140mph Motorcyclist filmed by unmarked police bike

[Iceman]

Opinions on this footage caught by an umarked police bike. Was the officer chasing or encouraging the rider to ride fast? In both cases there was recklessness on both sides including an almost head on with another biker.It's not clear whether the officer had his lights or siren on but from the reflections on passed vehicles and ambient sound it would appear not!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2PBMGmUjTE

[ollie]

seen it before and in opinion the copper is in the wrong and the biker is but not as much since if the copper had his blues and toos on he would off stopped.

[crewy]

I agree with you sunner, he didnt have to chance him that far before stopping him

[Ryan]

that copper should have been done, he got him at the beggining doing over 100mph so he should have ended the chase at that, even over 100mph through 30's and the copper carrys out, thats the copper putting lives at risk for not stopping it, he was just enjoying a quick ride and using it as an excuse, :o

[benobiker]

hmmm I think that is a little unfair, I think plod is being silly there.
Just on another note, and purely for interest / entertainment information, have talked to a few guys about this recently.

If in the unlikely event you have not noticed you are speeding due to concentration on the road other road users etc and you find yourself in pursuit with helicopter etc, then you just need to make for an international airport and they cant follow you in there. (The helicopter I mean)

I guess you park up and then get a taxi home. As I say, I know that is naughty and would never condone it or attempt it myself. riding skills here mean i never speed as not good enough to top 70 at all but just thought i would mention it. Sort of public information broadcast....

[mikesouthby]

Strictly not true, they can follow you in! They have full permissions even in controlled airspace as long as the ATC gives them authorisation to proceed into the TCZ. It'd be the luck of the draw me thinks, if there was say a couple of heavies on the way in you'd be lucky and they may have to abort but if the airport was quiet of there was a 'window of opportunity' for them to follow you in, I think you'd be even more stuffed as they'd not find it funny you were trying to avade them in such ways lol

[benobiker]

quite right! So basically Heathrow is your best bet. ! Nah, they'd see the funny side.... wouldnt they....(anyhoos the sun is out so i am skiving off to to GW for a nosey around i think.

[Ryan]

lmao, just run into the airport and ask for the next avalible flight let them try follow you then, they might follow the plane u get on, in thier chopper ;D

[crewy]

that sounds like something from Grand theft auto or something!!! lol ;D

[FJ_Biker]

We must not forget the rider (I don’t like to call him a biker) in question already had several reports of dangerous driving along this road. I suspect the officer in the pursuit was only following instructions and not out on a jolly.

[Ryan]

Indeed, FJ Biker but the copper is still putting peoples lives in danger for all that time, when he went to over 100mph in the first minute why not just pull him over then, a few more minutes on if that biker has hit a somone there would have been the question why was he not stopped sooner?

[quimby]

not sure who the bigger offender is the rider being filmed or the one filming why let it carry on for so long

[Ryan]

exactly..

[mikesouthby]

quite right! So basically Heathrow is your best bet. ! Nah, they'd see the funny side.... wouldnt they....(anyhoos the sun is out so i am skiving off to to GW for a nosey around i think.

Do you reckon you'd make it that far on a tank of juice though ;) lol

[mikesouthby]

Its a catch 22 though, I'm not defending the police here but they do have a tough job to do and we shouldn't always take what we see on face value. Yes, I agree that based on what we have seen in the footage the police biker is riding just as fast and would have had plently of opportunity to stop the rider (assuming he was on a liveried bike... if he was on an unmarked video bike another story. And of course, based on how difficult it is to stop a bike for safety reasons if it fails to stop, it could take much longer to organise) but the important part of the story is the start and the end, we haven't seen that! It may well have been that the police rider was told by the inspector in the control room to follow and give commentry to enable other units to get into a position to stop the rider, again we can't see whether that was the case or not. If the biker was just out for a jolly and riding like a d1ck then the viewpoint could well have been let him go and go knock on his door after the event, afterall they'd have his registration but again, we didn't see the start of the story so no idea if he's just robbed a bank or stolen the bike! So yes, the guy was riding like a d1ck and on the face of it so was the police rider but ultimately, we have not seen the whole story so shouldn't judge either. Just my 2 pennies worth... lol

[bladep102]

cant believe that the guy riding didnt spot someone behind him bad observation me thinks ::)

[Scotty]

The copper's radio commentary said when he'd been clocked, the rider obviously wasn't suspicious of a strange bike following him closely for miles and miles.... ::)

[steveo]

that video is sick i hope none of you ride like that,lol, but yeah copper needs few points on his lisence too lol

[Iceman]

Regards unmarked police vehicles,they all carry discrete lights and siren so that clears up that matter! Here's an excert of the police forces side of things;-

The force said in a statement: ‘Mr Collins was arrested following numerous complaints from residents in Hastings and drivers on the A21, who reported a motorcyclist riding dangerously and at excessive speed on a daily basis.

‘The method of riding was considered so extreme by investigating officers from the Sussex Road Policing Unit that normal stopping procedures were not considered appropriate. Instead, the rider was safely tracked using unmarked cars and an unmarked motorcycle in order to gather evidence to support a prosecution. Having risk-assessed the intelligence relating to the rider there was also a possibility that the rider would try and evade police if a stop was attempted.’

Supt Steve Barry, the force’s head of road policing, admitted there was enough evidence to charge Collins without the 15-minute chase, since he hit 100mph in a 60 zone within minutes of the tape rolling. But he said: “I think the court wanted to see the full extent of the seriousness of the riding behaviour and that was the reason we prolonged the evidence-gathering stage.”

Incredibly, Sussex Police claimed it was safe for an unmarked police bike to travel at 96mph in a 30mph zone with siren and flashing lights off.

Police says the deadly tactic was necessary to ‘gather evidence’ on speeding rider Michael James Collins, 22, from Beckenham, Kent.

The video, shot from the police bike, shows a 15 minute high-speed pursuit on rural and urban roads. At one stage the police rider reaches 107mph in a 40mph zone.
In his efforts to keep up with Collins, the officer also takes a series of massive risks, overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic and narrowly avoiding a head-on crash with another bike.


After all the risk Collins was only arrested later, at a bike dealership in Kent.
Magistrates handed him a two-year suspended jail sentence and riding ban and 240 hours' unpaid work.

[Ryan]

what a load of ****ing bollux, safe for the copper to continue riding like that? no way, what happens if somone got seriously hurt or killed?

[crewy]

Surley they had enough evidence after the 1st 2 or 3 min of following him!!!!

[igbell]

Why do they never learn.
Do any of you remember the bike chase that happened about 15 years ago when a Police Bike and 2 Cars were chasing a bike through Wiltshire??
Well I do as it was Jo's (my wife) best friends dad that was the bike cop at the time, that was doing the chasing.
They caught the public bloke on the bike but in the end due to so many people complaing they called a hearing and all the cops involved got a slap on the wrist and some even got told off. Yet they got away with chasing and causing havoc to the public as they got the bad dude.
If you ask me they should get the same as the member of public, as they were breaking the same rules they are....
Like red lights they are supposed to stop at red lights IF this is going to cause a danger to the public....
Now when I used to work at Wesports on Fleet street I saw a ambulance and a cop car go through the pedestrian lights that were on red and caused a acident of its own as an old lady fell over getting out of the way and breaking a leg, and so another Ambulance had to attend the scene.

[crewy]

When you watch those police chase programs, you can hear the copper say it's to dangerous to carry on chasing him in this area, or the person driving is only 15 and they dont wont to make him crash so they drop back or something. It would have made sense surely if the copper radioed ahead to a fellow police officer to catch him as he approaches him, in my opinion the police biker made just as many, if not more dangerous manoeuvres to keep up with him!!!

[Ryan]

yup, outragous it really is :-/