Fake or plain clothed police?

[Jabbah]

I was driving down the M40 in the 3rd lane behind a Range Rover and a Golf drove up behind me, after a few seconds the driver of the Golf put a black box on his dash board with flashing blue and red LEDs, two horizontal strips of each colour interleaved. I pulled over into the middle lane and as doing so saw the driver smile and take the box off the dashboard before continuing past. It only occurred to me later that it was pretty odd. Is that likely to have been someone faking it?

[anonymous-user]

Probably.

[Iva Barchetta]

Fake I reckon.

Impersonating a police officer is a serious offence.

[Greendubber]

Fake.

[Sportidge]

Definitely fake.

Emergency vehicles (Whether marked or unmarked) only show blue lights to the front. Reds are reserved for the rear only (And should only be police, but it seems HATOs have them too).

Unless it was an undercover American cop as they use red and blue to the front

[Cat]

Flashing reds to the front definitely fake.

Cat

[sparkythecat]

Torchwood

[esxste]

Yep, clearly some devious tt just wanted you to move out of the way.

[Driver101]

Just read this happening near Glasgow.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west...

[KevinCamaroSS]

esxste said:

Yep, clearly some devious tt just wanted you to move out of the way out of the outside lane when there was nobody in the next lane over.

Corrected that for you

[BlueHave]

Probably just another illegal and potentially dangerous scheme some ignorant tailgating knobhead has come up with.

Lets hope he pulls up behind an unmarked police car and does it.

[esxste]

KevinCamaroSS said:

Corrected that for you

That's cute.

1. He mentioned he was behind another car; so chances are OP wanted to make as much progress as Mr Golf driver.
2. He doesn't mention how clear the middle lane was, its logical to assume there was space for him move over, but nothing more than that can be inferred. He could have been in the progress of overtaking a moderate amount of traffic for all we know.

[ging84]

BlueHave said:

Probably just another illegal and potentially dangerous scheme some ignorant tailgating knobhead has come up with.

Lets hope he pulls up behind an unmarked police car and does it.

Yeah, some guy i know was killed by a flashing blue and red light. He was just 1 day from retirement, and it was his birthday too.

[drf765]

Take a note of the registration and report to the police on a non-emergency number or on their website.
Possibility of jail time


Maybe the police act applies
Impersonation, etc.
90 Impersonation
(1)Any person who with intent to deceive impersonates a member of a police force or special constable, or makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is such a member or constable, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both.
(2)Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(3)Any person who, not being a member of a police force or special constable, has in his possession any article of police uniform shall, unless he proves that he obtained possession of that article lawfully and has possession of it for a lawful purpose, be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale.
(4)In this section—
(a)“article of police uniform” means any article of uniform or any distinctive badge or mark or document of identification usually issued to members of police forces or special constables, or anything having the appearance of such an article, badge, mark or document,
[F1(aa)“member of a police force” includes a member of the British Transport Police Force,] and
(b)

[Bigends]

drf765 said:

Take a note of the registration and report to the police on a non-emergency number or on their website.
Possibility of jail time


Maybe the police act applies
Impersonation, etc.
90 Impersonation
(1)Any person who with intent to deceive impersonates a member of a police force or special constable, or makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is such a member or constable, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both.
(2)Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(3)Any person who, not being a member of a police force or special constable, has in his possession any article of police uniform shall, unless he proves that he obtained possession of that article lawfully and has possession of it for a lawful purpose, be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale.
(4)In this section—
(a)“article of police uniform” means any article of uniform or any distinctive badge or mark or document of identification usually issued to members of police forces or special constables, or anything having the appearance of such an article, badge, mark or document,
[F1(aa)“member of a police force” includes a member of the British Transport Police Force,] and
(b)

Summary only - doesn't even require a crime report

[ging84]

drf765 said:

Take a note of the registration and report to the police on a non-emergency number or on their website.
Possibility of jail time


Maybe the police act applies
Impersonation, etc.
90 Impersonation
(1)Any person who with intent to deceive impersonates a member of a police force or special constable, or makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is such a member or constable, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both.
(2)Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(3)Any person who, not being a member of a police force or special constable, has in his possession any article of police uniform shall, unless he proves that he obtained possession of that article lawfully and has possession of it for a lawful purpose, be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale.
(4)In this section—
(a)“article of police uniform” means any article of uniform or any distinctive badge or mark or document of identification usually issued to members of police forces or special constables, or anything having the appearance of such an article, badge, mark or document,
[F1(aa)“member of a police force” includes a member of the British Transport Police Force,] and
(b)

What if it turns out he was impersonating a paramedic or a fireman?

[drf765]

ging84 said:

drf765 said:

Take a note of the registration and report to the police on a non-emergency number or on their website.
Possibility of jail time


Maybe the police act applies
Impersonation, etc.
90 Impersonation
(1)Any person who with intent to deceive impersonates a member of a police force or special constable, or makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is such a member or constable, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both.
(2)Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(3)Any person who, not being a member of a police force or special constable, has in his possession any article of police uniform shall, unless he proves that he obtained possession of that article lawfully and has possession of it for a lawful purpose, be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale.
(4)In this section—
(a)“article of police uniform” means any article of uniform or any distinctive badge or mark or document of identification usually issued to members of police forces or special constables, or anything having the appearance of such an article, badge, mark or document,
[F1(aa)“member of a police force” includes a member of the British Transport Police Force,] and
(b)

What if it turns out he was impersonating a paramedic or a fireman?

I never thought of that. I simply forgot paramedics and firemen were driving about in unmarked vehicles.
90(1) does use the term "suggest" in its text. I don't think it would be difficult to witness that "suggestion"

[Pompeymedic]

ging84 said:

What if it turns out he was impersonating a paramedic or a fireman?

The term Paramedic is a protected title, so, technically they would be breaking the law by pretending to be one.

[jakesmith]

THis happened to me, some chump in a 5 series behind me got out some handheld blue LED bar and motioned at me to pull over, I completely ignored him but it did make me wonder

[mel]

All this talk of jail time and impersonating a police officer is just tosh. It was a flashing red and blue light displayed to the front the best you could hope for would be a construction and use vialation and even then it would be hard to prove.