Pulled over by the police with blue lights flashing because I BEEPED at them!

[BeepedAtPoliceCar]

Long but I've tried to make it easy to read!

Tonight, I dropped DS at work and on the way back had just started moving off from a large roundabout to go straight across it. It was 7pm and the road is an A road, not a residential area.

I had noticed a police car coming down from the opposite side of the roundabout (no lights flashing) and assumed it was going straight across as it had no indicators but it turned right towards me so I had to stop.

As I moved onto the roundabout after it passed me. I beeped. A short tap to say where the hell are you going. I had also had to stop. I was moving when I beeped. This is important.

I assumed it was going to take the same exit as me but it It then continued round the roundabout again. Still no indication. So I did another short beep. The direction he was going in was to our local police station about 2 minutes down the road.

Yes it was in frustration as there are many idiots who don't indicate in my area and I've had many near misses. It's pretty shit the police are driving like that as well and it was also a hazard to other road users.

Maybe the driver wasn't aware his indicators weren't working?

Anyway I drive on but see in the my rear mirror a police car speeding up the road behind me, lights flashing, in the bus lane. The speed limit is 40 and I was doing that so he must have been doing 60 at least as he caught up with me in seconds.

I immediately knew he was coming after me.

The car came alongside me and the driver wound his window down, as did I, and shouted at me to pull over now, pull over now. He looked apoplectic with rage!

I pulled over in front of him in the bus lane and he drove behind me, bumper to bumper. I have never been stopped by the police before and got out of my car to go to speak to him (oops lucky it wasn't in the US!).

He's screaming get back in your car now, get back in your car now!

So I get back in and luckily had the presence of mind to start videoing on my phone as he came over. I asked for him name and badge number which he fired off so fast I couldn't catch it. He refused to repeat it. Refused to tell me which police station he was stationed at. He said I had contravened the highway code for beeping inappropriately and would be getting a penalty ticket.

I admit I was a bit argumentative (not rude) and said he only stopped me because he was pissed off I beeped at him and the police should know better.

He then said they were looking for a 'criminal' and were on police business so didn't have to indicate (no lights except when they came for me!) and they also didn't know where they were going. He also said he didn't need to indicate unless he was exiting the roundabout.

I asked him why if he was looking for a criminal, he decided to go after someone who beeped at him for not indicating.

He said I was stationery when I beeped so that is a road traffic contravention. I was moving so I asked him why he was lying. He then stated he'd need to do drug and alcohol tests.

I asked if he was joking and what basis did he have to suspect I was driving under the influence. He said because my behaviour - beeping at him - was 'bizarre' and I was driving dangerously, then asked if I was refusing? So I had to do them. They were clear obviously.

I said I would be making a complaint as I believed he was abusing his power because he was pissed off I beeped at him and 'how dare he bully members of the public'.

He then said MOVE NOW because I was in an active lane (bus lane where he forced me to stop) and if I didn't move now I'd get another ticket for failing to comply with an instruction from a police officer. I said 'who do you think you're talking to'.

I was very WTF and asked him to repeat the law I had broken and told him to give me the ticket so I could challenge it in court, so he said he did and I would get it in the post.

Two tickets - £130 and 3 points.

I then drove off. He didn't come behind me so I can only assume he went back round the next roundabout in the direction of the police station and the looking for a criminal was rubbish. In fact he said it so sarcastically, I think he meant looking for someone to book!

I have video of most of the interaction and he comes across very bullish and rude, especially when he was shouting at me to 'move now'. Literally no more than a minute until I did but he still said he had given me a ticket.

I did tell him I was putting the video on TikTok and would be making a complaint.
Quite shocked about this, and on reading about challenging the tickets in court, it seems that you can end up with a criminal conviction if you lose!

The lie about me being stationery when I beeped (which I have on video) should be easily disproven by their dashcam. Would they have to give me this if I challenge it?

Sadly I don't have my own. I ordered one ages ago, kept forgetting to set it up and it was on top of the bookcase at home!

WIBU?

"I need to leave this thread"

Might as well. The OP's hardly going to come back and admit they were wrong.

Nope because I wasn't.

It was complete overkill and abuse of power. Only on MN is it perfectly justifiable.

Complaint is in now.

Very interested to see their reasoning for a two police officers to abandon an active operation to search for a 'criminal', to instead conduct a high speed pursuit of a middle aged woman who beeped at them for not indicating!

That is pure road rage by a police officer.

The officer clearly says on video they'd been searching for a criminal so didn't know where they were going.

He fabricated the 2nd ticket for 'non compliance of a road traffic officers instructions' as they had to have been 'engaging in the regulation of traffic' such as at an accident or event. I was pulled into an empty bus lane, one officer talking to me, the other didn't get out of the car. No one was dealing with traffic.

The invasive drug and alcohol test was retaliatory humiliation. He had absolutely no grounds to suspect I was under the influence.

Maybe those on MN are happy for police resources, WE PAY FOR, to be used in this way.

I'm not.

Being a "middle aged woman" doesn't mean you can't commit a crime. Imagine if the police ignored middle aged women?
They probably suspected you were under the influence of drink or drugs. Yes, middle aged women do that, too.

Imagine if they did ignore us? The shit we could get away with….

Anyway, I thought everyone knew that most police officers are on a power trip and the best way to deal with them is to treat them like the all-powerful beings they think they are until they fuck off and leave you alone. I’ve gotten away with a few contraventions of the Highway Code that way 😂

Beeping at a police car OP, what were you thinking?!

Don’t forget beepist

I totally agree! Just be polite and apologise for the traffic violation and you're on your way. I wish they would ignore middle aged women!
I never understand why some people choose escalation.

Make a complaint in writing to the chief officer at the police station. I did this years ago when a police car pulled out in front of me from a No right turn junction. I wrote a jokey letter about police officers not knowing the Highway Code. I received a visit from a Chief Inspector from another police station. He tried to persuade me to take it further, saying if it had been the other way round I would have been prosecuted. A police officer friend told me that a copy of my letter with my address removed had been put on a noticeboard, together with a note from the Chief Inspector who had dealt with it, saying “You know who you are, and you are very lucky still to be driving police vehicles. If this person had done as I advised, you wouldn’t be.”

I demonstrated no reasonable suspicion that I was under the influence.

People beep their horns all the flipping time. Are they drunk or drugged?

I even got out of my car, remember so they saw me walking as well.

Cop just did it because he could, to try to humiliate me then made a false charge because I called him out on it.

It's quite odd to me that posters on here think what they did was justified.

I can only assume that they want to be contrary or are just nasty.

I beeped at it as I would have done to any car in that situation.

I think it's shocking that the public is so scared of the police and wouldn't challenge them. It's the same as everything else we've allowed to go unchallenged in this country.

I can't think of the last time I used my horn. It's for warning, not for rebuke.
This whole episode is most peculiar. Good luck with the outcome.

So there was no dash cam in the police car, no cameras on the road?
What an extraordinary response from a senior officer. I'm sure the culprit could have been found.

Well put - if they were more challenged then they wouldn't get away with being such Mr BB Balls

"I beeped at it as I would have done to any car in that situation."

OP, do you still not understand that beeping at any car like this is an inappropriate use of the horn? It's not about being scared of the police, it's about not being foolish enough to break the law right in front of them!

Also, I think I speak for everyone on this thread when I say I would really like to see your video!

You were in the wrong though - they had right of way and you had to stop. You said yourself you have had many near misses on that roundabout. Maybe it's time for a bit of self reflection as to why?

your behaviour was incredibly bizarre - I suspect that's why they tested you.

You should make a complaint. The police are supposed to be professional public servants, not bullies on a power trip. His behaviour and manner was an abuse of authority to indulge his temper. Try reporting inappropriate horn use to the police next time someone beeps you, and see how serious an offence it is then.
Its particularly galling when ordinary members of the public are treated this way, when you compare it with footage of the appeasement and pandering the police do to de-escalate violent men on 'protests'.
Don't put your video on SM. Do things properly and complain through the proper channels.

It's you who are now wasting tax payers' money

This is what I told my kids when they learned to drive!

Ps and never trust an indicator light!!

"I'm posting about you on TikTok, Officer Meanie"

Putting the video on TT? Are you 14? You created a problem by beeping. Unnecessarily aggressive. The police officer sounds like he needs anger management. But seriously - are you trying to make life harder for yourself?

You were goady by the sound of it. The police officer was being a knob and they should be better at keeping calm in the face of goady twats. But from your description - you were being goady. You sound like you were spoiling for a fight.

I think people aren’t disputing the reaction from the police
HOWEVER OP you beeped twice at a police officer? WTAF? lol and you think you’re in the right somehow? 🙈

When police produce people like those that killed Sarah Everard, its absolutely right that they be called out for their appalling driving and retaliation inflicted on you @BeepedAtPoliceCar

Fingers crossed you get a satisfactory resolution, but I doubt one will be forthcoming given how institutionally corrupt and racist nearly all police forces are these days - the world over, not just the UK.

Well done for taking a stand 👏

You do not pull on to the roundabout until you are absolutely sure which direction the car to your right is going. Even if he was indicating left but didn’t turn left the OP would be held responsible if she pulled out and hit him because it is up to her to ensure it is clear to pull out. That is the law however much you wish to depute the rights and wrongs of it.