Couple of friends one mine grew up in Speke. One of them still lives there (hey, maybe you could stay at his? Opposite an RC church!). Scary place. My friend (who has managed to escape) drove us through there a couple of years ago in his almost new Evo VIII, showing us his favourite burnt out shops and boarded up houses. He’d taken some little back road to get near there, and even though he was going fairly rapidly we suddenly found a police car behind us, just as we slowed down at the edge of Speke itself.
We cruised around at 28mph, indicating at every junction, still with this traffic car about 20 metres behind. After 5 minutes or so, when the police obviously had checked it wasn’t stolen and was sure we weren’t panicing in any way, he let us go.
I’m still not sure if he was suspicious of us or if he was acting as an escort so we didn’t get car-jacked.