Near Miss of the Day 554: Cyclist “surprised” after police officer who pulled out in front of him does u-turn to lecture him (includes swearing)

"You were doing thirty...I had to do thirty to catch up with you." A paradox of relative motion worthy of Zeno himself! As the copper is "a cyclist myself" (prepared to bet some of his best friends are black too) he really ought to go in for racing, being able to catch people up whilst doing the same speed as them is a really useful trick.

That is certainly a great example of someone reacting badly to having their poor driving called to attention.

Not a great example of policing or how to use the special powers conferred to an Officer in their authority over ordinary members of the public.

Unfortunately swearing, or sometimes just looking at someone in a slightly funny way, seems to be a get out of jail free card for any escalation to the initial incident.

Well done for making the effort to report, it may be a first incident and effectively left on file, it may be the one that breaks the camel's back with respect to some action being taken.

Might be an idea next time to read out his number from his shoulder tags, ask his name and station if you think you're getting the shit end of the stick. If they are soft spoken, repeat it back so the camera mics can pick it up clearly.
According to various online sources, a police officer cannot refuse to give you these details, and should you wish to make a complaint, then you've recorded the information you need.

Policing is supposed to be consent.  Nobbers like that do no favours for the ones who are not self important idiots who lie and make up their own rules.  A simple, "I am sorry for my driving" would have meant a totally different impression to anyone that sees this video.

"if you’re going to ride through a red traffic light, it’s not the best idea to shoot past a stopped police car"

To be fair, on multiple occasions I have seen cyclists jumping lights right infront of police waiting next to me at a set of lights. I looked at the police officer and made a "look at this guy!" hand gesture and the copper behind the wheel just shrugged and couldnt care enough to put one the blues and twos when the lights changed.

I spoke to another copper about what i had seen/experienced and his explination to me was that sometimes they are needed elsewhere so have to prioritise what sort of cases they deal with or they may be on standby awaiting a call for assistance from another police unit. --- I fully understand that they have to proritise the cases they deal with. But this police officer didnt even slowly down and roll the window down to give the other cyclist a verbal warning when he caught up to him.

The standard/level of policing is very inconsistent and it seems based upon if the individuals themselves can be arsed to deal with it or not. And its not just officers on the beat that are like that, The ones that pick up online reports do that too. How many times have we seen submitted video footage of behaviour that is in clear violation of the law (even multiple laws) and the police have come back with not enough evidence to prosecute or decided to take no action because he or she thought the behaviour they witnessed on the video was perfectly acceptable despite having broken or violated road safety laws???

At the same time I have seen coppers pull cyclists and drivers over for jumping a red light or riding/driving around like a dick so its not as if they are all that lazy.

Very inconsistent. 

"if you’re going to ride through a red traffic light, it’s not the best idea to shoot past a stopped police car"

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that the Daily Mail didn't spot this one and run 3 articles about it.

Send the footage to the Met with a complaint that the officer's driving does not meet required standards.

That looks to me like that policeman should offer an apology for their driving, but it's not a great idea to swear at/near the police. If the cyclist hadn't sworn, then the police wouldn't have responded, but if the police hadn't been driving carelessly then the cyclist wouldn't have sworn.

If this officer thinks nothing of breaking the law in order to intimidate and bully someone, what else has he done where there was no camera involved? This does need to be followed up in order to protect innocent people from the potential harm this officer could do. Thankfully most police officers don't routinely carry guns in the UK.

Maybe this Officer should be removed from driving duties until he learns the law and priorities at junctions.

As usual it's all about Mr Oinker's ego and nothing to do with safety or the law. "how dare you abject to my dangerous and poorly considered driving?"

My video, I think my favourite line was the 30mph one. I wish I could crack that kind of speed on my heavy bike, thats before considering the driver would have had to be going about 45mph in order to catch up to me from a standing start.

I did report it to the Met online, more out of spite due to the reaction, not because I thought the driving was that bad. Predictably they did not pursue or send a warning letter