Clacton Police Station

Clacton Police Station was their destination….

This is an encounter I had with two officers from the Clacton Police Station, they were en route to Clacton on Sea police station when I had the unfortunate experience of getting their attention because i was driving normally!!!






On Saturday 23rd April 2011 I was quietly driving back home from Devon, I had been to a prize giving where I had come third for a piece of literary work.

I left Devon at 9.30pm and after driving for some hours found myself at 2am going down the A12 towards Chelmsford in Essex, I was doing about 70 to 75 mph and just wanted to get home to bed. I slowly caught up a car in front of me and at the Springfield turnoff I caught the car up and found it to be a police car.

I sat behind at 66 mph resisting the urge to overtake and just get home, after a few miles the police car speeded up to about 80 mph and I thought that it would slowly disappear to the front, after a mile it slowed again to about 70 mph and sometimes a bit less, inevitably I caught the car up again.

This process happened over a period of many miles, it was now 2.20 am and also now the 24th, I was getting a little fed up with constantly speeding up and slowing down behind this police car and just wanted to maintain an average speed to get home. When we approached Kelvedon I got fed up, we were travelling at 67 mph and so I decided that after 15 miles I would overtake the police car and carry on with a normal journey rather than this erattic game they were playing.

By now I had about 10 other cars behind me too.

As I pulled level with the police car it speeded up to 70, then I went 72 then he went 72 and so on, in the end I had to go a little faster to 76 and they matched me, I had to get in front as they had kept me in the outside lane for over a mile, my wife was asleep and I was tired.

As soon as I got past the police car the blue lights went on and I was pulled into an unlight layby at 2.30 am

The driver of the police car was at my passenger window immediately and before I had time to wake my wife, she was startled to find somebody knocking on her window in a darkened layby and I told her not to worry and wound down the window.

The very arrogant copper asked me what the speed limit was, I said seventy, here is the rough transcript which is much shorter to avoid the boredom of all the nonesense he spoke…

Copper – what speed is it along here?

me – 70

copper – what speed were you doing?

me – 70

copper – what is your name?

me – Mr Parker

copper – do you want me to do you a ticket for an incorrect speedo?

me – no, but I was not driving with excess speed.

copper – you have been behind me for over 10 miles and at times I was driving at 80 mph and yet after 10 miles you were still behind me!

me – Yes officer, because you kept slowing down and did not drive at a consistent speed.

copper – what makes you think you can overtake at 80 mph?

me – I was overtaking at 70 mph and your speed was not consistent.

copper – we are on our way to Clacton police station and if we were traffic you would be nicked, why do you not observe the speed limit, why should you think you can speed?

me – I do not think I can speed, I was happily driving home before this happened.

copper – this time I will let you off but next time you will get a ticket.

me – A ticket?

copper – Yes a ticket for driving over the speed limit

me – I was driving normally so you want to give me a ticket for driving normally?

copper – I suggest you leave the layby when I put my lights off.

That was the long and short of a complete waste of time, its the long and short of an incident where an overbearing police officer tried to intimidate me in the early hours, of a conversation with an officer from Clacton police station that left me wondering how its possible to employ such people for public servitude, this is somebody tasked to look after the community and to catch criminals – I would be surprised if he could catch a cold.

The smile to his mate in the passenger seat when he got back into the car said it all!!

But that was not the end of it, I pulled out of the layby and they tailgated me all the way to Weeley, another 15 miles and more, at times they were in the fast lane with their lights directly into my side mirror, no attempt to overtake me, no attempt to dip lights even though people coming the other way flashed them repeatedly.

They slowed down, speeded up, drove close, then dropped back, when I took the slip road for the a120 they got stuck among two trucks but were soon back on my tail, I drove home as close to 70 mph as I could and even a couple of times I went slower but they sat behind me.

At the car auction roundabout I had enough, I went completely around the roundabout and then took the turning and positioned myself behind them, this is how it stayed for the last 3 miles, the difference being I did not have to put up with their headlights in my eyes.

So all in all a very credible performance by the policeman driving, abusing his position as a public servant, getting his own enjoyment for the evening at the expense of myself and my wife and into the bargain breaking the law by speeding himself since he regularly drove at 80 mph before dropping back to below 70.

So they went to Clacton Police Station – two officers at 2.30 am on the 24th of April 2011, little wonder law abiding people have lost faith and confidence in the police force, it is a shameful piece of intimidation and abuse of their position and power.