What powers do off duty police have?

I was driving to work this morning along a 40 MPH dual carriageway. The left hand lane divides into 2 and the LH branch is turning left only. A silver car was in the middle lane waiting at the island as I pull up in the RH lane at about 10 MPH. He pulls onto the island as I roll on to it and he cuts right up the the idlands curb. I flash and sound my horn but then stop and carry on as normal.

half a mile later I was ahead of him and pull into the RH lane to pass a parked van. He drives right up to my bumper. I flash my brake lights briefly (didn't stamp on them) He backs off. He flashes his main beam 3 or 4 times over the next mile until we get to some traffic lights. He storms out of his car and tries to open my door, which is locked. Says that he is a police officer, flashes his warrant card beiefly, tells me he has my registration number and that, in other words that they're going to do me, then demands my name.

I imagine that plod will take the word of plod over the public but what can he really do if he was off duty and on his own?

Off duty police officers have no power to pull you over.

He can make your life a misery but can't do anything to prosecute.

Very unlikely to be a real police officer

If anything does come of it then report it as a complaint. Sounds like an abuse of police powers and threatening behaviour to me anyway. Wonder how the IPCC would view a case of road rage from "one of their own"

When the guy asked for my name, I asked him to show me his warrant card again. He did so, but with the 4 fingers of his right hand across the photo and the text. The photo was him, probably and it did have a badge of some sort.

did you get the 4-digit officer number?? If so it would be reporting him as if he's a genuine cop then they can deal with him, and if not they can look out for the car you saw as someone is impersonating a police officer (which they take very seriously and so might just divert some time from raising extra speed tax - sorry, i mean tickets for driving with excessive speed, which is very naughty and far more important than catching burglars and murderers)

[Edited on 31/10/07 by Paul TigerB6]

Driving right up someone's bumper is illegal isn't it? It's not as if he's on official police matters if he's off duty....

Did you get his registration number? A quick letter to the local police office saying there's someone purpoting to be a police officer but driving dangerously and aggresively should do the trick either way....

I got the car's number but he was not in uniform so he didn't have a number on him. I'd thought about reporting him but I don't want to be the only one to raise the matter officially.

just a nob head mate dont worry about it

did you take his car number plate? if so, you need to report it as road rage. off duty or not, a police office has no right to do what he did to you.

nail him to the wall. that sort of behaviour is not acceptable.

If he didn't caution you, and serve paperwork detailling intention to prosecute, then forget it, there's nothing more he can do, complete failure to follow process.
Probably kust a knob head who'd like to think he was a police officer, watches too much cop crap on TV....
Pete.

Of course one problem is that sometimes the plod tell big fibs.
A while back I was having a lift in a Mini Metro. Five of us (all over 13 stone)- poor suspension!! Going up a hill (obviously quite slowly!!) when suddenly there's a Mondeo type repmobile right up the exhaust pipe flashing its headlights. 500M later, still happening and a little blue light gets slapped onto the roof!! Driver pulls over straightaway. Unmarked police car (now with blue light on top) pulls over in front.

Plod: "why didn't you pull over when I signalled, that's a contravention of blah blah testicles paragraph 1"

Driver: "because all I saw was some tit in a car driving dangerously too close to me and flashing their headlights. That kind of driving is best ignored"

Plod: "I had my blue lights on"

Driver: "No. You put them on after 500M and as soon as you did I pulled over".

Plod insisted for 5 minutes that he had had the blue light on for the entire time despite the fact that three of us on the backseat were all looking backwards to try and see who the hell was so close and waving at the driver with our middle fingers (probably didn't help the situation in retrospect).

Eventually just did the usual produce doodah and let us on our way, still insisting he had the blue lights on the entire time......

quote:

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Originally posted by saigonij
did you take his car number plate? if so, you need to report it as road rage. off duty or not, a police office has no right to do what he did to you.

nail him to the wall. that sort of behaviour is not acceptable.

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If he's not a cop and he is impersonating an officer then I'd definately report it - not just for your own revenge which will be as sweet as its probably anticipated but the guy is obviously mentally unstable and who knows what else he does pulling stunts like that - not to mention the less cocks there are on the road the quieter it is for our engineering masterpieces!!!

Chris

[Edited on 31/10/07 by T1GER_SUPERCA7]

Nah, police do still have all their powers when off duty. If they are out of their area they will take all your details and pass them straight to the area responsible who will then deal with it accordingly.

sounds like you did nothing wrong so you got the reg, description so report it. that is what you pay your council tax for.

whether it is a real cop or not msakes no difference and you will find out in due course.

As i understand it - the only person who can legally stop you and pull you over is a Police Man/Woman in Full Uniform.

What about plain clothed uniform? Its still their uniform. No any officer can providing that they have a reason to.

quote:

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Originally posted by mistergrumpy
What about plain clothed uniform? Its still their uniform. No any officer can providing that they have a reason to.

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No not by aggression and dangerous driving. I'll put my hand up here, although not an officer at the moment I do work for the police yes and there are officers on here yes.

[Edited on 31/10/07 by mistergrumpy]

My understanding is that police do still carry their official powers even when not in uniform, but this particular incident is totally unacceptable. Road rage is a serious offence and one that the police take very seriously. My only question is, what would he have done if your door hadn't been locked? Having had similar situations before, i would suggest going to your local police station and asking them for a form, can't remember the code but is a specific form for reporting road rage incidents. They then look at this and decide what to do next!

Don't however let him get away with it, there are already too many bent coppers who abuse there powers!!

Just my 2p worth.

Can a general police officer pull someone over for dangerous driving or is it just traffic police?

Oh well, could be worse! You could have been traveling on the tube

such a scary president. Innocent person lying on the floor screaming their innocence gets shot in the head at point blank range 9 times.... And these are the people who are supposed to be protecting innocent members of the public?? Devious people these terrorists- they even change their appearance so they look nothing like their official photographs.... The thought that some person could decide that I'm a terrorist and that after that point nothing could be done to stop my execution by any of the people further down the chain rather scares me.....

I understand the rationale behind the head-shot but was there anything to make the police believe that there was an acute risk. Or is it just a policy of executing people who are suspected of being a terrorist as soon as they leave their flat and if it's mistaken identity then its just someone's bad day??

Scary....

If he was genuine he would have let you view his warrant card I would have thought.

At the moment I would do nothing, but if you do get a visit from the plod I would then inform them you intend to raise a formal complaint about the officer involved, I think you'll find the matter will then be dropped with you getting a warning which is nutsack anyway as you did nothing wrong.

quote:

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Originally posted by BenB

such a scary president. .

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I'm blaming the self-correcting spellcheck!!!!

Always gets me that one...

Almost as bad as if you stop you car outside a paper shop are you stationary outside a stationery shop or vice verse?

know what you mean.

I sued to call my white MGB Manilla - why? because it was stationary.

ive only had one experiance with an off duty cop, when a friend and i were practicing some wheelys and stoppies on the bikes in a almost empty tesco car park at about 1am, he was there to pick his wife up from work he came over showed us his badge and told us to be carefull and to consider the repocusions of an accident...... jolly nice of him really then he went and so did we

sounds like a nice bloke - similar to my experience with a highways officer, who totally ignored my multiple minor driving offenses and was only concerned with safety.

just checked with a friend of mine in the police, she says, you can only get pulled over by an officer in uniform. report this guy!

can only tell you what i would have done kept my head down and stayed away from you as i would have been ashamed of driving like that. i suggest that you approach your local force and report this simply because the guy might be a wierdo and who knows it may be a lone woman next and that doesnt bear thinking about and secondly he's a (i cant type what i think as its too rude) and only gives the real hard working officers a bad name and the public think we are all the same.