the_duke":yxeyqtdn said:
Knowing powers of arrest is basic for a pc on the street though. He left himself open to it and got talked down by an idiot.
Agreed.
From what was said, the cyclist made the PO's accusation of jumping a red light more credible, and from his comments expected to receive a ticket or paperwork.
Copper was either flustered or unprepared for this, but as you say, knowing what he can demand and why should be bread and butter for him.
I always understood that the public are obliged to identify themselves (verbally, I don't mean with paperwork or documents) to the police, if asked, and if they either believe or suspect that an individual has committed an offence, and either won't identify themselves, or the police doubt the credibility of any identity information given, they can arrest - even if the offence wouldn't normally be an arrestable one.
Copper was annoyed with the camera, probably because he was flustered about things, and was clearly dealing with somebody being awkward - but going for the camera was quite daft - I mean he was being filmed at the time, FFS - and it hinted at worse.
What he should have done, either because he was confused a little, or unsure - or perhaps didn't really know what he should have done - was instruct the cyclist to wait / stay where he was, walked away a little to create a gap, get on the radio / mobile to his station, clarify - then demanded the cyclists name and address, and if the cyclist didn't disclose something credible, arrested him. He didn't need to enter into any more debate over what he would do if the cyclist didn't disclose his name and address, just found out over the radio what he could demand, demand it, and if not happy arrest the awkward idiot.
Now I realise that getting on the radio / mobile after wandering away, a little, may not look particularly great - but it would have been much better than to look fumbling and incompetent on camera, and given him a bit of space to not get agitated.
The thing about this is, in reality, it doesn't paint cyclists in a great light to the public - it seems to me that if a PO was claiming he jumped a red light, then it sounds reasonably credible - and circulating a video to the general public who already appear to view most cyclists from a rather hostile perspective, seems something of an own goal.
