At Full Chat

I'm used to being moved on by the police. A few years ago, when I was having a late night snooze at Gatwick as I waited for my grandmother's delayed plane, I was woken up by an armed officer. He assumed I was a dosser, said I couldn't spend the night in the terminal building and suggested I board a train to London to find a hostel. More recently, a provocative policeman decided to push me in the chest in an attempt to dissuade me from standing on the pavement where I was talking to disgruntled drivers involved in fuel protests outside an oil depot. But recently I got my own back when I confronted five cops who were loitering with intent. Well, sort of.

Auto Express Car Reviews

By Mike Rutherford

11th February 2004

I was driving along a quiet B-road that I've been down countless times before and know quite well. It's one of those rural spots, surrounded by fields, an occasional residential side road (where the cops were hiding), which presents no obvious or particular dangers. But at 11am on Friday, 30 January, a day or two after blizzards coated Britain's roads with snow and ice, there they were - all five of them - demonstrating that 'policing' the streets in 2004 does not involve chasing murderers or muggers, but does mean pointing hand-held cameras and speed monitoring devices at motorists.

I drove past the officers slightly below the 30mph limit, but still received unfriendly glances from some of them - presumably because I committed the crime of being a motorist. A few hundred yards along the road I parked up, and then strolled back to politely enquire why there was such a heavy police presence in such an insignificant place. I told the officer in charge that as a payer of road user taxes, income taxes, council taxes and heaven only knows how many other taxes, I thought he and his boys should lay off car drivers, get their priorities right and do some proper policing.

"Like what?" he asked. Like catching the burglars, car vandals and other criminals who operate in the very same area. The officer pointed out that speeding motorists cause many deaths and injuries, especially to children. But he obviously wasn't aware (as I discovered when I challenged him on his apparently thin road safety knowledge) that speeders account for only a comparatively small percentage of serious accidents. Furthermore, I reminded him that the virtually pedestrian-free location and time of day for his speed trap antics were hardly any help to kids, since they were at school.

I then found myself giving the officer and his clueless colleagues a good rollicking. And to add insult to injury, I reached for the camera I always carry and photographed the almost comical, overmanned scene of retreating cops and parked-up cars! Then the fear kicked in. Although I hadn't sworn or even raised my voice, I was worried that I'd gone a bit OTT. But what were the boys in blue going to do? Charge me for taking a picture in a public place? Impose a fine for being a fed-up motorist? Arrest me for wearing an offensive anorak? Thankfully not. They merely went back to their cars and sheepishly left the area, mumbling something about only trying to do their job.