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Original poster

Are the police allowed to commandeer your car to chase criminals?

27 replies

Florenz · 09/05/2022 18:15

I always thought they were but DH says they can't in this country, only in America and even only then in certain States.

OP posts:
Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 09/05/2022 18:21

Not exactly the same…

My phone was taken by a man flashing what he claimed was a warrant card. I stood there, open mouthed, as he run off. It was a few minutes before I realised I’d been scammed.

Fortunately, the police returned my phone that evening, thanking me profusely, and giving my young dc lots of stickers.

So police can commandeer phones. I’m not sure that you can extrapolate from this this that they can do the same to cars.

QuebecBagnet · 09/05/2022 18:22

I don’t think so. I’ve never heard of it and not sure I’d be very happy about it. Who pays if they trash something. An obvious crash they’d probably pay for damage but I’m thinking about less obvious stuff like tracking or shock absorbers?

QuebecBagnet · 09/05/2022 18:23

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies so it was a real police officer? Why did they need your phone, was his radio not working?

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Crime
LubaLuca · 09/05/2022 18:24

I've seen them commandeer a push bike to chase someone on foot. So maybe yes, if you let them then they will.

SunshineCake1 · 09/05/2022 18:25

? @Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies you weren't scammed if it was a real policeman.

TooManyPJs · 09/05/2022 18:29

Why did they need your phone? And if they needed to make a call why did they run off with it?

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 09/05/2022 18:33

Yes, I know I wasn’t scammed! But at the time I really thought I’d lost my phone, just because a man, in plain clothes, had asked for it whilst showing me a card which could have been for the local library Grin. I felt rather an idiot.

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 09/05/2022 18:34

@TooManyPJs They were chasing a man who’d just jumped over the fence into the local primary school.

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 09/05/2022 18:36

@QuebecBagnet He was plain clothed.. he just run past me, then stopped, asked the name of the road before demanding my phone. I’ve no idea why he didn’t have a radio. I was tempted to call some of the numbers he rung when I got the phone back.

Flapjacker48 · 09/05/2022 18:38

Not cars no - imagine the consequences if their was an accident and a pedestrian was killed using the commandeered car. I doubt the officer's work insurance and competence to drive at high speed etc would be valid.

latetothefisting · 09/05/2022 18:51

No, they can't. They can't even pursue in half their own force cars, let alone someone else's! To undertake a pursuit both the driver has to be appropriately qualified (e.g. pursuit trained, not just any random police officer) and the car has to be suitable too, so blue lights, sirens, hands free radio, ideally recording capacity, plus regularly checked for roadworthiness (above and beyond your standard MOT).
See www.college.police.uk/app/roads-policing/police-pursuits#:~:text=All%20those%20involved%20in%20a,allow%20the%20pursuit%20to%20continue which is the authorised guidance.

BewareTheBeardedDragon · 09/05/2022 18:59

How could they get into the phone? Did they know the passcode? Can police override it? This is blowing my mind somewhat

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 09/05/2022 19:04

@BewareTheBeardedDragon It happened about 10 years ago. I think I helpfully unlocked it before handing it over.

Slightly embarrassingly, this is one of the most exciting things that has ever happened to me.

I would be positively ecstatic if police tried to commandeer my car Grin

MissConductUS · 09/05/2022 19:14

While this is theoretically possible in the US, it doesn't happen due to liability concerns. A private vehicle lacks sirens and lights to warn the public that they have to yield the right of way.

superplumb · 09/05/2022 19:21

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 09/05/2022 18:36

@QuebecBagnet He was plain clothed.. he just run past me, then stopped, asked the name of the road before demanding my phone. I’ve no idea why he didn’t have a radio. I was tempted to call some of the numbers he rung when I got the phone back.

Not all plain clothes officers carry a radio..its odd though. You'd think hed have his own phone. He may have been out on enquiries and come across something. Happened to me once as a dc but I always took my radio!

Topseyt123 · 09/05/2022 19:29

No. I don't believe they can, not for high speed car chases. and would be very surprised to be told otherwise.

They can help you get your car off the road if it has been involved in an accident. I have been helped in that way after someone pulled out of a side road into my path at point blank range. That could involve briefly driving it.

Imagine the potential liability if they could just comandeer any car from Joe public for a car chase. Maybe take Hollywood a little less seriously. 😉

Horological · 09/05/2022 19:36

@Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies I can't really get my head around your story. Why did you say you were scammed? What did they use your phone for? How did they know who to return the phone to? How did they know where you lived?

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 09/05/2022 19:38

I was NOT scammed. I thought I had been scammed.

Thesefeetaremadeforwalking · 09/05/2022 19:40

My car is so old that no-one in their right mind would want to commandeer it !!

Redglitter · 09/05/2022 19:41

I was sitting at a junction in a village near to me many years ago when a Police Officer opened my car door & said he needed a lift to a road accident. It was a few miles away in the middle of nowhere

Thats the closest they could get to comandeering a car. They most definitely couldn't use a civilians car for a pursuit. A lot of marked police vehicles can't be used in a pursuit let alone an unmarked member of the publics

SunshineCake · 10/05/2022 13:05

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 09/05/2022 19:38

I was NOT scammed. I thought I had been scammed.

You said it was a while before you realised you had been scammed hence...

ancientgran · 10/05/2022 13:10

I used to work for the police, was getting a lift in a police car to another station when the driver spotted someone who was wanted. He shouted to me to "hang on" and took off. It was very exciting. I'd be frightened to death now. 40 years ago I didn't think I could break, now I know I can.

ChickenGotLegs · 10/05/2022 14:06

I seen it happen in front of me years ago when I was a kid. Plain clothes cop ran into the road and stopped a car and jumped in while shouting and pointing at the driver to go down the side street. It was like something out of The Bill 🤣 this was back in the 80s though! It was all very exciting for us kids witnessing it 😁

FindingMeno · 10/05/2022 14:47

Fuck that.
Surely nowadays nobody would believe a word a police officer says, even if they could do that.