I'm often asked if I've reported an incident I've shared. The reality is I only rarely do go to the police. Unfortunately going to the police is not easy. First, you need to hope you get a sympathetic officer. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you get sneared at. Sometimes 1/n...
.... you get dismissed. Sometimes you have to argue with them that, yes driving a car 30cm from my arm at 40mph is dangerous. Then, when they do take it seriously, it takes time to do the statement and burn the videos to CD. Then you rarely hear from the police again 2/n...
Sometimes you do, but often you need to chase them. Then, sometimes the police make a mistake and don't fill a form out right, or don't send the case to the Procurator Fiscal on time. I've had a few cases dismissed because of that. Then the Procurator Fiscal take the case 3/n...
... and you may never hear about the case again, unless you chase. You only ever hear about it if it goes to court. Some cases are dropped due to 'not in public interest' which is often code for, 'we have too many cases and road safety isn't a priority'. Some are given 4/n...
... a warning letter, which is a waste of time. Then if you are very luck, you get a court date. By that is often delayed. Sometimes the delay happens before the court date, sometimes the delay happens when you've been sitting in the witness room for 6 hours. 5/n...
Sometimes after having sat in the witness room for 6 hours the PF comes to chat with you and lies about a problem with the paperwork which you later find out was completely false. If you are super lucky at this point the defendant admits guilty and you aren't needed. 6/n....
If you are unlucky you need to go into court as a witness. That, I can assure you, is not fun. In fact, its pretty damn horrible. Not only do they pick at your evidence, if they see fit, they character assassinate you. For an hour and a half. Then, at the end they 7/n...
... find the defendant not guilty because they can't be identified in the footage. It matters not that they admit driving the car at the time, on that road, or that you shout out the reg, and the make of the car is obvious. Or they are found not guilty because 8/n...
its not breach of the peace to shout aggressively in someone's face that they are young to beat you up,.... Or that the precise position of the car wheels are not know at a specific moment which might mean they didn't drive their car at you.... If, you get beyond that 9/n...
.... and they are miraculously found guilty, then they get a slap on the wrist with a small fine and a few points. Less than they'd get if they were caught holding a mobile phone......... Oh and the charge is reduced from Dangerous to careless, because.... it's just easier 10/n
... that way.... and despite everything that happened, despite how bad the driving was and the crap you've had to go through, you still feel guilty for pursuing it all..... That's why I don't report as much as I could. The system is very, very, VERY heavily weighted 11/n...
... in the favour of the accused and those driving the 1 tonne hunk of metal. My cases are only the tip of the iceberg. I know of many more serious cases that have failed because the system is broken, its underfunded and vulnerable user road safety is not a priority. 12/n
... and yet I still get people saying how I enjoy the drama.....that I enjoy getting people into trouble.... that I enjoy going to the police. No. I hate it. But if I don't, and if you don't, nothing will change.
