Police Officer – I Was Detecting A Crime!

Question:

Hi I would like to know if I should attempt to fight my ticket due to mitigating circumstances. I didn’t mean to commit the offence, but the fact of the matter is that I am a Police Officer and had dropped a colleague off when I saw a suspicious vehicle which almost collided with mine.

My thoughts at the time were that the occupants could have just committed a burglary or stolen the car or have been drunk due to the manner in which the vehicle was driven.

I attempted to catch up with the vehicle after being held at a red ATS. I know the area well and the fact a camera is there. I simply forgot and in attempting to spot the vehicle I set off the camera.

No doubt I was driving but I didn’t believe I was speeding. What are your thought? Thanks for reading

Louise Says:

If you were not on duty at the time you will probably struggle to defend this matter. It’s a strict liability offence and therefore it doesn’t matter why you were speeding.

Having said that I would expect the CPS to have a degree of sympathy and you may be able to argue that you were using the vehicle for police purposes at the time…! Lets be honest you were in a no win situation. If you had done nothing then you would have been open to criticism had it turned out that an offence had occurred.

If the CPS don’t agree then I think you will have a good chance of persuading the court that there are special reasons to avoid the points.

You have to decide which angle you are going to adopt. If you dispute the speed alleged then stick to that argument. I actually think the “detecting a potential crime” argument is more likely to succeed.

Come back to me if you would like my help with this matter. We may be able to knock it on the head without a summons being issued.