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?

You beeped because you pulled out in front of him.

And of course you don't get out of your car. It's dangerous to be walking about a live lane. You switch the engine off and wind down your window. Police officers have lights, hivis and enough road sense to be the ones placing themselves in danger outside of the vehicles.

Yes I'm sure you know best, your behaviour has proved that.

The IOPC deal with serious stuff. Not your trivia.

Fucking insufferable. Can I have the officer's details, I'd like to send the bloke a bloody hamper.

Wasn't a live lane.

More imaginary tales.

Nope they will take it seriously.

Sorry to disappoint you.

You'd like to send a hamper to police officer who uses intimidation tactics and fabricates offences?

Says a lot about you.

Tell you what, once you get your summons you should post on here the court and time. Then we can all bring our popcorn to the public gallery. I presume that you're self-representing?

Ooh yes! Count me in for attending too!

Wow you’re embarrassing! You clearly think you’re above the law. I can’t stand obnoxious idiots like you. I bet you also couldn’t take any instructions at school from teachers or any form of criticism?

How are the IOPC involved so quickly? The force involved will investigate first and can then refer it on to them but that takes more than a few days unless it's something like a death.

You can submit a complaint to them directly so maybe that's what OP has done. They will just refer it to the relevant police force though.

Oh yes you can but as you say they will just pass it to the relevant force. Where I worked it would be looked at on division first and if serious enough go to HQ for professional standards and only after that might it go to IOPC but that would be weeks away and I don't think this would get there at all.

It has nothing to do with being shot at or being in America.

Amazed you haven't learnt this basic, common sense protocol: when approached by police, pull over at a reasonable place, turn your engine off, and wind your window down.

And yet you say you have been driving for 30 years, making you close to 50.

Here you are, not knowing how to behave properly on the roads, beeping at cops to alert them to what you consider poor driving, giving them attitude, and threatening to put your argumentative nonsense on TikTok, and saying pathetic shit like wait until it goes viral.

Nope, never been pulled over before (licence in 1993), nor has anyone I know, never needed to research it, so why would I know the protocol?

Have you?

I had this exact situation last week. No indication, police then went right and I had slowed down. They gestured at me and I gestured back about using indicators.

Sounds like a common thing.

Hmm, you could watch a movie, or a television show perhaps. That is how it's done. (You seem to know the potential results of getting out of your car in the US.)

Oh, I think he knew exactly what sort of person he was talking to. 😂

It's reasonable to test you for drugs and alcohol because you acted very unusually. Does that not make sense to you? Even if you think you're right about everything, the stats seen here on this thread shows a vast majority of people think what you said and did was crazy so of course would be grounds for testing drugs and alcohol.

😂😂

You keep banging on about the police car being driven in a bus lane. In case you didn't realise, they are allowed to do that.

This thread just highlights the dangerous nature of the complaints process.

I think we can all agree now that the OP has shown her true colours that the police officer was on a hiding to nothing here. He is paid to make decisions to uphold the law. There are situations where a chat is enough, situations where it needs a ticket and others where it needs an arrest. I highly suspect this was going to just be a chat but the OP escalated it to much more. Regardless of the police officers driving, he is paid to make it from A-B as quickly as possible as safely as possible. They are trained to do it. He is not above the laws of the road but he is expected to use his training to interpret situations we are not allowed to do. Then she has the audacity to make it a huge issue here on MN and follow it up with as many complaints as possible through the police procedures.

This guy was on his way to something possibly much more serious and he deemed the OP to have done something worthy of interruption. That is his call to make and his training guides him. That same training may help save lives in the future but the OP deems herself so above the law or such a nuisance that she wants to drag his valuable time and effort through the mud.

We get the police force we deserve. If we continue to treat them like shit, we will get the good ones leaving and the shit service we deserve. Its not all about accountability. Respect of our police force should be a minimum.

You obviously don't understand the meaning of the words 'live lane'. Of course it was a live lane, you just drove down it.

By the way, when they have their lights flashing, emergency vehicles can go at whatever speed is necessary.

Do the police respect the public as a minimum?? They do not.

Policing in the UK is by consent.

Last time I checked, no member of the public had ever done anything to a police officer like what a police officer did to poor Sarah Everard.....

What happened to Sarah Everard was horrific and inexcusable.
It's fair to say, however, that police officers do lose their lives in the line of duty eg PC Harper and the two in Middlesbrough recently.
It's not "2 sides", them and us. Police should be accountable and follow the law. However, it's not true to say that they're never victims of the public.