to not be surprised by the reaction of the policeofficers...

[Bigmouthstrikesagain]

Have just been on phone with DH - he works in Central London - while we were talking he suddenly stopped our conversation and was clearly speaking to someone else "did you see that? Are you going to do anything about it?" then he ended our call.

He called me back to say that he had watched a man pull up to the pavement open up a garage and get back into his car clearly with the aim of driving into the garage. Dh decided to walk round the back of the car as he didn't want to walk in front when the car was about to be driven that direction into the garage.

The driver then reverses (almost) into him - DH was able to shift out of the way but the driver was clearly driving 'without due care' etc. As there is a police officer standing right there DH asks him if he saw that and what he is going to do. Officer fails to meet DH eye says 'Yes' with an unspoken '_and?' then 'He is a Police Officer' as if that is the end of the matter, DH speaks to the driver who flashes his badge and gruffly tells DH to speak to his 'Super'.

Dh not impressed says to the uniformed officer that his collegues attitude is as bad as his driving and gets on with his day.

Why am I not surprised?

Did your DH walk round the back of the car into the road? The driver should have looked but it would be difficult to show a careless driving. Sounds like both guessed wrong on each other's intentions and it was thankfully a near miss.

not as far as I know - you don't deliberately walk into the road in Central London! No it is a wide stretch of pavement near a well known Police Headquarters... I have no doubt that there was an error of judgement, but dh did look where he was going the driverclearly didn't - when in charge of a car you have to look where you are driving - simples

not surprised, but im not a big fan of the police. there are too many incidences of the power going to their heads and behaving from inappropriately to downright appaulingly.

I suspect that police officers in the situation would be disinclined to apologise or admit they were wrong.

... I think they would feel it would weaken their authority, IME police feel most comfortable if you are a little bit humble when you speak to them

Mountain. Molehill.

Possibly?

Think about it, if the policeman hadn't happened to be there you wouldn't have rung them about it, so why should he say something just because he's there.

Perhaps he was standing there for a specific reason, which doesn't involve laying into people about non-accidents.

I agree JamieLee - funnily enough I have often dissagreed with dh as he gets exasperated with my cynical view of the Police - but I had many bad interactions with them in my younger campaigning years - when the attitude they displayed towards people lawfully using their freedom of speech and protest was frankly disgraceful ... still at least dh was paying attention.

It is more the fact that the police officer was displaying double standards by stating the fact the driver was a police officer as an way to end the conversation. There are tons of police around (this area) at the moment probably bored out of their minds - you would think that he might have welcomed something to do.

I agree that he should not have spoken to the driver any differently to to a member of the public.

He did speak to him though and I would guess he would have said much the same to a member of the public, along the lines of what nearly happened and give advice to be more vigilant about pedestrians.

Although the officer was daft to make the"he is a police officer" comment -the incident would not have been dealt with differently.

And I bet the officer in the car pulled rank if he was telling the first officer to go to his "super".

Scurry - the Police officer did not speak to the driver - my dh did - (I just checked my OP to make sure that is what I wrote!).

I know it is no big deal - and dh didn't make a massive fuss he is just fed up with near misses (most often cyclists and taxis on crossings) while he trys to get to and from work in one piece. So when he witnesses some poor driving with a unoccupied Police officer right there it was natural for him to mention it - as dh was a bit shocked by what happened and expected at least a more helpful reaction from the officer.

Sorry, my mistake, I thought the officer did..

You are right to question why this officer did not speak to the driver.