Police Speeding 841

So, you're happy for the police to unnecessarily put the public in danger? Places like Millbrook have every sort of road type and offer a chance to find out just how a car handles in probably more road characteristics than you could get from a short blat along a public road. If there is no such facility available to the police, they should create one - because putting the public in unnecessary danger is unacceptable.

In a similar vein, I've noticed the number of "police, camera, action" type, fly-on-the-wall documentaries that show "expert" police drivers behaving like lunatics. In one incident, the police were practicing pursuit and TPAC. This must be an example of police driving of which the police themselves are proud (otherwise they would not have consented to their publication). As such, it cannot be a one-off and I suspect to my horror that this goes on regularly.

They did an exercise on the A38 in Derbyshire at speeds in excess of 110 mph. The "target" vehicle (I buttume driven by a police driving instructor) weaved from lane to lane, undertook, overtook, tailgated civilians, and generally behaved like the worst of lunatics that you see on "Stop, Police, Action" etc. These dual-carriageway antics were after a 90mph chase along single-carriageway "feeders" to the A38.

Now the clincher -- it was raining heavily and, from the spray coming from the vehicles, it was perfect aquaplaning conditions. In other words, if something had gone wrong (e.g. a civilian strayed into the wrong lane at or below the legal speed limit), a multi-vehicle pile-up was unavoidable.

Ok, the police need to train to carry out these techniques, but why must they endanger the public? Why can't they use a private track or at least use speed and separation with civilian vehicles commensurate with public safety? With such a cavalier atbreastude and such dangerous driving of the police driving instructors (and so, allegedly, the best of the best of the best) themselves, it is little wonder that the police accident rate has risen in recent years.

-- Geoff Lane Cornwall, UK