law.

[deltaf]

Yep if its in connection with police business.

[pesty]

I understand police can speed when on police business like responding to calls following speeding cars/bikes but..

What was their business in this particular case? If they had crashed while speeding how would they have justified why they were speeding?
I wanted to check out that bike and follow it for a while and then turn off cos it wasnt doing anything wrong dosnt sound like a good excuse to me when talking to a berieved parent.
sounds a bit hypocritical.

surley there are guidelines that state when a police officer may speed?





>> Edited by pesty on Monday 14th July 16:03

[tonyrec]

Of course the Police can speed....how else are we meant to detect and apprehend offenders!

Yes there are guidelines and without sounding like im taking the P**s,its when youre on duty and you have a job to do!

>> Edited by tonyrec on Monday 14th July 16:36

[pesty]

tonyrec said:

Of course the Police can speed....how else are we meant to detect and apprehend offenders!

I was not an offender as I stated I understand police are allowed to speed please read above.

Either no one is reading and comprehending today or it was just a stupid question! probably the latter but I was trying to be serious i'll just stick to the jokes from now on.
I didnt realise the police could speed when and where they wanted and that the only guidelines needed were that you had to wear a uniform.

Thanks for the replies guys, gals, BIB's

[john_p]

Police business doesn't mean anything more than that, i.e. if they want to speed up to catch up with you, then they can. When it comes to justification, then I suppose they just need to have a good reason "we were following a car that was acting suspiciously.." but I'm sure that would be the case if they were speeding.

[madcop]

pesty said:

I was not an offender as I stated I understand police are allowed to speed please read above.

But the officer did not know that. Ask yourself some pertinent questions and you will find the answers.

Has there been a bike of similar descrption to yours involved in offences over the last week/month in his area?

Did you and the machine fit the descrption?

Would the officer not catching you up be a neglect of duty if it was you that has been responsible for the recent burglaries/rapes/murders and he had ignored you thus prolonging your reign of terror?

pesty said:

Either no one is reading and comprehending today or it was just a stupid question! probably the latter but I was trying to be serious i'll just stick to the jokes from now on.

If you didn't know then it was not a stupid question. But realistically you could have worked it out that a Police officer in a vehicle has a job to do which includes questioning suspects. If someone is in a vehicle and travelling at the speed limit some distance from the officer, then he would need to exceed the limit to find that out. By getting closer to the suspect he may be able to dismiss the descrption without stopping you.

He might have reason to suspect your vehicle had a defect for which an offence was being committed. Getting closer may give him the opportunity to see whether he was right in the first instance and stop and deal with you or realise that he was mistaken and let you continue unstopped.

pesty said:

I didnt realise the police could speed when and where they wanted and that the only guidelines needed were that you had to wear a uniform. Thanks for the replies guys, gals, BIB's

Its not quite as simple as that. But if a Police officer is using a vehicle for Police purposes,then he/she can exceed the limit. If his/her wheel comes off in the process, he/she may well have some explaining to do.

Detectives can exceed the limit too if they have a reason for doing so, so wearing a uniform is not quite the full picture.

[tonyrec]

Its certainly NOT a stupid question more of a case that common sense needs to be applied.

As has already been stated,you dont know what the Police were doing...or if indeed they were "after" you.

Without knowing what was in the Officers mind then we simply wont know the answer.

BTW...Nice bike!