Muppet driver pretends to be a copper, gets busted.

[jarlrmai]

He said "I'm a serving police officer", not I'm a serving scottish/english police officer so the implication is he has jurisdiction or is it the fact that he has ID that is for the wrong country what gets him out of being illegal?

Or is saying "i'm a serving police officer" not enough and it's actually the ID that would be the crime but since this ID is for England and they are in Scotland that's not a crime? Even if the ID is fake?

Or is saying "i'm serving police officer" when you are not fake id or not a crime if you then don't try and arrest someone?

 

[Drago]

You'd have to ask a Scottish Bobby to be sure. By word "or deed" (he flashed a fake Northumbria ID) he was claiming to be a Northumbria bobby, that at least seems pretty clear cut to me. By flashing a Northumbria ID he clearly wasn't trying to palm himself off as Police Scotland(tm)

And no copper says "I'm a serving police officer". Someone's been watching too many hard hitting ITV dramas about maverick cops who break all the rules but get the job done.

 

[CopperCyclist]

He said "I'm a serving police officer", not I'm a serving scottish/english police officer so the implication is he has jurisdiction or is it the fact that he has ID that is for the wrong country what gets him out of being illegal?

Or is saying "i'm a serving police officer" not enough and it's actually the ID that would be the crime but since this ID is for England and they are in Scotland that's not a crime? Even if the ID is fake?

Or is saying "i'm serving police officer" when you are not fake id or not a crime if you then don't try and arrest someone?

All of these are excellent questions. The way our court system* works is that when the law is ambiguous, as it is in the way you mention here, it would be 'tested' at court. If it was appealed to crown court or higher, the findings would be binding on later cases, and become law (case law).

The likelihood of that happening in the videos case is slight. The driver gained nothing from his actions - other than looking like a bit of a p**** on the Internet. If he had taken it a bit further - detaining the cyclist, or searching him, or going hands on whilst pretending to be an officer, I would hazard a guess that he may have found himself in court for just such a matter. It would depend entirely on whatever Scotland use as a CPS of course, and they may ignore Jarls (well made) points and go with the letter of the law as quoted by Drago.

All of the above is guesswork and presumption. I know not of how the laws in Scotland work, not how their Criminal Protection Services tend to operate!

*in the UK - anyone know if Scotland have case law too? I presume they do, whilst being TLTG (too lazy to Google)

 

[Drago]

They have the Procurator Fiscal. Even more unfathomable than the Criminal Protection System, even less accountable.

 

[jarlrmai]

You'd have to ask a Scottish Bobby to be sure. By word "or deed" (he flashed a fake Northumbria ID) he was claiming to be a Northumbria bobby, that at least seems pretty clear cut to me. By flashing a Northumbria ID he clearly wasn't trying to palm himself off as Police Scotland(tm)

And no copper says "I'm a serving police officer". Someone's been watching too many hard hitting ITV dramas about maverick cops who break all the rules but get the job done.

I get that but if say he hadn't flashed the (UK) ID is this a crime? Because then he's just saying "I am a police officer" the implication being "with the powers of a police officer", and not specifying that he's a UK police officer.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

*in the UK - anyone know if Scotland have case law too? I presume they do, whilst being TLTG (too lazy to Google)

Yes, we do. We even take account of case law from English courts which, although not binding, can be persuasive.

GC

 

[Hip Priest]

I get the impression he was lying in order to give weight to his argument, rather than anything more sinister. Still, that's a distinctive plate, and he had a Tyneside accent. If I ever see him, I'll be able to take the piss (ello, ello, ello) on behalf of all cycle chatters.