English drivers

[Utah]

Dont know how many of you have had encounters with British drivers and some others from Europe. Apparantly in England the police pull IN FRONT of their cars to stop them and then flash a large STOP sign at them.

Learned this one the hard way after attempting a stop on a Brit who was very agitated that I did not pull in front of him and took a very long time to stop. He was kind enough to explain how it is done in England after my explanation of how its done here. Maybe he was pulling my chain cause Ive never been there.

Just FYI

[Sgt Lobster]

When I first started driving police vehicles 20+ years ago, we did indeed stop cars from the front with a flashing 'Police Stop' sign.

However we stopped doing this years ago Traffic stops are now conducted in a similar manner to the US from the rear as it is much safer.


Lobster.

[MrHappy]

Rear stopping is taught on our driving courses, however I still think that front stopping is briefly mentioned but not demonstrated, the emphasis is on stopping from the rear. Most of our traffic cars have a rear facing LED matrix that can display a stop/police message to the car behind, my force had lightbars with a centre section that had a small illuminated stop sign which flashed for that purpose.

I'd imagine the person you stopped last had an experience of being stopped some time around the 1980's!

I know quite a few other european countries display either a stop sign or have some other special signal to indicate a stop.

[Cockney Corner.]

As above. Front stops might very occasionally still occur but most Police vehicles do not even have the facility to display a "STOP" sign to the rear.

Basically, I imagine that either the Brit was being an a*se or is an idiot. I can accept that the last time he was stopped was by an Austin Allegro but in the preceding years, he's never seen another vehicle with a police vehicle parked behind it with its blues on?

[quebec zulu]

Oh yes the days of a roller blind in the back window with a bit of string over the drivers head to pull!!!!! and then when you did you couldnt see out of the back window!!!! those were the days.

[Damon K]

When people bellyache about the means I use to stop them, as it isn't the way it's done in their countries, I politely remind them where they are, and to learn the local ways.

[Sgt Lobster]

Quebec Zulu,

You've just reminded me of the stop signs we used to have on the rear parcel shelves of our unmarked vehicles. You pulled a metal ring and the cable attached to the stop sign caused it to pop up. Brings back happy memories of patrolling in our unmarked Vauxhall Cavaliers!


Lobster.

[CruiserClass]

Not one joke about driving on the wrong side of the road? Not ONE???

Just tell him if he drives from the passenger side he'll get stopped from behind.

[Dudley DoRight]

Remember the MINI commercial showing the uniformed Bobbie, driving the Rover PC, stopping the MINI driver for driviong on the wrong side of the road? Driver pointed out that they were in the US. Do a utube/google search for it...very Monty Python-esque.