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?

Yes they have. Last week a car load of 'members of the public' mowed down two police officers while driving down the wrong side of the road. 'Members of the public' also killed a police officer by dragging him along a road at high speed leading to fatal injuries.

The point is you get good and bad on all sides. If we treat our police officers with contempt, we will become a lawless society.

Ahh right, so we judge the police by one situation. Is that right? They are all killers and rapists? Even if we took every miscarriage of justice, every bad police officer etc etc etc. Is that how we then view the police?

That just gives everyone cart blanche to disrespect the police. To steal, to ignore, to fight, to carry knives, to agrue etc etc.

We get the police force we deserve from the respect we give them and allowing them to do their jobs. The massive increase in women into the police force is helping to change things especially in some of the more senior positions.

Or we just continue to undermine them and get the dreggs of society policing the lawless scum.

Well said.

OP is female, and I agree the deaths of those police officers you mention is beyond words.

But that is NOT the same as what happened to Sarah E and you know it.

Stop conflating two very different sets of scenarios - the OP was alone and accosted by an unhinged male police officer.

We also get the police force we deserve by allowing the bad ones to treat us inappropriately without any complaint or review of their behaviour.

There is a balance between giving them respect and allowing them to do their jobs without allowing them to treat people badly or act outside their authority.

The fact that they have so much power means they have to be more careful about how they wield it, and ultimately be accountable to the public they serve.

That's why there is a complaints procedure, and if people feel they have been treated badly and even more so think they have evidence to support that then who would discourage them from reporting ?

Either the OP is right or wrong. No one on here has seen the evidence so no one actually knows. That's the job of the complaints procedure to sort out.

Stop conflating two very different sets of scenarios - the OP was alone and accosted by an unhinged male police officer

To be fair though, if OP had not acted in an unhinged manner herself initially, none of this would have occurred. The police are used to dealing with unhinged people in terms of mental illness, drugs, alcohol etc, which is why OP was tested, but OP was just being a belligerent dick, which they are also used to dealing with but I guess they get sick of every now and then.

She wasn't accosted by him.
It may be that a complaint will be upheld, but he didn't initiate this situation.

We can agree to disagree on that.

Yes, we can.

No one on here has seen the evidence

Because the video hasn't been posted to social media as OP claimed they were going to do. If it has then why not share a link here?

Or, she was pulled over for her erratic behaviour. Not wanting to give way at a roundabout then blaming the police officers. Making that known to them. Twice. Then after being pulled over approached them. Was rude and combative to them.

would she have been pulled over if she hadn't instigated the incident?

Well because there is a proper procedure.

IMO you can respect both the police and procedure by formalising your complaint and then sending it in through the proper channels for review.

That to me is acting in good faith and respecting the police by engaging with the procedure, rather than not complaining at all if you feel something has gone wrong.

Plastering it all over social media as a knee jerk reation to me isn't a fair and reasonable part of that process. Neither the police nor criminals should be tried by social media.

Perhaps the OP felt after reflection they would be better off going through the process first. But that's a question for them to answer.

If OP genuinely wanted to take this seriously and make a formal complaint she probably shouldn't have posted on Mumsnet admitting to committing a driving offence...!

According to OP she hadn’t committed any driving offence which is what is infuriating me and many other mumsnetters,

OP - would you do the same again??

Maybe.

But some people take a bit of time to think and then change their actions accordingly.

And maybe they just wanted to gather some opinions and see whether any info or suggestions would be presented that they could use without adding any identifying information.

When I'm at a roundabout, there are some instances when I'll pause momentarily, so that other road users already on the roundabout can carry on their merry way. Such as:

Learner drivers
Hulking great juggernauts
Hearses
Cyclists
Ditherers
Buses & coaches
Horse boxes
Motorbikes
Emergency vehicles with or without blue flashing lights

And - entitled tosspots in stupidly expensive powerful cars, because as we all know, they are too important to do anything as polite as tell anyone else where they are going.

It takes almost no time out of my day, and keeps my blood pressure down. You can't rely on indicators, so I would never make any assumptions about where they are going.

Just think, if the OP had done that, none of this shenanigans would have happened.

OP has taken nothing on board that doesn't support her point of view. She is totally ignoring the multiple posts pointing out that she was initially in the wrong. She has contradicted herself and not responded when people have challenged that. I think you are being very kind suggesting she came on here for anything other than a rant.

Yep. Even if you have a green light you should still check the way is actually clear before proceeding.

You sound like those parents at school always blaming the teachers for their offspring not being able to take a shit or tie their shoes properly or demanding their phone back because little johnny had it out in class.

Of course there should be a complaints procedure but society is going down the plug hole because of people undermining and questioning authority at every single opportunity.

Most people do have a rant when something bad happens to them. It's human nature.

Later then they tend to calm down a bit and think more rationally.

I'm not sure that if I was in this situation people on the internet would know better than I would whether the encounter was worthy of complaint or not.

I'd probably read all the suggestions and take on board what people said, both for and against my position, but that wouldn't necessarily mean I would do what "multiple" people wanted. Because they weren't there and didn't experience everything.

Half the posts on here are people complaining about their husbands, and half of the responses are normally telling them to get divorced. Probably if people posting on here did what responding posters wanted or suggested no one on here would be married. Some people are just on here to get a buzz out of being contrary, or out of the idea they are managing to get someone to do what they want.

My position remains the same. If someone feels that strongly that they were wronged by the police, then the correct thing to do is go through the proper complaints procedure and see where that leads, rather than let the internet decide what you do. The internet/posters can be a useful source of information and help inform your decision making process. But probably not best to let them make your decision for you.

Anyway, had an email today that the complaint has been referred to the IOPC via my local police force's complaint portal as I expected.

Let's see what happens.

I won't be posting the video until the complaints process has been completed.

In 2012 Dale Cregan lured two police officers to their deaths, falsely reporting a burglary. When they attended, he killed them with a hand grenade and a hail of bullets.

I can recount numerous other incidents where police officers have been murdered by members of the public..

So the forces professional standards haven't investigated, come out and interviewed you, interviewed the officers, had the file reviewed by a senior officer or they've done what normally takes weeks in a few days? Yea sure. Good luck.

This is irrefutable evidence of the fact that you: a) you are absolutely vindicated, your reactions were correct and proportionate and b) should crack on with your plan to release the episode on Tik Tok.

Why so shy now OP?

"Later then they tend to calm down a bit and think more rationally."

@GasPanic I'm not sure OP has reached that point yet. 😂