Cop out

I drove over to Leeds this weekend to visit Mike. On previous visits I have travelled on the A59 from Preston through past Skipton, through Ilkley and into the north of Leeds which is where Mike lives. It's a nice run through rural areas which can sometimes get busy around Ilkley but usually it's not too much of a slowdown. However this weekend I decided to go on the M62 for a change.

Making good progress on the quiet motorways I was travelling slightly above the speed limit but not excessively so - and certainly not dangerously. Having had one crash 10 years ago I gave up the aggressive boy racer thing as soon as I saw how much my insurance premium went up!

When I joined the M62 there were a few packs of cars which I passed. All of them were exceeding the speed limit, and I was not doing more than about 90MPH for the few seconds it took to pass them. Following this I slotted into the middle lane and cruised at around 80MPH which was about the same speed as all the other traffic behind me. The road ahead was clear, the weather was fine, there were no unusual circumstances. It's nothing I haven't done a million times before.

But one thing was different. On previous journeys on the motorway I have been in an inconspicuous dark metallic green Ford Escort 1.6. A nice car that served me well for 7 years. This time I was in my bright orange Nissan 350Z. And this time a Police X5 BMW came hammering it up in my mirrors. His lights were not flashing but I had spotted him in my mirrors very early as he accelerated past all the cars that I had just passed. I had obviously heard all the stories about Police picking on certain cars for whatever reasons and it was in the back of my mind that I was about to be stopped by this guy. I'd also heard all the stories about BMW drivers! After swerving in behind me he proceeded to tailgate me for about half a mile whilst I'm sat there - still doing around 80MPH - expecting the blues and twos to come on and the resulting patronising castration for driving "dangerously" in a straight line at 80MPH and the accompanying penalty points.

Still behind me, the Police cruiser moved into the inside lane and I thought perhaps that was the end of it. But then suddenly and without signalling he proceeded to cut across all three lanes into the overtaking lane, accelerate past me and cut right in front of me. Then he slammed his brakes on.

Prior to the arrival of this Police vehicle the traffic was moving smoothly and progressively. As any motorway driver will know, as soon as a Police vehicle or a speed camera is spotted by someone the anchors come slamming on to bring everyone to bang on the speed limit. I didn't do that. I don't think slamming brakes on at high speed is a safe thing to do unless there is no other option. As a result the Police decided to cause me to do it by cutting me up and hitting the brakes.

I appreciate that I didn't get any punishment for exceeding the speed limit from this so the officer in question must have had one or two caring bones in his body but did this officer think that he was promoting safe driving by cutting me up and then hitting the brakes at 80MPH?

Did he really believe that targetting the relatively young driver with the performance car that was not driving erratically, not swerving and not tailgating anyone but committing the apparently heinous crime of driving 10MPH above the speed limit would really make a difference to anything, ever, except my insurance premiums? I prefer to drive with the flow of traffic rather than to be a blockage that causes people to have to brake or make maneuvres. If everyone drove at the same speed there would be far less accidents. Indeed, the Police obviously agree with that to a degree after slapping that old lady with a driving ban last week for driving at 10mph on the motorway she turned on to by mistake.

I just don't see why the Police have the right to drive at such high speeds when patrolling: furthermore I don't see why they do it. People already hate the Police. You would think they would want to improve their reputation (in fairness the guy that harassed me did this slightly by not stopping me, but spoiled it by driving like an idiot and trying to cause a crash). There is an inherent hesitation when it comes to the Police nowadays as there have been so many incidents of ridiculous inflexible traffic law enforcement, sneaky speed cameras placed not in accident spots but in money making spots and so on. This can even be extended to other forms of Police enforcement or lack of: victims of crime being prosecuted for retaliating against intruders or attackers, or the fact that the Police never come quickly for real crime that really matters to people such as burglary - unless you tell them you have killed the burglar and within 5 minutes the helicopter is above your house.

But back to motoring, having experienced what I did yesterday I can see why so many people die each year due to either their vehicle or their person being hit by Police vehicles doing stupid maneuvres at ridiculous speeds. Yet what do we see in the media an awful lot lately? Police wasting thousands of pounds of resources chasing up joyriders that film themselves speeding on Youtube to issue them with a pathetic slap on the wrists and penalty points that mean nothing to people that drive with no license or insurance anyway - if you aren't going to jail them then what's the point? Police drivers going to court for driving over 150MPH and getting off. Chief Constables getting caught on speed cameras and getting off. They always bleat about being trained to drive fast and therefore there's less risk but what level of skill does it take to drive at 80MPH in a relatively straight line with no obstacles? None more than to drive at 70MPH.

Why is it so difficult for the Police to realise that Gordon Brown and his tax loving Government are more than capable of persecuting motorists without their assistance?