We had been to Tesco with our 8 yr old daughter, headed home, just going down our road, police car past us going the opposite way, we carried on, next thing we know its up our backside, we pull up outside our house and they flash the 'blues' at us, so obviously had followed us. To catch up with us they must have floored it as its a country road, with nowhere to turn easily !!! So they had to do that to then catch up with us.

Copper got out, smug expression, hubby asked what the problem was, he just said "oh you know fella, just a routine stop check". My daughter was actually quite frightened, although i am not sure why, probably the 'unknown' as we arent in the habit of associating with police, good or bad!

Anyway, they basically had this 'air' of 'ha ! we are the law, can do what we like, when we like and stuff you'. They got my back up with the way they spoke/looked and the way they made a very obvious / un-nesessary / determined decision to make a u-turn on a country road (they did more wrong than US !!!!!) and follow us, then hassle us basically.

As we were home, we WERE able to show my husbands (clean! :-) ) driving license, they called in and checked and WOW - the car IS insured IS taxed IS MOT'ed and bless them, even checked the tyres for us, how kind, they were FINE !!!!

How about they go and find people who are ACTUALLY breaking the **** law !!! Not someone who doesnt even LOOK like they are breaking it !!! Both of us are hard working parents of 3, who pay everything required and drive legally !! No criminal convictions EVER !!

Took the next 2 hours to try to explain, over & over & over & over to our daughter WHY we had been stopped. The lights were also NOT needed, we had pulled into a parking space !!! Idiots. Lets hope they never need my help. Yes i am annoyed, i am sure i will get 'oh they are only doingtheir jobs' etc etc. i KNOW that, but i dont care, its called 'random rants' and thats what i feel like doing after they WASTED most of my evening by the time i settled my daughter !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you describe what a criminal looks like?

In this case I should say "Yes, Tall youngish men wearing dark blue serge suits with shiney buttons"

Helpful

Yep - here they come ...... soooooo witty

Rose8 how do the police know that a car is not carrying a criminal unless they stop it and check?????????

As for you not looking like you were breaking the law, have you ever seen a sign on a car that say's "I AM BREAKING THE LAW"?? Thought not.

The police are criticised if they do and criticised if they don't? Just can't win.
You knew you had done nothing wrong so why get so angry at being stopped?

Read my original post !!!!!!!!!!!!! i have explained it perfectly clearly.

It seems such stop and searches is a common occurrence in Newbury nowadays. In the last month I've seen quite a few (in the high street). I must say that I haven't seen any results by stopping those youths (and they are always youths), but then again that isn't the point... is it?

I know what you are saying GMR.

I think its the way they went about it and spoke etc, got my back up xx

Was nice to wave them off, knowing they didnt get any 'results'. Lets hope the people who REALLY needed them / WERE breaking the law / speeding.... etc etc didnt mind waiting for them :-)

Quite agree.

Criminals drive cars to and from crime. FACT
Routine stops have resulted in crminals being caught red-handed. FACT.

Peter Sutcliffe (The Yorkshire Ripper) was caught as a result of a routine stop.
Donald Neilson (The Black Panther). Ditto.

You were home safe and sound with nothing more than a slightly, if not unusual story to tell. Well Boo Hoo. There are families up and down the country who wish their husband, wife, sons and daughters hadn't made a routine stop as they would be alive today.

I suggest you have a look Here and read some of the names and circumstances.

I expect 'll be accused of being "sooooo witty".

Yes I have several times and I still don't understand what exactly your wound up about????? Generally just the police doing their job by the looks of it??

Ok so their attitude might not have been the best but given that you seem to be so angry about it I think that you may have been associating your anger to their attitude.

Im sure if you had been hit by an uninusred driver whilst on your way home from Tesco then you would have blamed the police for not doing enough to tackle that. Random vehicle stops are legal and neccesary to combat a great deal of crimes and road safety issue's.


Like I said you never see cars displaying signs that say "IM BREAKING THE LAW"!!!! By the way what time of night was it??

OSSY1 .......... oh dear !!!!!!!!!!!!

See heres a story !!!!!!!!!! We WERE hit by IDIOTS (probably uninsured, but no they didnt have a label so i couldnt tell!!!) along the A339, 2 'boy racers' RACING, side by side, we came round bend, HEAD ON !!! WE went into a tree !!! We lost our car, hubby hurt, my ribs cracked, my 14 month old DAUGHTER in the back seat !!!!!!!!!!!

My hubby got breathalised .............. he PASSED !!!!!!!!!!!! Never drinks a drop when driving !!!!!!!

We did nothing wrong, were the people who were racing caught .......... what do YOU think !!!!!!!!!!!

What time of night was it ................... 8pm

Nope wont accuse you of anything ........... everyone entitled to their opinion xxxxxxxxxx

There's clearly no point in trying to talk sense with you.....you are a very angry person!!! Just generally it seems!!

I assume when you say they werent caught then they didnt stop, do you have any details of their vehicles??

Think what you like about me ..... fact is you are very wrong, but never mind.

Yes whilst i was ploughing into a tree, i stopped time and took their reg no's !!!

There is no point in trying to talk sense to me, i wasnt aware you were. Its the fact that i have an issue, made a point, you didnt like it that i actually have an experience of someone breaking the law after what you said about uninsured drivers do you!! NO they didnt stop, even though they WOULD have been fully aware they caused an accident, we could all have been killed. Luckily there was a very nice man, behind the 2 racers, who DID stop, DID give an account to the police and helped us with our very scared little girl.

Don’t let people upset you, you’ve put a good debating topic up. Some will see your point and agree wholeheartedly and others will dismiss you as a fool (we've all been there); it is part and parcel of forum life. By the way I understand what you were saying.

I don’t have problems with stop and search, but there are ways and means (I think in a lot of cases it is about intimidation)... also we are not far off a police state in this country.


Glenn

I know Glenn, i agree and i realise what you are saying / doing. Thankyou.

Shona x

Rose8 the point I am trying to make (albeit you keep shouting at me)! Is that the police were doing their job.

Stopping cars is how they catch people doing wrong, your very angry that it just happens to have been you that was stopped! You were all in order, end of matter.

As for having experience of someone breaking the law I got no issue with you mentioning that, why would I???

I got it in buckets loads.

Did the police actually give an explanation as to why they made such an effort to pull you over? To me it seems like they could have run a lot of the necessary checks, while tailing you, before pulling you over. It seems strange to me that they would target a family, what sort of car do you have?

Please stop refering to stop and search, because from what I can tell this does not relate to that this relates to stopping a vehicle. Stop search and stopping vehicle are two different things under to different sections of law.

Don’t be silly – police give an ‘explanation’! Next you’ll be suggesting that they are accountable for their actions. God! Some people have a wild sense of humour

If it were, there would be no crime as anyone suspected of such things would simply disappear.

I said "not far off" not "we are actually a police state at this moment." And who said people are not mysteriously disappearing already? There are many reports in the paper of people mysteriously disappearing. Even in country's where there is an actual police state crime is still committed.

No they just said "routine stop & check, fella". Thats why we were annoyed to be honest, the length they seemed to go to, to follow and stop us, if they had radioed our details in, they would have got all they needed. It was the 'way he said it' the 'smug' look on his face etc, hard to explain on here, but he just seemed very '**** sure' for want of a better word. We drive a Renault Laguna, no modificaions, perfectly standard. Didnt have music blasting out, child was in her seat, not hanging out the window lol. Odd.

The place they turned around, was on a bend on avery narrow road ... that was another thing that annoyed me, they could have caused an accident !! But there you go xx If WE had been caught by THEM doing that U-turn i wonder what would have happened eh ! :-)

Very strange Rose and to be honest I would feel the same as you. I agree that stop and checks are necessary but you would think that a simple bit of common sense would come into the process.

All the best Rose, hope you stick with the forum

Thanks Gumbo, i will xxx

Sorry ........ who has mentioned 'stop & search' ??

The TETRA radio system is marvel but it doesn't tell you who is driving the vehicle at the time. Strangly enough, you have to stop the car to find that out.

Perhaps as car matching yours had been seen driving away from a burglary nearby?
Similar make/model had been stolen
The driver looked familiar and was worth checking out. Maybe disqualified?
Something else triggered a 'sixth sense' that something wasn't right.

The police use "stop and search" to anything.... even street searches.

I was the one who mentioned it.

Yep I got it now, the police follow you do all the checks, cars insured and owned by someone so let it go...... I think that's what your saying. Now im sure computers arent so intelligent yet that they can tell if the driver is drunk!!

Or if they driver is actually the owner and insured driver, or that it's been stolen and the owner doenst realise yet!
Or even that it is legitimatly owned and the people inside are off to do your house over.......

As for turning around that's a matter of your own opinion to what is a dangerous location to do it in. But in your original post you said the police car went past then it was behind you so how do you know where it turned around? Or are you just making an assumption???

No it doesn't but I am pretty certain our police force are issued with something called E.Y.E.S. which is often a very useful tool!

E.Y.E.S don't smell drink. And i'm sorry but the police don't know everyone. If a record says MR Brian SMITH is the owner and insured of said car being followed it doesnt then say what Brian SMITH looks like!!!!

But they should have a reason to pull you over and explain it:

erratic driving - possibly drunk
4 young men driving a family car - possibly stolen

From the description provided, and I admit that is all we have to go on, the police should have seen this was a family vehicle, being driven sensibly, containing a male/female/child (safe to assume family) and should have left it alone.

Ossy1 I don't like to normally say this but I think you are wrong on this one. As I have stated with the facts we have been presented I see no reason for this FAMILY to have been pulled over! you are adding in loads of variables that just don't add up.

So criminals don't use their families as cover?

It's well known that for burglaries, children are used to enter very small windows, even cat flaps. If caught and under 10, they cannot be prosecuted.

I again point out that the only way to check something out is to stop the car and speak to the occupants.

It's called thinking outside of the box!!! and looking at things realisticly. There seems no reason, but then as far as I understand to stop a vehicle at the roadside does not require a reason.

But if Rose8 wants a reason then why did she not 1) ask at the time, or 2) go back and ask now?

I agree with Gumbo on this. There has to be a reason to be pulled over and if it isn't obvious to the people in the car then the Police should have the courtesy to tell them.
The offer of an explanation wouldn't have hurt them.

I dont know what it was ..... but ... i havent heard of any burgleries or car thefts this morning. My husband has never been disqualified etc etc, maybe he did look like someone they THOUGHT they recognised, who knows. It was probably near the end of their shift and we gave them something to do for the last fw minutes!!

Actually they did give a reason according to Rose8 original post routine Stop. And that can be to identify the driver and make sure they are legal.

That is all the Road Traffic act requires.

Reminds me of the time my partner and I were pulled over, riding a moped, with L's displayed but taped over(his brother had yet to pass his test).

We had apparently broken 4 laws, unfortunately the copper mistook the moped for a motorbike.

After a few annoyed weeks, the chief inspector personally came and apologised to us for doing nothing wrong.

What and ask if they are just off somewhere to push their 8 year old daughter through somebodys cat flap. "Yes officer, we are just going to that big house down the road to rob it!"

They must have had some reason for checking you out, and may not have had the time to do all the checks via radio - maybe they were looking for someone else with that type of car. But surely they wouldn't have been doing their job if they'd simply ignored you because you looked nice.

Sometimes they have to make swift judgements, and may not always get it right, but I'm sure you'd be grateful for the help of those "idiots" if you or any of your family was ever the victim of a crime. You'd probably also then be quite happy for them to stop and check other people if they had the slightest feeling they may have been involved.

It seems you are adamant you didn't deserve to be stopped and no amount of discussion or point of view will change your mind.

If you feel so hard done by perhaps you should go to Newbury Police Station and make a formal complaint instead of complaining about it here.

I thought the police had more up to date computers, ones that could check if a car is insured etc so they could have covered most things with a vehicle check. My husband wasnt driving erratically and they didnt once suggest they stopped him thinking he was drunk or had been drinking, neither did they do or suggest a breath test.

I know the stretch of road, the ONLY place to turn the car round was in a driveway, with a closed gate ( i know the owners, they have had their gate broken as the space to turn is small !!!!!!) so it wasnt a safe place to turn, there has been accidents there from other people doing it. A policewoman herself said it wasnt a safe place to turn on that road at the time of the accident !!! Before you say, i was walking my dogs past it, i knew the person who had hit the driver turning in the road.

And is it not YOU making assumptions about me ?? Have i said that i HAVENT taken the matter up with The police after the incident ??? FYI ..... i have telephoned and followed up with an email outlining the events in detail.

See my other post. No we didnt deserve to be stopped .... simple.

I am a member on here, have been for ages and if i decide to post this event on Newbury Rants, i am perfectly ok to do. If you feel your discussion is getting no-where, then again, simple .... stop posting about my thread. x

I never suggested i look 'nice'. We are just a normal law abiding family who are annoyed at their evening being disrupted and their daughter being upset when others are out actually comitting crimes. And can quite clearly be SEEN to be doing so, ie speeding.

Those idiots have never helped me in the past so i have no reason to assume they would in the future OR that i would want them to.

Here's something funny .......... my 15 yr old son wants to be 'one of them' make of that what you will.

But they would have been doing a better job if they had simply been courteous and said something like "I am sorry to trouble you Sir/Madam but we have had reports of a stolen car/suspicious vehcile etc etc or whatever reason it was" and not play Mr Sarky Cop.

I think the lesson from all of this that surely all on here can agree on and probably what Rose8 really had an issue with is that the officers concerned were not very customer focused

Just imagining trying to push my daughter through a catflap ....... next door do have a bigger tv than ours though ...... if i just shove her over the fence, make sure i dont put a label saying 'child burgler' on her back, i will be safe, esp as she is under 10

In a nutshell gumbo, thankyou.

And the fact that my daughhter was scared and they didnt once even acknowledge her or try to reassure her, their attitude stank.