Rolling road block

[robo0121]

Was heading up the m40 this morning towards birmingham and im certain the police were practising  one of them stops where they block the car in.in the 3rd lane aswell.a bit further up was the traffic car with a huge amount of traffic stopped.the only car i saw stopped and blocked in was a silver volvo but it had blue flashing lights in the grill

if anybody else saw it and i am wrong then please correct me as i was travelling up the other way and i wasnt hanging around.but if im right and i know they need the practise.surely there would be other places to practise other than the m40 mid morning

[Vista]

Just my opinion but surely the time to practice a complicated and potentially dangerous (when happening for real) maneuver is when the roads are at their normal (or busier) traffic levels? Otherwise how do they gain sufficient experience of the difficulties involved?

[robo0121]

I totally agree but theyve been doing that type of stop a long time now..how much practise do they need

traffic is traffic it hasnt changed much over the last few years.5 police vehicles were used dont know how

many individuals were present.just seems a needless expense to me aswell as lack of consideration to

many many tax paying law abiding motorists

[5tox]

If it was practise, then i agree with Robo.

 

when i spent 2 weeks training at the fire service college in Morton, they have a massive 'mock' motorway which is used to replicate real life scenario's, something like this could easily be used instead

[Vista]

New people need training all the time and even more experienced hands need regular refresher training. This discussion reminds me a little of the people who complain wherever the RAF practice their low level flying. Where are they supposed to do it, over the sea? That's representative of low flying over varying height terrain isn't it?

 

If you want to be good at something then the only way to achieve it is with regular practice in a scenario that's properly representative of the real thing.

[mk2 mike]

Does make me chuckle when the 'taxpayer' gets bought up whenever the police are mentioned in a conversation. it's as if coppers don't pay tax lol

 

Anyway, If the 'bandit' car had blue lights it almost certainly driver training. As vista says best time to do it is in heavy traffic conditions. No point learning at 3am when the roads are empty, T-PAC is extremely difficult and there are different tactics depending on traffic conditions. It'll most probably be newly qualified drivers being trained, so they won't have previously practiced it, or it'll be experienced drivers doing their 5 yearly re-qualification. Thanks to the wonderful world of health and safety, and the 'let's sue everyone for anything' culture mandatory re- qualification is a massive part of life in the police service, whichever role you're in. (For example regardless of the fact I've personally arrested and handcuffed hundreds of people in my time, I'm still required to undergo handcuffing re qualification every 6 months even though I'm no longer in a role I need to handcuff anyone).

 

Anyway, I digress. As far as expense to the taxpayer goes, surely it makes more financial sense to use the already purchased vehicles for training than sitting unused in a yard??

 

How many times have you used that stretch of road and yet this is the first time your journey has been slightly disrupted due to police training?

[Mk2Jo]

I would LOVE to have a go at that ... I reckon I would make a good pursuit driver in my Scooby