I’ve seen this many times on tv, it’s not always been police with firearms !
I thought this was also a tactic to shock you, so you basically end up disoriented / shock / freeze / or whatever, sorry if I’ve missed something above.
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I recently had a team searching 3 of their vehicles for a witness statement form, they laughed that they hadn’t completed one in about 10 years ;o)
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Well there are often normal bobbies who pull a car over and smash the windows when the contestants won’t open them (and there’s a legitimate need - if they’re just being a dick and refusing to identify themselves, then doing the windows is a last resort), but the way those 3 unmarked vehicles were pulled in tight round it screams firearms surveillance job all day long.
You’re exactly right about the windows going in, quite often it’s the rifle barrel itself that breaks the window, and nothing says ‘Behave’ like a shower of glass and a gun barrel three inches from your face. Give people time to think and they might try something stupid - politeness and patience with folk like this is seen as a form of weakness which they will try to exploit. Bad news for everyone.
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Ha yes, when I worked in a control room, many a time we had to send a local car as firearms had pulled a drink driver or an uninsured driver over but didn’t have a breath kit or the necessary forms to seize the car. I took great joy in putting them down as the OIC for vehicle seizures, knowing full well they wouldn’t have a clue what to do when the paperwork came through days later.
Sometimes it’s just amusing, sometimes less so - if you get a call from someone saying ‘My neighbours trying to kill his wife’, we can’t send an ARV crew into that house even if they’re the nearest unit, due to the risk of having a weapon snatched off them - firearms entry into an address has to be authorised by an Assistant Chief Constable, and you try finding one of them at two minutes notice in the middle of the night! Sounds stupid, but these are all lessons learnt the hard way. At a pinch, they could pop hubby through the window if they see him in the act of trying to commit murder, but I’ve only heard of one case of that in 20 odd years, and that’s in a major metropolitan force.
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I only mentioned it as you said it was for
I’ve actually seen this more times with the latter, but, I get what your saying with the whole fire arms / surveillance thing & how well it’s planned & executed call it, especially where the bigger fish are concerned, or those who flag up for firearms or have been involved with them.
Edit sorry, not necessarily always firearms, I have a 15 minute video here, of a stupid pissed up neighbour waving his Samurai out the window, AR came for him & got him, guns was on him at all times till he was cuffed etc.
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Well I’m not saying lesser mortals don’t do it, but if they do, they won’t do it as well, and it’s naughty…
Can kind of see both sides here.
If there’s any chance of police air support (likely for an undercover op) i can see why a drone might cause interference or even prevent it.
There are also incidents where criminals have used drones to spot and get advance notice of the police.
On the other hand, a drone thats not close, not in the way and not interfering is much harder to call. The CAP is vague (deliberately so) about what exactly constitutes “close to” or “inside”.
Could easily boil down to your interpretation vs theirs and worst case having to convince a judge your view wins over theirs. Which is messy.
Dumping glass in a hedge though is pretty dodgy. Can see why its not wanted on the roads but lobbing it out of sight in a hedge isn’t solving the issue.
Only time ive flown near a situation was a series of huge (mainly deliberate) grass fires. I did ask the fire service commander on-scene if they were using helicopters or other assets before flying though.
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The closeness issue could potentially be messy, but unless you were flying like a total and utter dick (in which case you’d probably be breaching the ‘danger to other aircraft’ bit anyway), it’s very likely that the CPS would file it in the ‘new, difficult question, can’t be arsed’ box. There’s murder, rape and armed robbery trials being delayed still due to the impact of Covid and ten years of cuts to the judicial system, CPS would rather chew their own hands off than take on extra work unless it’s clearly very necessary.
And it’s elsewhere in the thread, you may have missed it, but the local council would be called to come take the glass away, just like they would after any RTC where debris is left on the road or the roadside, of which dozens happen every day in every police force. It’s better off the road and off the pavement in the meantime.