Marked police car is tailgating you, what would you do?
Posted by lunarialinaria@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 11 comments
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.
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.
China1978china78@reddit
I just had a cop tailgating me this morning over 15 mins I even called my husband I was scared it was still dark 5am.. after about 10 mins traffic started slowing up cause we were all merging to a different Xpressway! He almost rear ended me he had to go on the shoulder to avoid rear ended me! I still didn’t know it was a cop! Well a few mins go by and he throws on his lites i pull over he asks do i know why im being pulled over i said “ no I was scared as to why and who was driving behind me crazy like that” then he said i was speeding going over 85 on the free way 55 is the limit! I said i did know if I was then he gives me a ticket for going 79mph! I don’t believe I was speeding at all!! He was the one tailgating me and almost hit me ! I want to fight this in court
herper147@reddit
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.
Emotional-Ebb8321@reddit
Why would they have even run your car through a database?
DefenciveV2@reddit
Because that's their job. Police run the license plates of most cars in front of them on the road to make sure it's not stolen and some other stuff.
SnooHedgehogs3735@reddit
Running plates doesn't requite tailgaiting or following for several miles
SnooHedgehogs3735@reddit
They do that in snow, or darkness and fog and wait for you to go over the limit to avoid accident and ticket you for that.
My firiend got his license suspended by such asshole
All-in-yolo@reddit
If he wanted you to stop, he would’ve indicated you to do so.
lunarialinaria@reddit (OP)
that's what I thought too, thank you for confirming.
London-Reza@reddit
They were running your plate. They need to get close to see the license. It then takes 2-3 minutes for a full response to be provided (tax, mot, insurance, registered driver description). Following that, they probably stuck behind you until they were told to go somewhere else. Did they overtake with you blues on? They should have if they were going to another job instead of just overtaking you (unless you were going way below the limit for the road conditions)
PreferenceOk1435@reddit
The tech they had 20 years ago allowed them to read your plate from 5 miles away. There's no excuse for cops endangering your life.
London-Reza@reddit
Endangering life? Come onnnn