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Driving down to N Wales today and we came across a couple of police motorbikes with all lights on coming the other way at the back of Caernarfon. It looked like they were stopping traffic (although a fairly quite road) - we carried on down the road and 20 seconds later there was a fairly fast moving convoy headed by two more bikes then two unmarked X5 and finally a police car all with lights going but no sirens.
So the discussion in our car was who was in the convoy - girls thought Simon Cowell or Cameron while my money was on some Royalty.
Question is, who gets a police escort nowadays?
Royals (decent ones) tend to be in Range Rovers - with more outriders from Special Protection
X5 and only two bikes.... Middle Management Politician? Anything of interest out that way?
Me.
Anything of interest out that way?
Not really (nice shortcut around Caernarfon though).
Sounds like a Special Escort Group convoy.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Escort_Group_%28Metropolitan_Police%29
Any of the STW BigHitters.
Whenever I drive at over 100mph I always get a police escort. It still counts as an escort even if they're behind you and trying to catch up doesn't it?
Once was passed by TB's 'train' on the way home (use to live near Chequers) - couldn't help thinking at the time that a helicopter would've been far easier and cheaper.
Once went to watch Huddersfield town play Oldham in Oldham, we got off the buss and were shepherded into a pub, we had a pint and decided to wander down to the ground, so opened the front door to be greeted by a police wall of steel, and were barked at to go back inside. Evidently a bus was being put on. Turns out the cops had put all the hooligans and scrappers in one place. So the buses arrive and we all pile on and notice that we have 2 outriders and a car up front, as well as behind! So we set off and just before the ground we hit traffic. Cue full blues and twos and the s swinging onto the other side of the road! Get to the ground and get a (sort of) guard of honour from door to door! Awesome.
So in answer to your question, me and about 100 Huddersfield town fans.
I e seen a few black BMW X5s with alternating flashing fog lights around Sandringham Estate so I would assume they are royals-related.
Obviously, the actual royals travel in the Range Rovers but the pleb by police will be happy in the X5s
Rachel
Simon Cowell ! 😆
My students whenever they go out of province on a trip.
I've never got the obsession with motorcycle outriders armed with handguns, only one small step from being as useful in an ambush as someone with a bb gun.
Needed to weave through traffic in an emergency?
I had the dubious pleasure of having to stay in Hartlepool on Sunday evening prior to joining a vessel on Monday and the taxi driver who took me from Durham Teeside Airport was telling me how he was prisoner transfer accredited; basically that he was licensed to take prisoners from prisons to hospitals or inter-prison transfers whereby the police couldn't be used ie across police force boundaries. He got (so he said...) a police escort of a car in front, a car behind and 3 prison guards in the car with him. He had to remove anything that could identify him (ie company insignia from the car, cover the number plates, remove phone, satnav etc). He was CRB'd to the hilt and the police apparently paid for his car to be remapped (to be honest, it was bloomin' nippy for a Vectra!) but I still don't know if I believe that this happens... Apparently there are 4 such accredited drivers in the NE area. Is this an actual 'thing'? He was very convincing and had some great stories. Seemed to pay well too.
TLDR - Taxi drivers with prisoners get police escorts. Apparently!
My Dad got one once.
He worked with the police (civilian). They came to our house and with him driving at silly speed in the middle of the night, was escorted to Exeter airport where the side gate opened up for them and they drove up into the back of a waiting aeroplane. The back door of the plane was closing as they taxied.
I'm not sure if the convoys still go up the M1, used to be outriders / cars, what looked to be armoured trucks and more outriders. The Police were all Met or City of London. Did run on a fairly regular basis, always at high speed, trucks in the "fast lane" - always going north (around J25 - J30). Always wondered what they were carrying - don't think it was prisoners. I'm sure I read that it was cash from the Bank of England going to Leeds
Yes that would be the bank of england. I work nearby and often see them arrive in leeds City centre.
Look out for certain T5's..
Blokes who can carry pointy guns well
It might just be a training exercise, so nobody
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A year or two ago on a Friday evening we drove in to Manchester down the M66 and shortly after joining off the M6 near Preston I looked in the mirror and saw a wall of blue flashing lights catching up with us. A convoy of around a dozen vehicles came past, escorting two prison vans, one of them, we realised, containing Dale Cregan who at that time was on trial in Preston Crown Court so they were taking him back to Strangeways for the weekend. The last vehicle was a Police Rangie with a "stay back" sign illuminated and there was also a chopper overhead. Spectacular security as GMP had lost a couple of prisoners in transit a few months before. We pootled along behing them for a mile or two with a big mass of cars behind us, and we passed the tail-end of an unrelated incident on the hard shoulder with a couple of cars off the road and a Police car. This must have distracted someone because as we passed, I spotted sudden movements in the mirror, looked and saw cars diving in all directions, dust, bits of plastic flying and general mayhem as they all piled into each other. The Police convoy carried on regardless with us and a couple of other cars and suddenly the M66 behind us was completely empty. That was a narrow escape!
I had the dubious pleasure of having to stay in Hartlepool on Sunday evening prior to joining a vessel on Monday and the taxi driver who took me from Durham Teeside Airport was telling me how he was prisoner transfer accredited; basically that he was licensed to take prisoners from prisons to hospitals or inter-prison transfers whereby the police couldn't be used ie across police force boundaries. He got (so he said...) a police escort of a car in front, a car behind and 3 prison guards in the car with him. He had to remove anything that could identify him (ie company insignia from the car, cover the number plates, remove phone, satnav etc). He was CRB'd to the hilt and the police apparently paid for his car to be remapped (to be honest, it was bloomin' nippy for a Vectra!) but I still don't know if I believe that this happens... Apparently there are 4 such accredited drivers in the NE area. Is this an actual 'thing'? He was very convincing and had some great stories. Seemed to pay well too.TLDR - Taxi drivers with prisoners get police escorts. Apparently!
Na, the police don't have time to escort every taxi that takes a prisoner to hospital thats for sure! If a prisoner warrants an escort he'd be either in the prisons own van or a Cat A van. (I'll find out & correct myself if I'm wrong though)
I've seen the Cat A van go out from Frankland prison with armed police in cars AND the police helicopter a few times with very high profile prisoners either on transfer or to court.
One of my dad's friends was an armed copper working for the met. Many years ago he was assigned a role escorting the queen around the place. One day they were driving along with him in the passenger seat and due to some incident that he was a bit vague about (we think he was playing with his gun), he shot a hole in the roof of the car.
The Queen's driver heard the gunshot, panicked and floored it off with special forces in hot pursuit, they shot down a road they weren't familiar with and got stuck in a dead end. The special forces guys, assuming they had been pushed into an ambush, dug in, trashed a few cars, got themselves ready for a shoot out.
Apparently no-one was very happy with my dads mate once the truth got out and he was removed from armed duty for a while.
Get some good prisoner escort ones coming from Wakefield prison to Leeds courts going past where I live. Its really interesting to watch them, very well choreographed so they never have to stop, motorbike outriders, helicopters, cars and prisoner vans.
Saw Cameron going down the ring road in Leeds past my work just before the election as well. Again loads of bikes, 3 range rovers and a couple of police cars.
Used to work the next street on from the BoE in Leeds as well, lots of met police hanging around there.
Need to make it to more meetings? Is it essential for you to catch a flight? We offer traffic escort services to those who need to get around the city without any delays. We can arrange escorts for VIPs and high profile businesspeople who want to get to their destinations without getting stuck in traffic or waiting in long toll booth lines. Travel in a VIP traffic escorted convoy. It will halve most journey times. You will be escorted by 2 traffic motorbikes and get to your destination safely.
a driver service that we use offers it about 180gbp
I lived in Sandringham, familiar sight around there, I also used to work for the estate and have a few mildly amusing tales about interacting with the royal family.
Returning home from a very heavy night out in Southwold once I was doing a good job of holding my breakfast down as my Mrs drove us home along the bumpy roads.
It all got too much around Bircham and I asked her to pull over and I jumped out to cleanse the poison. At exactly that moment a trio of Range Rovers were coming the other way, they thought we pulled over to let them through. Princess Margaret was in the back, she waved and shouted thanks, I looked up at her and loudly and lavishly vomited. Her face as they pulled away was not one of pleasant surprise.
woody21 - MemberI'm not sure if the convoys still go up the M1, used to be outriders / cars, what looked to be armoured trucks and more outriders. The Police were all Met or City of London. Did run on a fairly regular basis, always at high speed, trucks in the "fast lane" - always going north (around J25 - J30). Always wondered what they were carrying - don't think it was prisoners. I'm sure I read that it was cash from the Bank of England going to Leeds
BoE in Leeds used to be responsible for the destruction of bank notes, so any dugs contaminated cash from forces, agencies etc, for example was sent there for burning.
A mate of mine got one once. Was driving his wife who was in labour, to the hospisptal, but the baby decided it was not going to wait, so he pulled up to the side of the road and she gave birth in the car. Shortly after a police car arrived and then escorted him to the hospital, full blues and two's going, running red lights, the works. No outriders though.
I’ve had one. Me in the back of a blacked out Mercedes Vito (or whatever the luxury version of the people carrier/van is called), 2 police bike outriders for the day and the central police control room showing off how they can control all the traffic lights.
It was an odd experience.
A mate used to travel a lot for work. He landed in the airport at Monrovia, the Capital of Liberia. After bribing his way through customs & immigration, he stepped outside looking for a taxi. A policeman approached him, with 'You want a ride to a hotel'? There was a large US cop car at the front of the line of taxis. 'Fifteen dollars'. 'OK', said mate, and got in. 'For another ten dollars you can have lights and siren'. Mate thought this too good to miss and agreed.
some good tales above 🙂
Not Police exactly, but I've been driven in NIgeria with a pickup truck escort. Not very glamorous, but it did have a 50mm machine gun mounted on the roof with a gunner at the ready. This was just from the Airport to the city centre.
We now have our own Police drivers, so all our staff get Police escorts everywhere. The Nigerian government had a great idea to let companies sponsor and employ their own Police who are trained and regulated by the state.
Monrovia airport is a looooong way from the city so blues & twos will have helped.
In Lagos the aircrew arrive at their hotels with Police escorts, flashing lights, the lot, in minibuses with the curtains closed. A great way of attracting attention to your regular journey so just about every Lagosian must know the times, the routes and the airlines!
The only reason for having a Police driver or escort must be to prevent harrassment by the Police roadblocks; I don't think the Police would actually do anything if a convoy was attacked; their rusty guns would jam and they'd run away.
I'll be there on Sunday but will move around more discretely.
gti - we had something similar in Suez. Waiting around at the dock gates for an hour for the coach to turn up, then another twenty minutes for a jeep with two soldiers.
I just press my own siren button to clear traffic
The only reason for having a Police driver or escort must be to prevent harrassment by the Police roadblocks
Pretty much, plus they can go anywhere. Lagos is pretty safe security wise, the much higher risk is disease, pretty much all our staff have ended up in hospital at some point with Malaria, Dengue fever or Encephalitis. Some have now managed all three.....
We now have our own Police drivers, so all our staff get Police escorts everywhere. The Nigerian government had a great idea to let companies sponsor and employ their own Police who are trained and regulated by the state.
...with the result that it's dirt cheap to hire them and I'm never really sure that they'd be any use at all... Last time I was there we had one riding in our car (fast asleep one morning; couldn't operate the seatbelt on another morning) and three following behind in a car so beat up that the biggest risk was probably them breaking down...
Had a one-car police-for-hire escort to speed our passage across Jakarta once to the airport. Despite lights and sirens we spent exactly the same amount of time sat in traffic as everyone else.
It'll be the ZM.
I felt quite secure in Yemen, in a huge backed-out 4WD monster, anonymously belting down the road. Until the driver started chewing qat.
...with the result that it's dirt cheap to hire them and I'm never really sure that they'd be any use at all... Last time I was there we had one riding in our car (fast asleep one morning; couldn't operate the seatbelt on another morning) and three following behind in a car so beat up that the biggest risk was probably them breaking down...
That sounds like something else, this isn't hire by the hour, it's full time staff on your payroll. You pick the staff, pay to get them trained as Police and then continue to pay them as your own personal Police once they're trained. You provide the cars etc. If they mess up you fire them and hire someone else. We've had the same guys for years.
[img]bruneep - Member
I just press my own siren button to clear traffic
[/img]?
I worked for Samsung for a short while.
The UK head office is in Chertsey
One of the senior Samsung VPs from Korea was paying the site a visit. His PA asked how we would arrange for the M25 to be closed so he could travel safely along it.
Apparently this was how thing were done back in South Korea!
That sounds like something else, this isn't hire by the hour, it's full time staff on your payroll. You pick the staff, pay to get them trained as Police and then continue to pay them as your own personal Police once they're trained. You provide the cars etc. If they mess up you fire them and hire someone else. We've had the same guys for years.
Ah, OK. You may actually get to control the competence of the people you end up with then 🙂
Apparently this was how thing were done back in South Korea!
About correct.
Mongolia was much the same - road lined with all of the Ulaanbaatar police force to block cars and show presence when a dignatory arrived.
If you timed it right, you could get in front of their Lexus 570 and race with your taxi into town at speed, getting angry police waving at you, but not being able to pull over due to the convoy of fast moving cars behind you.
I had a police escort once, sort of, if you count being chased by an unmarked car for fifteen miles 🙂
Arrived in Hungary on exercise in 2000 and all troops were loaded onto buses and given a police escort form the airport to the exercise area. The exercise area was criss crossed with civilian roads and the police were at every crossing. They would stop all civilian traffic so we could cross unhindered.
Oh, fire strike 2003. Trying to keep up with our police escort in a green goddess was amusing.
Largest one I saw though was on the M3 when the Farnborough air show was on. Huge convoy with at least 10 unmarked mercs with police bikes and cars. ****stani flag on one of the cars so assumed it was their defence minister.
[quote=D0NK ] bruneep - Member
I just press my own siren button to clear traffic
?
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Almost
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^ I want a go.
Beeeeeeeeeeeep!
Not Police exactly, but I've been driven in NIgeria with a pickup truck escort. Not very glamorous, but it did have a 50mm machine gun mounted on the roof with a gunner at the ready. This was just from the Airport to the city centre.
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A mate, Pete a former rock ape was on exercise in the north of scotia. Driving a 130 defender towing a rapier unit.
Narrow lane - he got in to a Mexican stand off with a Range Rover.
Both heading to each other, neither backing down, not enough room for both.
At the last minute the Rangie dives into the ditch. Pete carries on going. Heads back to camp where there is a reception waiting for him.... "So you're the ****wit that's just driven our next King into a ditch!"
Whoops.
Bike races.
Bike races.
Oh yeah, HONC many years ago I'm sure we started with a motorcycle police escort.
Yeah, we've got one of those bruneep, awesome siren
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Me, pretty much bang on 3 years ago.
Full on police escort, outriders stopping all traffic joining at all the junctions, numerous police cars and vans!
I had been to watch the Olympic torch in Bewdley, once it had passed me it was heading on to the Severn Valley Railway to Kidderminster. I left Bewdley on my bike to ride to Kiddy to see it. When I climbed up the road past the safari park the outriders passed me, one dived in to the side road just ahead of me to stop the traffic coming out. I looked behind and could see them all coming up behind me on their way to meet the torch at Kiddy station. Not wanting to get in the way and to make sure I did the right thing I asked the police officer if he wanted me to wait, he said that I could join on at the back!
So there I was , riding my bike at the back of a huge police escort bombing it down in to Kidderminster (luckily all downhill so I could just about keep up) all the roads closed off and cars pulled over to let us through, hundreds of people looking at me wondering who the hell I was!
about 100 Huddersfield town fans.
Good story Tom up until you let your wild imagination get the better of you at the end 😉
[i]One of the senior Samsung VPs from Korea was paying the site a visit. His PA asked how we would arrange for the M25 to be closed so he could travel safely along it.[/i]
A bit like the US Secret Service wanted the route from Heathrow to Downing Street 'secured' for Bush Snr back when I worked on Victoria Street...
I had a police escort once - Tracey from the Swindon massage parlor dressed in her saucy WPC outfit 😆