How much power are you happy for police to have?

[Enduro Numpty]

As the subject says.

As an active member of a North East of Scotland off road motorcycling club I thought I'd share our experiences of police behaviour this weekend.

Our club was hosting a British Championship Enduro round over the Easter Weekend. We hold this event every 2nd year and it attracts the best riders in the country and they travel from far and wide to attend. Below is a copy of a post I submitted to an off road forum.

While not an official spokesman for EEC, I am a member and have been involved with the running of the event. As has been stated the club has been in close communication with the Police, the Forestry Commission, local Council and all relevant agencies. This event has been well over a year in the planning and every box has been ticked with regard to officialdom. There were no grey areas! The road section was agreed with police, the police were aware that due to the nature of the event full size number plates were wholly impractical. As in the past it was understood that this minor shortcoming would be overlooked. The law in Scotland allows for this. Elgin has a long history of off road motorcycling with Woodside circuit and various other local venues for Scottish Enduro & H&H championship rounds as well as BEC rounds. Until now we have had a good working relationship with the local police who have supported the club as they saw how giving people a chance to ride legally reduced illegal riding.

What took place on Saturday was a complete breach of trust and is beneath contempt. Riders were basically ambushed as they left the forest to ride the agreed road section by what would appear to be Elgin traffic police. Several vehicles were used including an unmarked car. What promised to be a great event was very close to becoming a disaster. The second test at the end of the road section had to be cut out after weeks of preparation as it was clear that the police were going to harass riders to the extent that no semblance of a schedule could be maintained. This special test was a major part of the event and being forced into scrapping it through stupid, heavy handed policing is not acceptable. When the club secretary attempted to reason with the police he was threatened with arrest as were fully legal riders. This is Britain not North Korea!
The riders, as always, are the stars of these events and they made the most of the drastically modified schedule with good humour and resignation. Lossie forest which is the main venue has more than enough scope for putting riders through their paces and the day will probably go down as a qualified success. The club would like to extend our thanks to all riders and crews for their support. The clerk of the course worked frantically to extend the course within Lossie for day 2 which took place wholly within the forest. Day 2 ran smoothly but the loss of the 2nd test was a very bitter pill to swallow.

Many local businesses actively support the club and our British Championship Enduro as the event brings a lot of revenue to hotels, B&B's, restaurants, garages, skip hire, toilet hire etc.. People who come from all over the UK and beyond to race see what a beautiful place North East Scotland is and many come back not just to race. This irresponsible and over the top policing will have an impact on these businesses. The cost to riders and teams of travelling to and competing in our event is also very high.

The fact that what appear to be thugs in uniforms can disrupt a completely legal well organised British Championship Sporting event to the extent they did is not acceptable. The police had every opportunity to conduct themselves responsibly if they had concerns, but it would seem that their only objectives were to dish out £60 fines and try to ruin our event.

Elgin Endurance Club, its members and other Parties will be pursuing this matter.

[delvey91]

Seen this everywhere on facebook and KTM Forum. Its an absolute outrage! Lets hope this gets lots of coverage
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2016 Honda Africa Twin
2006 KTM 200 EXC

[parkmoy]

So presumably the Police were executing their legal powers but your complaint is that they failed to exercise common sense and disrupted your event. Fair enough, but one has to ask why? Were a large number of riders breaking the law in other than trivial ways? Normally the Police like to encourage community events because it is good for police/public relations so was there something else in play here?

Do you know how many prosecutions resulted and what were the offences?

[Enduro Numpty]

[parkmoy]

[Nick_Giles]

[27cows]

12hp. At the most!
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The RXS100: vehicle of choice for Chuck Norris

[Rogerborg]

[X posted]
Traffic aren't "the police", they're a sub-Force unto themselves. They're not called Black Rats for nothing. Strathclyde Traffic have (or had) an annual competition to see how many other coppers they could nick in the run up to Christmas.

You'd need at least a friendly Inspector on site to deter this kind of mugging, and even that wouldn't be cast iron.

I hope every one of those nicked riders chooses to have their day in court, although I have no idea what Scotch law you're thinking of that allows small plates.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[stevo as b4]

I'd hate to get caught riding illegally on private land in Scotland then, id they are pulling peoples pants down over a small number plate.

I mean FFS the vast majority of trials/enduro and alot of trail bikes have small plates, and these bikes are not really used by people in day to day use, more so they are wheeled out for events and weekend off road club days out etc at the most.

Go and slap some £60 fines and points on all the silly plates used on sportsbikes, tourers, and scooters instead, and leave the specialised vehicles that do very little miles on uk roads alone.

It would be like issuing a fine to a farmer for a small plate on his tractor, which probably does 20-30road miles a year.

If you want to make money from people doing illegal things or having vehicles that have non law compying features, then you should be looking at the biggest majority of vehicles that are in daily use. That would be HGV's Buses and all Audi drivers!

[Fruit'n'nut]

[Rogerborg]

That's my understanding.

Although I really do wonder if the Fiscal will touch it. If there's a paper trail saying that someone senior in the Force OK'd it, then you'd be into the realms of entrapment, let alone the argument of public interest.

For context and contrast, by the way, Strathclyde's Finest were out in force for the Yorkhill chaaaaaridy run yesterday. A good number of the bikes there had pull-the-other-one plates and/or expired or missing VED, let alone the ones that will have been SORNed or "between MOTs", and not a single fuck was given.
____________________
Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[Fruit'n'nut]

[Redoko]

Do we really need multiple threads on the matter?
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"Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."
Sudika Sportsman SK50QT > Gilera DNA50 > Honda CBR125 RW7 > Kawasaki Zephyr750 > Suzuki GSXR600 > Honda Hornet CB600F '51

[Rebel]

How much power are you happy for police to have?

240v applied to their unfeasably small testicles