Police Scotland

[mikeymo]

Here’s one of Mikey’s more famous cases:

https://youtu.be/PA8ah2dwMxQ

"I'm a doctor! I'm a doctor and I want my sausages!"

[irc]

To be honest, I've often been impressed with the response of the police whenever I've reported suspected drunk drivers, unsecured child passengers and such like.

Reports of drunk drivers were aways treated as urgent. Anyone who has drunk enough they are weaving is a serious risk. Always worth reporting.

I handled one where I am convinced the report to the police saved the drivers life. A member of the public reported a suspect drunk driver on the Erskine Bridge exiting west towards Dumbarton. I stopped him in Dumbarton right outside the police station as I drove out to look for him. He was drunk and had a bottle of vodka on the passenger seat beside him.

He also had a hose pipe on the back seat and admitted he had been en route to Loch Lomond to top himself. He was arrested and we were able to request a psychiatric exam the following day in custody when he was sober.

The thing with this call was if it had come through 30 seconds later he would have been past going west and we would have been going the other way towards the bridge. At that time, around 3AM there probably wasn't another panda on the road between Dumbarton and Loch Lomond so he would have had a clear run to park up and use the hosepipe.

[mikeymo]

To be honest, I've often been impressed with the response of the police whenever I've reported suspected drunk drivers, unsecured child passengers and such like.

Reports of drunk drivers were aways treated as urgent. Anyone who has drunk enough they are weaving is a serious risk. Always worth reporting.

I handled one where I am convinced the report to the police saved the drivers life. A member of the public reported a suspect drunk driver on the Erskine Bridge exiting west towards Dumbarton. I stopped him in Dumbarton right outside the police station as I drove out to look for him. He was drunk and had a bottle of vodka on the passenger seat beside him.

He also had a hose pipe on the back seat and admitted he had been en route to Loch Lomond to top himself. He was arrested and we were able to request a psychiatric exam the following day in custody when he was sober.

The thing with this call was if it had come through 30 seconds later he would have been past going west and we would have been going the other way towards the bridge. At that time, around 3AM there probably wasn't another panda on the road between Dumbarton and Loch Lomond so he would have had a clear run to park up and use the hosepipe.

Driving up the side of Loch Lomond with a bottle of Vodka inside him he wouldn't have needed the hosepipe, that's a bad enough road to stay on when you're sober, at least at the top. He'd be lucky to make it to Crianlarich alive, drunk. But well done for saving at least one life, obviously.

I was born in Ardlui. Well, actually I was born in Dumbarton, but my parents were living in Ardlui at the time.

[DaveReading]

Indeed, the legal position is that witnesses can be compelled to testify with severe alternatives.

Interesting. That's certainly not the case in England.

[Pebble]

Thirdcrank, you sound either ex or currently serving Police Officer? Appreciate what you say, and I suppose I am like a lot of the population in being put off by the whole go to court thing, the protracted and usually expensive legal process. If only there was a middle ground in reporting issues, rather than the nuclear option.
I can also assure you that there was zero interaction with the driver before the incident. This occurred in an open road and he was just one car of many that passed us that day. We were 40 miles into a ride without any incident prior to then. If I knew how to upload the video here I would, just for constructive criticism. I have both front and rear views.

Prior to Corvid I had sent a few videos into police scotland and they seemed to have a much more open approach in speaking to drivers on my behalf. Maybe it is all the restrictions around the currant situation that has prompted this take it or leave it attitude.

I have used Vimeo in the past to share videos with the police - vimeo allow you to password videos and I think the police appreciate this as they are not keen on them being shared openly on the net should they need to prosecute.

[thirdcrank]

Here's a straightforward explanation (with links to the legislation) of witnesses in England and Wales being compelled to attend court and give evidence, the main point being

If a witness fails to attend court or give evidence or produce the required documents, they can be punished for contempt of court with a fine and/or a prison sentence.

As always, plenty of ifs and buts.

https://www.inbrief.co.uk/court-proceed ... al-trials/

[Jdsk]

PS: The state of the art is probably Cycling Mikey communicating with the Metropolitan Police: his submission of evidence of motoring offences using web forms and uploaded video has led to a large number of fines and penalty points. And from what I can tell is now tuned into a pretty efficient process.
https://twitter.com/MikeyCycling

Screenshot 2020-09-30 at 09.18.09.png

"‘I felt powerless – so I started filming’: CyclingMikey on his one-man battle with dangerous drivers":
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyl ... oads-safer

Jonathan

[Slowtwitch]

A fair quote from one of the taxi drivers held up in the video above :

'Remember what you lot do on the bike?'

Personally, while there's still the motoring public perception that cyclists routinely break the rules of the road in a cavalier fashion (we've all done it), and get away with it, the so called war between drivers and cyclists will go on and on.

Surely a concerted campaign to educate both parties is a better way forward. Although Mikey is doing a laudable job, having watched a few more of his videos I think his efforts are only going to widen the divide and create even more animosity than already exists between the two groups. There does seem to be an element of taunting to his interactions which is hard to disguise.

[Pebble]

I would suspect that a far higher percentage of motorists break the law every time they are behind the wheel than cyclists do when they ride their bikes.

Esp here in the scottish borders with the 20mph speed limits, virtually every driver ignores that law - and with traffic lights being a rare occurrence (just at road works) I think cyclists would be hard pushed to break any traffic law - esp serious ones that reate danger to other like speeding in a built up area

[ChrisP100]

There is a cyclist from NI who I follow on Twitter. She recently posted images from her being knocked off by a driver who attempted to undertake another vehicle by entering a bus lane, caused a collision with said vehicle, knocked her off in the process and then drove off. All caught on camera.

The driver was later identified and given a warning by police as 'there was only a small amount of damage caused to both vehicles'... Never mind the cyclist.

The cyclist had evidence of a HIT AND RUN, and the PSNI essentially did NOTHING .

[thirdcrank]

Pace Sweep, that seems beyond the remit of even Chief Commissioner Cameron Miekelson