This is chewing me up.

[Sa Skimrande]

I was on here a while back and I reported that I had had dealings with the police in that someone had reported me for driving erratically to which the police came to my house and gained entry by stating someone had reported me to them and was concerned for my health and police were here to make sure I was okay, but would I take a breathalyser test which was of course negative, then it was the insinuation that I was a drug user and my tobacco was searched and I was asked to move things in my house to prove I am not hiding drugs.

 

Of course they found nothing, but his has left me feeling very confused and yes, abused as all I see in this is a copper out to make a bust on anything he could find and all that initiated by deceit or was it lies. I have contacted the CAB regards this, but they were not too helpful aside from saying from what I have described, the policeman's actions does not sound right and especially so considering I did tell the copper I had asperger's and out on the road, well I drive to the highway code, of which I now understand to the police it is an automatic assumption the driver is drunk or on drugs.

 

But this is over a month on now and I cannot get it out of my mind and it is affecting my wellbeing, but, I don't know what to do about it.

 

And my trust of them has been seriously eroded to the point I don't trust them anymore, whereas prior to, I was in support of the police.

 

So, any ideas ?

Edited September 14, 2012 by Sa Skimrande

[SidiousUK]

It sounds like you are trying to understand the policemans actions and not being able to.

 

Would it help if you could make an appointment to discuss the "incident" with the officer in quesion and his superior officer?

 

I find it often helps me calm down if someone actually explains why they did something

[LancsLad]

In this instance I would say the police officer concerned was simply following due process. My brother is a police officer and we have many, many disagreements and I get frustrated that he lives his life in a pretty rigid manner, but he has been conditioned to think like that.

 

I know this is not the case but supposed you might have had a partial stoke or serious food poisioning or a reason why you 'may' have been driving erratically and the police turned up found you ill then that could have been a positive thing. So the officer was only acting from a neutral position in having to answer the call to investigate the scenario.

 

In a similar way once in your house they are under pressure to clear things up one way or the other and so they followed protocol and found no reason as to why you were driving erratically if you indeed where, no alcohol, no drugs. In effect they have cleared the scenario of those thoughts you were just a citizen going along in your car and someone reported something to them. They can see no evidence to susbstatiate the claim made against you and so the event is closed off in their mind.

 

I think this is basically what they get paid to do it is nothing personal against you they were doing their job no more no less.

 

From talking a lot to my brother a lot of the time they are highly frustrated. What they see often is petty accusations made by one citizen against another. A lot of the time investigating things like this are about niping such petty things in the bud so to speak. If you were driving appropriatly then the problem lies with the person who reported you. But I suspect it will be a one off some people are just like that, not long ago I saw the news where a motorway was shut for 3 hours and armed police called out over someone calling the police over something rather than thinking about it in a proper manner. If your driving was erratic and I don't know that, then no one was hurt, think about it was your mind somewhere else on that day and try and make sure your standards improve. I have been trained as a driving instructor and I see a lot of pretty poor driving out there.

 

Either way nosy citizen making stupid claims, or a personal lapse in concentration the blame should not be with the police. A last point I have AS but there is nothing in the law which says I have to be treated differently it is after all just a condition. Most people would be upset at having their hosue searched even though they know there is nothing there. I know I wouldn't like searching through someones house and my brother doesn't like it either. So there are bound to be uncomfortable feelings but these will pass but it might take time.

 

To finish with I can see nothing here as to why you shouldn't trust the police to be honest. It was not a pleasant experience, but if we said everything we experience in life that was uncomfortable was wrong and shouldn't be trusted we get on a very slippery slope and in mental health terms that can be dangerous.

 

Just a few personal thoughts.

[robert7111a]

Some good points here

 

Personally if you know you weren't doing anything wrong, then you've nothing to worry about. I would most certainly be p*ssed off regarding the invasion of privacy in my own home but for me, I would feel I had "one over the policeman" because he was dying to find some sort of evidence to "make a killing" and satisfy his own ego - but he found nothing. You have won in this situation although this is clearly not how you feel at present. The more you think about it, the more you are going to tie yourself up in knots about it.

 

You can either - try and let go, or go and talk about it at the station, but I suspect the incident might have been forgotten about. You could possibly make a formal complaint re the officer if that's how you feel but if the officer was following procedure, then your complaint has no grounding.

 

Personally, I would try and let go - and move on.

[trekster]

You told the officer about your Aspergers, do you feel 'reasonable adjustments' were made regarding how they interviewed you?

i don't see any appropriate adult or any procedures in which they should follow. They should tell you why they are there (he did), we're you under caution?

 

http://www.autism.org.uk/living-with-autism/adults-with-autism-or-asperger-syndrome/self-advocacy.aspx

 

....the last few sections are aimed at Police when interviewing autistic/asperger individuals.

[Sa Skimrande]

I did think to try and contact the chief constable of the force concerned to ask if what I experienced was standard police procedure as I am struggling with this and my trust in them has been affected and prior to I had nothing but praise for them in what is a difficult job, I do understand, but my past dealings with the police regarding things done to me, thefts and an attempted murder, the police were very decent which makes me question this incident all the more or is it when one stands accused it is a different level of service. There is also an issue of trespass in this, in that I understand the young copper entered my car because it was unlocked and searched within, this reported to me by a neighbour who watched him, although i knew he had mentioned my car because I had an item with my address on it on the passenger seat, except that address was face down, so how did he know it had my address on it, for sure he can only have interfered with it and the car was immobilised and parked on private land.

 

I have just got bells ringing that what I received was abuse at the hands of one who I did admit I have a learning difficulty in that I interpret rules to be followed.

[Sa Skimrande]

You told the officer about your Aspergers, do you feel 'reasonable adjustments' were made regarding how they interviewed you?

i don't see any appropriate adult or any procedures in which they should follow. They should tell you why they are there (he did), we're you under caution?

 

http://www.autism.or...f-advocacy.aspx

 

....the last few sections are aimed at Police when interviewing autistic/asperger individuals.

 

No, no caution and the young copper said he had never heard of asperger's before, so he asked me how it affected me to which an inquiry made I responded to educate, the standard stuff and it has occurred to me much of what I am feeling is the copper knew more than he let on because his concern for ill health that had suddenly turned to intoxicant impaired driver indicated to me he was a liar and was for want of a better phrase; taking the P***, because he knew he could with the impressionable.

Edited September 14, 2012 by Sa Skimrande

[Mike_GX101]

See this Daily Mail news item: art work

 

Check out the spider diagram one and decide Sa Skimrand if maybe you had any of those symptoms on the day. Slow driving, weaving, etc may be classic tell-tale signs. If you didn't then great - nothing more to worry about. End of the issue.

 

If you did then we're getting into territory which needs challenging. If you exhibit those symptoms just on antibiotics then clearly a distinction needs to be made separating myth from fact i.e:

- IF driving slow and weaving then ALWAYS intoxicated.

"Always" is a heavy word and you might have cause to follow this up further to the point that we get to change it to:

- IF driving slow and weaving then SOME TIMES intoxicated

 

As with any system based on rules, absolutes rarely go unchallenged. But unless they are challenged they always remain absolutes and unfairness and stigma reigns supreme.

Edited September 15, 2012 by Mike_GX101

[Sa Skimrande]

I am sure most might agree that driving in a straight line on Britain's roads of today is a pretty impossible task what with the level of decay, for sure I don't drive through pot holes if I can help it, I encounter them and I drive round them or slow down and go through them slowly, so moving around the carriageway between the centre of the road and the gutter, well, there is no law to say one cannot drive where they please. But the vehicle stuck behind me for six miles where I suspect the complaint came from was a Land Rover. Now I have had Land Rovers and it is true they will go through most and so a pot hole in the road is no problem to them, but it is on a weak little Clio and believe me 2 x 2 road cars and tyres are not designed for the off road conditions that a pot hole presents and as a mechanic, I know what hitting those things does to a car. So yes I move around a lot in the carriageway as there is no option with the state of the roads of today.

 

But my driving standards and mechanical reasoning is not the issue here, the issue is the problems caused by a questionable copper .

[Mike_GX101]

I would agree with you wholeheartedly about the state of the roads out there Sa Skimrande - pot holes and manhole covers raised like ramps and submerged below the surface of the road and great cracking concrete strips are mayham for any cyclist! Ride through them at one's peril I say.

 

And being a mechanic you're more aware than anyone of the problems they pose. I too dodge them where I can. But how much does such erratic dodging affect one's perceived driving ability? That's the flip-side of this isn't it. While you're protecting your wheels from every possible hole and bump in the road you are potentially costing your perceived road worthiness behind the wheel and this situation is indicative of that.

 

To have a visit like you had someone obviously had real cause for concern and it seems your carefulness may have almost cost you your licence in this case. I know it isn't fair. You drive to protect your beloved car and some camera catches you zig-zagging and suddenly your licence is threatened. Sadly we live in a world of absolutes that never get challenged and we're all affected by them.

 

I was stuck behind an elderly person a while ago. She travelled at a reasonable speed along the National Speed Limit Zones driving at around 45-50mph. However we came into a 30 mph zone and inexplicably that elderly person didn't quite slow down to the expected speed in time and there happened to be a speed camera there too.

 

I felt for them because for most of the journey they'd been driving quite conservatively (perhaps on a long journey conserving fuel thereby protecting their pockets) and then bang! Because maybe a slight lapse in concentration, perhaps trying to work out where they were going next, they were snapped. And of their defence? It doesn't matter that they drove well for 99.9% of that journey - what mattered was they were caught speeding for a few short seconds.

 

Another example: you're driving along a street with parked cars both sides. You see it is safe to go through and some idiot appears from nowhere going faster than they should and almost crashes into you. In reaction you put your foot on the pedal to speed up and get through safely. Just round the corner is a speed trap. Your defence is that you were speeding to escape a dangerous situation and just saved your car (not to mention your life and maybe a serious accident) in the process. Sadly that defence is irrelevant. You were speeding and that's it - end of it. There are no rebates, no mode of justice against that idiot driver that forced you to act. And worse still is they plan to put speed limiters on cars which in my view would be dangerous in times just like this one. A while back I went across a roundabout which was clear and from nowhere some old banger of a car comes racing towards me and I narrowly avoided it by speeding up. Had I not done that who knows what would have happened and with a speed limiter I most certainly wouldn't be here now!

 

But that's just how it is Sa Skimrande. Life often seems unfair especially when some people dodge queues in supermarkets unchallenged and the boy racers who always speed never seem to get caught. Welcome to the real world!

[Sa Skimrande]

Well I suspect he who complained, put the boot in so to speak was the land rover stuck behind me a land rover not having the accelerational properties needed to overtake most vehicles due to it's low gearing even in high range, but the land rover has been seen recently many times and it turns out the vehicle is a private vehicle of a coast guard member. Now the coast guard work closely with the police and I suspect the severity of how the police approached me has a lot to do with that, someone has abused their privilege with their direct line to buddies, the fact that I saw him using a cell phone whilst he was driving seems irrelevent to the police bearing in mind a land rover takes no prisoners when they plough into soft shelled cars.

 

But I have decided to let this experience slide but adopt the position that the police don't work for us, they are not what I originally believed, not the pillar of respect they should be, they are just people seeking advancement on their own career in whatever way they can achieve it with the impressionable and with that I have come to understand what the nuckle tattoo ACAB means as it is very true in most respects.