TPAC practice?

[shovelheadrob]

Driving up the M11 earlier today & 4 BMW traffic cars come screaming up lane 3 in quick succession, they quickly went into a formation to form a rolling roadblock, after a few minutes an unmarked Insignia followed closely by another traffic car comes up the hard shoulder, both cars probably travelling way in excess of NSL, 3 of the 4 lead cars have sped off ahead.
At first I thought it was a real life car chase we were watching unfold, after a lot of swerving by both the marked & unmarked cars it came to a stop around 1/4 mile ahead so couldn't see exactly what happened, a few police got out of a couple of the vehicles then everyone was on their way. All the police vehicles left at the next exit (Stansted, not that it matters), I'm guessing that it was a practice TPAC, but it got me thinking, what if some good samaritan had thought he would block the hard shoulder to impede the target vehicle? I've seen it done on one of those traffic cops programmes on the TV by an HGV so it could happen.

[KungFuPanda]

They’d back off and abort the exercise?

[Derek Smith]

This was a bit before even my time in the City of London Police.

There were two patrol cars: Alpha 7 and Alpha 8. One was marked, blue lights and markings down the side, and the other wasn't so much unmarked as without police identification. No police car is unmarked in London.

There was a call to Aldwych, a Met officer requiring urgent assistance. Off went both cars, with the unmarked one at the front and the blues and twos one right behind. A cabbie drove in front of the unmarked one, expecting it to stop. The driver of the police car did not expect it to block his path and a collision occurred.

Far from being the hero of the moment, the cabbie was threatened with arrest.

No charges were brought.

The story was repeated with relish.

[Earthdweller]

Derek Smith said:

This was a bit before even my time in the City of London Police.

There were two patrol cars: Alpha 7 and Alpha 8. One was marked, blue lights and markings down the side, and the other wasn't so much unmarked as without police identification. No police car is unmarked in London.

There was a call to Aldwych, a Met officer requiring urgent assistance. Off went both cars, with the unmarked one at the front and the blues and twos one right behind. A cabbie drove in front of the unmarked one, expecting it to stop. The driver of the police car did not expect it to block his path and a collision occurred.

Far from being the hero of the moment, the cabbie was threatened with arrest.

No charges were brought.

The story was repeated with relish.

There are huge numbers of unmarked and covert police vehicles in London what are you on about ?

I went to a rather spectacular Polacc on the A12 where an unmarked traffic car chasing a stolen was taken out by a HGV driver who thought he was helping

I also spent many years driving squad vehicles and Q-Cars operationally ... all unmarked

[Earthdweller]

Training needs to be realistic and in live conditions

TPAC is practised on public roads

[shovelheadrob]

Earthdweller said:

Training needs to be realistic and in live conditions

TPAC is practised on public roads

That's what I told my missus, I just thought it could very easily go wrong, there's alot of unpredictable people on the roads these days.

[vonhosen]

shovelheadrob said:

Earthdweller said:

Training needs to be realistic and in live conditions

TPAC is practised on public roads

That's what I told my missus, I just thought it could very easily go wrong, there's alot of unpredictable people on the roads these days.

I can't remember a case of it going wrong in training & a member of public colliding with them by trying to block it.

[Earthdweller]

vonhosen said:

shovelheadrob said:

Earthdweller said:

Training needs to be realistic and in live conditions

TPAC is practised on public roads

That's what I told my missus, I just thought it could very easily go wrong, there's alot of unpredictable people on the roads these days.

I can't remember a case of it going wrong in training & a member of public colliding with them by trying to block it.

I’ve seen 5 bent traffic cars .... due to operator error .. just front/rear bumpers nothing outrageous just embarrassing

[Tony1963]

To a degree, I’d say it’s the unpredictability of drivers that makes practice on open public roads necessary.

Similarly, learner drivers need to learn on public roads.

[Elroy Blue]

I've spent years practising T-PAC on the motorway. Never had an incident

[Mr Dendrite]

Sadly I do know a case. 1996 a nurse sitting stationary at temporary traffic lights on the A10 south of Cambridge was killed by a police car on high speed pursuit training. Caused a lot of fuss at the time as you can imagine. I believe that a major review took place after that...

[vonhosen]

Mr Dendrite said:

Sadly I do know a case. 1996 a nurse sitting stationary at temporary traffic lights on the A10 south of Cambridge was killed by a police car on high speed pursuit training. Caused a lot of fuss at the time as you can imagine. I believe that a major review took place after that...

That wasn't a TPAC exercise & she wasn't trying to interfere in the exercise (so getting far away from what the OP was initially talking about).

[Red 4]

Elroy Blue said:

I've spent years practising T-PAC on the motorway. Never had an incident

Jeez, that's a lot of practice.

Keep your chin up mate, you'll get the hang of if eventually.

[breadvan]

Saw this once on the M27, the ‘target’ police car was driving like a right loon, really interesting to watch.

....... they got him!

[Elroy Blue]

Red 4 said:

Jeez, that's a lot of practice.

Keep your chin up mate, you'll get the hang of if eventually.

I know I'll get there eventually. They have let me do it for real once or twice, never had an incident with the public in those either

[Red 4]

Elroy Blue said:

Red 4 said:

Jeez, that's a lot of practice.

Keep your chin up mate, you'll get the hang of if eventually.

I know I'll get there eventually. They have let me do it for real once or twice, never had an incident with the public in those either

[Mr Dendrite]

vonhosen said:

Mr Dendrite said:

Sadly I do know a case. 1996 a nurse sitting stationary at temporary traffic lights on the A10 south of Cambridge was killed by a police car on high speed pursuit training. Caused a lot of fuss at the time as you can imagine. I believe that a major review took place after that...

That wasn't a TPAC exercise & she wasn't trying to interfere in the exercise (so getting far away from what the OP was initially talking about).

Apologies, for obvious reasons it sticks in the mind.

[GC8]

Earthdweller said:

I went to a rather spectacular Polacc on the A12 where an unmarked traffic car chasing a stolen was taken out by a HGV driver who thought he was helping

This would be far more interesting/helpful if you could include the outcome?

[Earthdweller]

GC8 said:

This would be far more interesting/helpful if you could include the outcome?

It was in about 89/90 i remember attending the job as a young PC

Traffic were chasing a stolen car along the A12 towards the Redbridge Roundabout from Gants Hill in Ilford.

The lead car was a nearly new Green MG Maestro which was followed by some liveried cars iirc

The outcome that I know of was that the stolen car got away .. the Police car was written off.

the matter would have ended up with the solicitors dept

I have no idea whether the lorry driver was prosecuted as I had no involvement in that

Hope that satisfies your curiosity?

[GC8]

It was the outcome that I was hoping for, but I do appreciate your reply.