Off-duty police

[ohmigosh]

can an off duty officer say that they will come to 'speak' to you about a motoring incident (not serious) when they are on duty?

[NORMANTHEDOG]

a policeman is never off duty,allways remember that and also if one of your friends is a policeman,it means he is one.so be good.

[Carby]

I hate the gavers. Kill them all I say.

[270314]

It is not technically true that a police officer is never off duty. It is more accurate to say that he is always available to recall himself to duty. If he does that then he would be expected to deal with a matter there and then.

Whist technically if he has witnessed a minor traffic offence he could revisit the matter when he is next on duty, as a serving officer in a supervisory role I would suggest that unless there are exceptional circumstances, that would be an abuse of his office. If he feels so strongly that the matter had to be dealt with then he should have either recalled himself to duty and dealt with it or reported it at the time to an on duty colleague.

It is also worth noting that for most minor traffic offences the police must give the alleged offender a prescribed formal warning of intended prosecution either verbally at the time of the incident or in writing within 14 days. A failure to do do renders the alleged offence non prosecutable.

[Ethel]

leviathin - that is an utter nonsense.

A plain clothes detective is still a police officer, with all the powers of office that his or her uniformed colleagues have.

And if an off duty police officer fails to act if he witnesses a serious crime, he can be charged with dereliction of duty.

[bee149]

a crime recently happened in my home in front of two serving police officers ,we have been friends for 10 years and last month enjoyed a holiday in my home in the south of france !!!!! when questioned they did not want to know !! how shallow never befriend a copper !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bigmango]

Yes the officer can come and speak to you at home. If and when he does, ask to see his pocket book entry for the original occasion when he witnessed the minor offence. He should have a record of your conversations at that time, which you are entitled to see. If he stopped your car when he was in plain clothes he was acting unlawfully. Did he caution you at the time? I think he may well be trying to frighten you and you will not see him again.

[Yorkie580]

If he stopped you when he was in plain clothes he wasn't acting unlawfully... but it wouldn't have been an offence for you to fail to stop for him.

Can you be more precise about what happened?

If he's going to follow it up there should be a record. This can either be in a pocketbook, computerised record, report book, intel report etc. You will (generally) have a right to see this but depending on the situation and the timings, you may have to wait until proceedings are finished, and if no further action is taken you may have to apply through Data Protection regulations.

[perky72]

My Husband is a Police Officer...and believe me, he is almost NEVER off duty!! Even when we were out on New Years Eve he was watching people and would react without hesitation if something occured! He works on "Neighbourhood", and although he was off work a couple of weeks ago - and out Christmas shopping with me - we bumped into a couple who are involved in an ongoing dispute with other people on their estate (etc etc..)and he took time to speak to them and assured them he would go and see them when he was next on duty. I don't see any harm in acknowledging a member of the public whilst off duty just because you haven't got your uniform on.