I always seem to get sucked into these traffic cop fly on the wall shows. Tonight on the BBC, Traffic Cops is in Wales, and there are a few funny moments.
At 2 minutes 45 in, have a look at the crash between the police car and the red Clio. I think that at 2m52s it’s obvious what is about to happen and the police driver could have avoided the accident, even if the kid in the car is technically at fault. The cop never concedes anything like this, and even drags out the old I’ve-been-doing-this-for-fifteen-years / he’s-just-passed-his-test non-sequitir. It takes humility to learn from mistakes; there are very few accidents you can’t prevent yourself.
And two-tones are almost useless. It’s almost impossible to hear where they’re coming from and mostly they make drivers panic.
Then fast-forward to 38m40s. The whole exchange between the Irish bloke and the cops is hilarious. He’s driving on two flat tyres, but he does have a point when he says he was not driving dangerously.
The cops in the show seem like good sorts, but I do enjoy the way that as much as these shows try to make the police look like saints, it’s easy to take the side of the scrote.