stumpy01 – Member
I got stopped by Police at Gatwick who wanted to know what I was doing there with no bag, luggage, jacket etc. I was picking my brother up from holiday. I showed them the flight details I had written down, the asked for a few details like name & address, ran a few checks & let me on my way. What’s the bother?

Now im not usually anti police, but I would have been a bit pissed by that. You’re in a public place, waiting to meet someone off a flight. Why do they need to run a check on you at all?
Seems to me that they were trying to justify their presence on a slow day.

I don’t see the issue. Only been stopped by them once, 4.30am in Embra on the way back into the city from the airport. Presumably wanted to know why a young couple were out in a 14 year old Honda. One asked me questions and presumably looked for signs of drink while another checked out the car. 2 minutes and I was on my way and I’ve never seen another since or before. They were just doing it to catch drunks which is fine, right?

FFs some people who use this website. Dear god!

Don’t know about anywhere else, but its the norm round here to routinely set up check points around Xmas time. Bascially, they pull every vehicle over and a copper sticks his head in your face and asks if you are aware of their drink drive campaign. It is toally 100% obvious that they are doing a 100% check for drink driving, and it is equally obvious that they are using the “campaign” to enable them to do so.

Is it a bad thing? Not sure personally.

The police should be able to stop you whenever they want.

What about searching your car or searching you, should they be able to do that?

How about if you extend that a bit and say ‘The police should be able to come in to you house whenever they want’ after all, if you have nothing to hide, why would you object?.

At what point do you say it’s too much? What about when they pull on the rubber gloves and lube up for a cavity search?

biggyinn – I assumed it was because I got there early, so was hovering around for quite a while. Perhaps I didn’t look like a typical ‘picking someone up’ person or perhaps they’d noticed me there for quite some time. As it was, my idiot brother gave me the wrong return date so I ended up leaving without him, which probably did look a bit dodgy had they still been looking out for me…

Can’t help but feel that half the problem with the non-plebian Mitchell was he failed the attitude test.

Bet if he chatted to/acknlowledged the officers on duty he’d have sailed through that gate on his bike.

My experience disagrees. How many 15 minute delays will it take before you wake up to reality?

Bugger that would double my commuting time! Oh wait, I ride in so really don’t give a shit 😉

Out of interest, which reality? Normal reality, or your Kaesae version where The Man is out to get you? I have lots of 15mins to give, so quite happy right now just as I was when I got pulled over (non-checkpoint) for no apparent reason last winter

Out of interest, which reality? Normal reality, or your Kaesae version where The Man is out to get you?

Where is Kaesae nowadays, is he taking and enforced rest from the forum or did the men in white coats lead him away?

Out of interest, which reality? Normal reality, or your Kaesae version where The Man is out to get you?

The reality of living in a country where the police have the power to set up checkpoints where and when they want. Feel free to rip the piss and laugh at things you are clearly ignorant of. I replied in reponse to a post which demonstrated a desire for checkpoints, the reality of this is somewhat different to the current situation in the UK.
No, but seriously, what would I know?

I reckon I’ve driven something like 400,000 miles in my life. I’ve been pulled over a couple of times as I’d done something wrong, and only once have I been pulled over for a random check. That was a Christmas / new year ‘drinking campaign’ which was fine as I’d only had a cup of tea all day. If this happens again once on my way to the next half million miles, I reckon I’d cope.
What they should be doing is catching my excessive speeding, reckless overtaking and red light jumping.

the reality of this is somewhat different to the current situation in the UK.

So you are happy with the situation in the UK then? In that case, in the context of just this thread, what’s the problem? What hell-hole country are you talking about?

peterfile – Member
The police checkpoint at Tarbet really confuses me.

I’ve been stopped there, coming back from doing the Glen Loin loop. Caked in mud and bikes on the roof..

Plod “You boys been biking then?”
Moi “yep, just up the road at Arrochar”

He then gave the car a right good check over and send us on our way.

You would have thought I was a terrorist from his attitude, although to be fair I think there is a drink drive issue round that area.

Most of the checkpoints like this locally use ANPR vehicles that identify vehicles that have no tax, insurance, flag against the vehicle for drugs, drunk driver, disqualified driver etc.

There are a lot of travellers round here driving vans and flat bed transits often loaded with ‘scrap metal’ to the 2 nearby scrap yards. There are often operations checking the loads of unmarked vans and flat beds in the vicinity of the scrap yards.

I think they are a good idea – I drive a legal vehicle and don’t drink drive so have no concern if I’m stopped. I got stopped by a police/Excise checkpoint recently checking for red diesel – again it doesn’t bother me as I have nothing to worry about.

The police checkpoint at Tarbet really confuses me.

They block off the road every few weeks (we usually pass on a Friday at 6-7pm).

There’s about 4 police cars and a couple of vans, with two coppers stood in the road.

They have never even looked at us as we pass, yet there’s always someone having their car seached at the wee car park on the left.

I’ve been pulled at a checkpoint further up the A83. Having a van you get used to being pulled over fairly frequently for a chat and a look in the back. On this occasion I had a charred corpse and a severed head in a box. 🙂

What was fun was driving vans in London in the late 80’s / early 90’s when the IRA mainland bombing was in full swing. I used to work for a fine art transport company. One day in a slow rolling traffic jam i was aware of having two police vans either side of me, when the lights changed I was suddenly surrounded by riot gear, conspicuous machine guns and dogs. In the middle of 4 lanes of traffic they had me out and opening the rear doors and before I could say “now be careful theres £4 Million quids worth national collections in there” 4 police dogs were bouncing abour all over it.

I’ve had a couple of those random stops in the UK and a couple in France. On every occasion I’ve been on my way in two minutes. Can’t say it bothers me.

One “traffic cops” I found funny was the one where they pulled a private ambulance. They went to search the back and found two coffins. Out of respect for the deceased, they did not search the back.

Hello private ambulance with 2 coffins to transport the hundreds of kilos of cocaine about in 🙂

Was once pulled in to one of these while in a hire car (hence nearly new etc) by three police in the middle of nowhere near Kilsyth. No attempt made to check docs or the vehicle other than working headlights “due to bad visibility”. We were both squinting against the sun. Pretty lame excuse for something going on but couldn’t figure out what.

I love the attitude that says the police must obviously have our best interests at heart and should be allowed whatever powers they thing they need.

It’s already been seen in this thread that despite not (I think) being able to pull people over for no reason, the police do it anyway.

Once pulled over, knowing your rights and trying to stand up for them, just means that you are more likely to end up being harassed and inconvenienced.

Do we even need to mention the UK “anti terrorism” legislation that lets them harass elderly hecklers at political conferences and arrest photographers?

I support the police, but sadly it appears that those who think the worst of them are often proven right, and that can’t just be a coincidence.

Caked in mud and bikes on the roof..

Plod “You boys been biking then?”

Stunning piece of police work!

37 years of driving and riding and I’ve been stopped twice.

Once on the way home in Edinburgh about 3am (presumably looking for drunk drivers) and once in Fort William when they stopped a crowd of us to search for stolen shotguns. We were on motorbikes 🙄

For the people who wanted data – here’s some stuff about Section 60 searches:

http://www.runnymedetrust.org/events-conferences/%20econferences/ethnic-profiling-in-uk-law-enforcement/the-report/young-people-and-section-60/section-60-stop-and-search-powers.html

Ministry of Justice data for 2007/08 shows that across the country, when police use their section 60 powers, they are 10.7 times more likely to stop and search black people than white people, while Asian people were 2.2 times more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts.

Hello private ambulance with 2 coffins to transport the hundreds of kilos of cocaine about in

Pretty sure that was part of the plot of Bad Boys 2.

What’ the big deal about being pulled over? The police in Canada set up random stops all the time, and Canadians hardly consider themselves to be oppressed.

I mean, honestly, isn’t just good policing to do spot checks on vehicles from time to time?

I’m not sure what they check for when they do these. Insurance and tax maybe?
I was stopped at a “random” a couple of years back, driving an MR2 with an unsilenced exhaust and a dead turbo (I was on the way to a mechanic friend to get it fixed, but it was a fair distance – St Andrews to Stirling). There was a reasonable amount of smoke coming from the somewhat noisy exhaust as a result of the dead turbo, and I’m sure either that or the godawful noise it made could have fallen foul of any number of laws. Random check cop just asked me what was wrong with it and sent me on my way.

Eat_the_Pudding the police can stop ANYONE they want to WITHOUT any reason:

Section 163 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, allows a constable in uniform to stop a mechanically propelled vehicle being driven, or a cycle being ridden, on a road.
163(1) A person driving a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road must stop the vehicle on being required to do so by a constable in uniform or a traffic officer.

163(2) A person riding a cycle on a road must stop the cycle on being required to do so by a constable in uniform or a traffic officer.

163(3) If a person fails to comply with this section he is guilty of an offence.

Amazing how many crazy people there are on this forum!!

So you are happy with the situation in the UK then?

I haven’t said that, have I? I was just giving an alternative view based on experience.

In that case, in the context of just this thread, what’s the problem?

I which case if your first assumption was wrong? 😉

Just shout “Strava run” as you weave through the cones and past the waving traffic cop – they’ll understand…

DrP

I’ve been stopped on my bike. Apparently because I was out riding at midnight (pretty sure I had lights on) and that’s a suspicious activity. Turn out pockets and check contents of my wallet. I was carrying my gfs bank card but that didn’t seem to bother them.

never been pulled over in the car.

Got pulled over with a couple of friends by an off-duty officer at night – swerving quite dangerously in front of us then slamming the brakes on. We stopped, and among other things he accused us of having no lights. We did, but being dynamos they’d stopped too.

He told us to push our bikes home on the pavement as bikes shouldn’t be on the road, we told him to go forth and multiply, so he roared off almost taking out a car.

I think he had issues.

Funny how this thread is split roughly evenly between people who have been stopped by the police and had experiences ranging from ok to slightly disgruntled, and the other half who haven’t been stopped but believe if they were it would amount to state sponsored harassment carried out by uniformly racist officers.
Ho hum, it takes all sorts i suppose.

I got stopped the other night, certainly wasn’t because I was black, because it was night. And also because I’m not black. All very professional and swift- quick tyres and lights check, called in plate and driver details for insurance, thanks for your time, off you go. Must be mostly for the physical checks I assume since ANPR can do the rest I think?

Years back I got stopped on the motorbike and that didn’t go so well- they didn’t know the law for motorbike tyre tread and decided my Roadtec (which had a slick centre) was bald, when it was actually about 2 weeks old. Then I had to show them how to operate their tyre gauge thing as they were getting false readings. Then I got told off for having a scottoiler as it was “leaking oil”. Was fine really but made me late for work, and they were pretty close to charging me despite there being nothing actually wrong.

twice been pulled over in the last six weeks, breath tests, once at 8 30 in morning, the other 9 at night,no issue really, learnt the hard way many years ago– if it helps to cut back on dangerous habits/attitudes then fine by me.

I remember 7 or 8 of us getting pulled over on the A68 south of Tow Law on our motorbikes. They’d clocked the lead bike at over 140! It turned out that they just wanted a look at a mates new Ducati 748R (it was a few years ago now) as one of the traffic officers in the car was thinking of buying one.

They had a word about appropriate speed and zero tolerance on speeding in 30 and 40 limits and told us to have fun. Quality road traffic policing!