About 3pm, no other cars on the road, a marked police car appears behind me and starts to tailgate. I am going 40mph which is the speed limit. Thinking he might want to overtake, I slow down a little to allow him to but he continues to tailgate. I then think maybe he wants me to pull over instead (slightly shitting myself) but he is following so close I can’t see his headlights to see if he was signalling for me to. Realise his sirens are not on either so I decide he’s just being an inconsiderate driver.
I continue to drive at the speed limit, which changes to 60mph, then 30mph, then back up to 60. He tailgates throughout for 2 miles until he suddenly decides to overtake and speeds off very quickly, way over the speed limit, still no sirens on, down the same road, but I obviously never catch up with him again.
No idea if I did the right thing not stopping and continuing to drive as I normally would. What would you have done?
TLDR, tailgated by marked police car for 2 miles, I just kept on driving.
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EDIT: Looks like most ppl would’ve done the same and kept driving as normal. Thanks for sharing! Also thanks for the stories of other encounters with the police, seems pretty common.
For some context, I’m not British and have only been driving here for a year, just wanted to gauge if what I did was socially acceptable. Which seems it is.
Some other suggestions were:
Brake check: Nope. Too much of a wimp to do this.
Wash the windscreen: Wish I’d thought of this!
Pull over: Maybe more likelihood of me doing this now that I’ve learnt police cars don’t necessarily have sirens on even if they are in an emergency.
39 comments
Do you have a dash cam ?
If he wanted you to stop, he would’ve indicated you to do so.
I’ll be honest, this sounds like the definition of a “non-event”.
They were fucking with you. You did the correct thing
You did what you should have done which is continue driving within the law.
Also, with unmarked cars you do not have to pull over for them immediately- you can wait until you reach a petrol station or similar ‘safe’ place (well lit, people around) just incase it’s not a real police car.
Carry on driving normally.
Your car may have match a description and they were running plates check. Left you alone when they realised it wasn’t the car they wanted.
Nothing
If you’ve done nothing wrong then just ignore it. They may have been focused on something else and you may have been in a suspicious vehicle and they thought you might do something whilst they ran your details.
I was tailgated last year and then quite aggressively blocked in a petrol garage by two marked cars. But it was because my car had broken down so I borrowed my sister’s car to drive 200miles to a client, so on their database I was a man driving a woman’s car that’s registered 200miles away. To them I almost certainly stole it, but after a few questions about who’s car it is and where’s my car etc we shook hands and went our separate ways.
I was impressed how quick they started following me and how fast they blocked me in.
Not sure about ‘tailgating’ but been followed by a police for nearly 15 miles once, he did eventually pull me over and said his ANPR was playing up. After identifying me as the owner of the vehicle we had a chat about my riding style, undertaking versus lane blocking and his lack of use of indicators while lane changing and eventually went our sperate ways.
I would pull over. Either they pass you or get on with asking you about whatever has peeked their interest. Either way, you don’t have someone driving dangerously close to you any more.
The same thing I’d do if anyone was tailgating me; I’d slow down to give myself more reaction time, as advised in the Highway Code.
When I got unnerved by someone I thought may be tailgating me I chose to pull over and pretend to call someone. The car passed straight away and it was a non event.
If you ever feel unsafe or unnerved its sometimes wiser to pull over as if you get flighty you may make an error.
Chances are he was sitting behind you while checking your numberplate etc and getting close to match and identify your speed and see if you are on a phone/have a seatbelt on. If they aren’t asking you to pull over then there is no need to although personally I would have just pulled over and see what happens.
I had this exact thing happen to me at about midnight once upon a time.
I just stuck to the speed limit. I think they were just looking for a reason to pull me over. I’m glad they didn’t find one because I had an oz on me. Those days are long behind me.
I’ve been in that situation, continued til there was a lay-by and indicated left & braked to a halt in it, police car passed me, I pulled out following him, he blinked his hazards to say thanks and carried on at a higher speed than I’d been at.
They could have been getting close to read the number plate, sometimes if the radio is busy it takes a while to get the check completed. They could have been trying to get a good enough look of the occupants of the vehicle if your car matched the description of one they were looking for. There could be any number of reasons.
Police are advanced drivers if they wanted to overtake you they’d have done so a lot sooner than 2 miles and wouldn’t be sat up your arse that entire time.
Personal view………coppers do this as a power trip, because they can.
I mean the Highway Code would suggest you slow down to allow you and the car behind sufficient stopping time.
How Many lanes were there and what lane were you in?
My money would’ve been on them just trying to get you speed and then ticket you. I’m not sure if they do it just to meet quotas or because they’re bored. I don’t really believe people saying they’re checking your plate, they don’t need to tailgate for that, you need to be able to read a numberplate at 20m to have good enough eyesight to drive so that seems like a pretty crap excuse, and you can be close enough to stop someone pulling between you whilst not riding so far up your arse that you can’t see their headlights.
This happened to my Mum. She sped up to separate the distance and they pulled her over for speeding. A few of the police can be idiots. Sounds like your tailgater was a bored wanker.
I’d have driven to the closest Krispy Kreme drive through
Treat like any other vehicle tailgating and put on my wiper wash. If they are close enough to get wet, they get the message and back off. If they don’t get wet, then they are not tailgating.
Honestly it sounds like they wanted to put a bit of pressure in you to see how you would react. I’ve had it happen before and been pulled and breathalysed despite not having had anything to drink.
The police round my way also need to learn basic traffic laws. It’s not that uncommon
I had this many years ago – I was 17, only just passed my test and was driving a early 90’s Vauxhall Astra in about 2007.
It was about 10:00pm from memory and the police car starts following me. I was driving sensibly anyway mainly because the Astra struggled to break any speed limits at the best of times.
They were following me for a while, probably running my plates etc. I took them for a drive through a McDonalds drive through and they followed me all the way around much to the amazement of the fella working the window that night.
I got a coke and fries.
Unless they indicate otherwise then continuing to drive normally is the correct thing to do.
As for speeding off at the end, it’s a myth that police cars need to have their lights or sirens on to drive quickly. They only have to do that if the driver judges that conditions (either environment or weather) require them. So for example at midday on a bright clear day on a straight empty road, they would often feel there is no need. But in a busy city with lots of people and side roads they’d feel they always need at least the lights.
For what it is worth from my experience though they were probably initially running some checks on your car. It might have matched the description of the one they were looking for but they ultimately decided it wasn’t the one.
You done the right thing maintaining normal driving, this is clearly a person who is one of those complete bell ends who think they’re gods gift at driving so don’t require following the laws physics.
Throw the drugs out the window.
They get bored patrolling at night. I used to drive a very beat up looking car when I was younger and was tailed like that a few times by the police. I got to the point when I could spot it a mile off. I’d never actually done anything; just had the misfortune to be a young man driving a knackered-looking car. One time I took a wiggly route back to my house to see if I could shake them off. They stuck with me doggedly and eventually stopped me. When I asked what I’d done, they said my route was suspicious, which was clearly a lie: I only went that way because they were already following me!
I assume in your case their silly game got interrupted by some actual work they had to do.
Some PC’s just do this and I don’t know why, …. I just carry on with my day .
Due to further budget cuts he was probably slipstreaming you too save on fuel.
Sounds like he was running your plates.
It’s happened to me before.
I’m a nosy cunt so I went into the police station and asked if they’d ran my plates. Worth a shot.
My mum was a cleaner who worked in the early hours of the morning and this happened to her a lot. She eventually found out that basically they were doing the full tax/mot/is it stolen check on her as being out that early was deemed suspicious. I think while do those checks they try and spook you a little so if you are guilty of something you’ll run off, and if you’re innocent you’ll sit there and go wtf?
I’d say it sounds similar but they stuck with you a while!
Love the smarmy replies from the cop apologists. Tailgating =/= merely driving behind someone. It’s illegal for a reason. They were most likely trying to force you to either break the speed limit or brake check them
A few years ago, near Leeds, I was driving my new “sports car” doing 50. I was overtaking a police car doing around 45, as I was overtaking the policeman decided to speed up to match my speed and he had this weird sign in the back of the car and was flashing “70MPH” as if to tell me to speed up. I ignored it, and he sped off without any lights, up to a speed I can definitely say was way over 50.
They act strangely sometimes.
This happened to me not long after passing my test, the police pulled out a lane and hauled arse to catch up with me, they were right behind me for about a mile, I tried pulling into a side street and they followed then pulled back onto the main road and they followed then pulled me and said I was behaving suspiciously. They asked why I did it then I told them to see if they were following me, which they were, they suspected I might have been drinking and breathalysed me which I passed and they let me go.
When ever someone drives close behind me I do my front window wipers then watch in my rear view as they have to wash off my mess …
If they don’t back off keep doing it and I’m sure they will realise after 2 or 3 goes.
Best part is when they speed past you and give you ‘the look’ just keep looking ahead and don’t acknowledge them. This will make them even more mad and is the best part 😅.
Driving in portsmouth earlier this year taking my daughter home from my place in Havant, no more than five miles away, the police followed me for a bit leading to my daughters road then pulled me over near hers. Asked me what was the reason why I was down there as I’m from Havant, so I pointed to my daughter then said I was taking her home.
He said that ANPR flagged me as being from out of the area, to which I replied what six miles away, he said something about them checking most cars that evening or some bullshit, it really pissed me off because its not like I was from some far away place.
I had this one time.
Was playing at a wedding. Put my instrument in the boot of my car and drove home. Police started to follow – probably thought I was a drunk driver. (I was driving slowly, so as not to damage the instrument.)
In the end, I was so nervous that I drove to my parents’ house in the next town instead of continuing home. As soon as I pulled into my parents’ home, the police drove off.
ETA They were definitely following me – my parents lived in the middle of a housing estate, well off the main road: police followed me right up to the door and then sped off after I stopped.
Police officer here.
This doesn’t sound like they were checking your registration as there would have been no need to sit behind you for so long. Coppers will call up run a reg through and get a response within seconds. Even then once they have got the reg there is still no need to drive up so close!
I believe this could have been a copper responding to an incident. No,lt every police officer has the ability to put their blues on when responding to jobs.
With the massive intake of officers in recent years there is also a very long back log of officers waiting to receive their response driving ticket so cannot put the woop woops on.
Always continue to drive within the confines of the law. Don’t be tempted to speed up and don’t slow down just because a rozzer is behind you…
What I will say is regardless of whether the they were responding or not they shouldn’t be tailgating. All it does is demonstrate aggressive driving and as police officers we are supposed to be setting good examples.
Unfortunately, as in all professions there are coppers who are shit drivers as well as officers who are shit cunts.
Always report bad driving, you just need a VRM and pass it on via your force’s website rather than 101. Police cars are all tracked and logged so when an officer gets into a police vehicle they will have to scan a card before driving to identify them as the driver. Then everything will be tracked including; speed, breaking, turning, location, gear changes and more depending on the vehicle.