Police convoy

[Dieselman]

When was the last time you saw a Police van being flanked by a number of escort cars, all with lights flashing and making good progress.

It's years since I've seen such a convoy until this week, when I have seen the same convoy four times, twice heading North on the M1 from Milton Keynes area and once on the M6 Northbound and once South on the M1 at the end of the day.

Is there a high profile court case in Brum or surrounding area?

 

[paulC180]

I saw one a few months back, with police motor bikes and armed police or special forces, stopping traffic here in Norwich, all fully armed with Machine guns. A black range rover Blocked me at the roundabout, out jumped armed people and stopped all traffic to clear a safe route for the prison van. Must have been someone of high importance. The police here do these things pretty well, and at pretty high speeds too.

 

[Mercator]

When was the last time you saw a Police van being flanked by a number of escort cars, all with lights flashing and making good progress.

It's years since I've seen such a convoy until this week, when I have seen the same convoy four times, twice heading North on the M1 from Milton Keynes area and once on the M6 Northbound and once South on the M1 at the end of the day.

Is there a high profile court case in Brum or surrounding area?

No, it's Andrew Mitchell going up to Sutton Coldfield.

 

[Dieselman]

No, it's Andrew Mitchell going up to Sutton Coldfield.

I remember once seeing what I believe to be proper VIP convoy heading South on the M1.

Two police 5 series went a few miles ahead through the heavy traffic and caused a log jam, then a convoy of about six or seven plain cars and a Vito Traveliner, all with lights went down the hard shoulder at 80+ mph.

 

[Charles Morgan]

William Waldegrave told me once about when he was in the Foreign Office during Gulf War 1 and a Kuwaiti Prince arrived at Heathrow with no warning and protocol required he be met by a minister. He (WW) was sent off in a Rover 827 in a police convoy with outriders and they managed to get from Whitehall to Heathrow in close to 20 minutes, by dint of driving along the M4 hard shoulder at 140mph.

Living as I did near the Cromwell Road, VIP convoys were a pretty regular sight.

 

[renault12ts]

I've seen the Queen and Duke in a convoy...of Range Rovers.

 

[m2287]

A couple of weeks ago on the a14 from cambridge to Huntingdon I saw 4 police bikes infront of a range rover and an Audi q7 followed by another 4 bikes

 

[LTD]

He (WW) was sent off in a Rover 827

Now that was a very fast car.

 

[Dieselman]

Now that was a very fast car.

Crap round bends though as My Bosses found out with their Honda legends.

 

[martyz]

Crap round bends though as My Bosses found out with their Honda legends.

ever tried the rover 620ti?, give it the boot and it will torque steer you into oblivion.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

ever tried the rover 620ti?, give it the boot and it will torque steer you into oblivion.

Ahhh. The bank manager's car of choice in the mid nineties...

• 220 Coupe Turbo ("tomcat") for young guns
• 620ti for the the mid ground, and
• 820 Vitesse for the more mature

I had a hoot in them when I was 17/18 running errands

A manager's son also used to noon around in them too, and one one occasion we were sent off together in a Vitesse (me) and 620ti (him). I reversed out of the space and waited at the car park exit and watched him reverse straight into one of our very best customers car's whist his wife and mother sat in it!!

 

[mct_cars]

Back to this universe, I see convoys all the time at the North end of the A1 - driving "suspects" from Durham clink to Newcastle Crown Court.

I also see quite regularly around the Leeds area of the M1 police convoys chasing one of ther mates in unmarked cars to practice t-packs. See it on the M6 north of Blackpool every now and again too.

 

[tasn1]

It wasn't me...promise!

 

[wemorgan]

Last summer driving near Leamington Spa I was stopped at a roundabout by a Police motorbike, moments later a few Range Rovers went past, then finally a Rolls Royce with the Queen inside. The cars were all travelling at normal speeds but the bikers looked to be having fun leapfrogging one another.

 

[R129mine]

i work close to buckingham palace and i probably see 1 or 2 of these convoys per week during my lunch time stroll around st james's and green park, usually involves 3 motorbikes, 2 range rovers (up front and behind) and then a bentley or jag xj in the middle (with or without flags) and a vito van. quite a sight to see how they race thru the mall and block all traffic, those motorbike drives racing to the front, blocking traffic and once convoy has gone passed they catch up and overtake to do the same and the next junction.

 

[Dieselman]

My specific query was really about seeing a Police van in convoy. Most prisoners are now transported by private companies, not the Police.

 

[Mr E]

My specific query was really about seeing a Police van in convoy. Most prisoners are now transported by private companies, not the Police.

Doing about 30k on the m'ways in a year I do come across it every so often.

Correlating with news stories, it seems to involve the movement of either high profile or terrorist suspects - as they are not in the prison / remand system as yet, I believe they still get moved by the police.

Of course, this wouldn't happen very often. However I once worked for a while near Paddington Green station, and it was quite regular in that part of the world.

 

[sinewave]

Whether a 'Suspect' is transported by the Police or Private Security is more to do with whether they have enough clout to be freed by armed accomplices.


Tiz all money driven nowadays, so if the threat is low, Private it go's!

 

[Dieselman]

Correlating with news stories, it seems to involve the movement of either high profile or terrorist suspects - as they are not in the prison / remand system as yet, I believe they still get moved by the police.

Whether a 'Suspect' is transported by the Police or Private Security is more to do with whether they have enough clout to be freed by armed accomplices.

I'm sure it's something like that as the escort vehicles are Ford S-Max, which I believe are ARV.

Quite an impressive array of lights.

I also think it must be a high profile case as the distance the convoy is traveling is designed to keep the "prisoner(s)" away from the destination locale.

 

[st4]

I know who was in that convoy.

It was that train guard who apparently killed a 16yr old drunken girl. Rumour has it he is a master criminal and the government daren't out source his transportation as the last time they outsourced a security contract, it got a bit messy.

Will at least got a Disco light show out of this, so we shouldn't be too sad...