Sorry but i have to have a HUGE rant. About half an hour a gaon I was pulled over near my house and accused of being on my mobile. Actually the conversation went like this

'Why did we pull you over?'
Me - I don't know
Policeman 2 - You were on your mobile phone!
Me - No i wasn't. I was biting my nail at one point but i wasn't on my mobile.
Policeman 1 - Well we saw you on it! Can we have it?
So i hand it over, it was at the bottom on a small bag with my purse on top.

I then had to pull up recent calls and as one police man read it the other gave my car the once over!

And what i surpsrise.... they could see that.... wait for it ...... I WASN'T USING MY PHONE!!!!

So I thought they'd say sorry but we have to check but NO i then get the third degree about MY car which I OWN and TAX and INSURE.

Even after I said i had no documentation on me but the car was registered in my name and insured you'd have thought they'd have given a small apology especially as I'm now bursting at the seems being over 7 months pregnant BUT NO. NOT A SINGLE WORD OF APOLOGY OR EVEN A THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME. Instead they just went ok you can go!

Is it me or was just rude. I had done nothing and could prove that i had done nothing. I had been polite and done what they had asked so why couldn't these 2 men be man enough to say sorry!

I am still in tears from the shock. I have rang the station and the duty sargent is supposed to ring me back but i have very little faith in that actually happening.

I  HAD a lot of respect for the police until today. The best thing was that I actually drove past someone on their mobile before i get pulled over.

Sorry but had to rant.

I quite agree with you, you had done nothing wrong and they were rude - which has a lot to do with why people have a lower respect for authority nowadays IMHO. They probably felt really stupid that they got it wrong. :D

Well i hope they get a right gobful off the next person they pull over.
If i spoke to my students they way they spoke/treated me i'd be up infront of the head having to explain myself.
Thanks for making me feel that I'm not over reacting. Starting to feel calmer now.

OK..take a deep breath....Yes it was rude not to apologise but you have to see it from the polices point of view too. They obviously thought you were on the phone or wouldn't have pulled you over. You could have quickly deleted your call from recent calls, so they could have been apologising to someone who was guilty they just couldn't prove it. Ok, WE all know you weren't on your phone - but the policemen don't KNOW that for a fact. It's a difficult job they do, if they accidently upset one very pregnant lady but manage to stop several others from using their phones while driving in a day then they've probably saved a few accidents too :)

On a positive police note, I saw a great example of justice being seen to be done on Saturday night. I was driving along Princes Street in Edinburgh at 3am and had to keep stopping my bus and getting out to clear a path through all the bins that had been thrown into the road. Further along the police had just stopped a young lad, caught red handed dismantling a bin and throwing the innards in the road. I went and turned and drove back along Princes Street 5 mins later and there is the same young lad, closely watched by two officers putting all the bins back together and picking all the rubbish up - great stuff :)

I realise that but they were adamant that they'd seen me using it and they then witness me trying to get it out of my small bagwhere it was under everything else and the purse is as big as the bag and is a nightmare to get out let alone do it one handed (note to self - must get a bigger bag). They could blantantly see that they were wrong and even after the phone said i hadn't done anything the other one still kept on about me having sometghing to my ear - which i didn't i was biting my nail. I wouldn't have minded if they'd had said thank for my time but they were blatantly on a power trip! Also I'm sure they also drove past the humpty that was on his phone aswell!

If they had the power to make random checks they wouldn't have to try to justify their mistake. Having stopped you they now have a lot of paperwork to do.

I didn't have a problem with them intially as i knew i had done nothing and they'd realise they'd made a mistake its the manner that they had. They obviously thought they'd seen something but had got it wrong. My issue is with the way they treated me. There was no thank you for your time which they were wasting. They couldn't find a thing wrong with my car or in my driving so there was no need to be rude. I realise they have paper work to fill out now but that is part of their job as is marking and planning with mine. I was bought up with manners and if thats the way they talk to people you can see why so many people have a low opinion of them. And i realise they are not all like that but you could see that these 2 were actually peeved that they had got it wrong and they didn't like it one bit!

Yes, they were rude, but they were peeved because they had all the required paperwork to do and no 'result' to show for it. It's worth remembering that it is dangerous to use a mobile whilst driving (so is smoking whilst driving, but that's another issue!) and they're the ones who attend the crashes which result from it. Best to put it behind you and move on.

Also good to know there are some good ones out there. Where i used to live there were regular beat poolice on foot or bikes and they were great and so friendly.
So I know there are good ones out there just not happy to acept the treatment from these 2 horrors.

Yes, there are some lovely police people around but lots of the type you unfortunatley ran into mollymoto - power happy and full of themselves. Its so annoying too when you watch wrong doers in action getting away with it! -Hope you've calmed down now and had a nice cup of tea.

They may have made a mistake with you but at least they are trying to do something about the people who still insist on using their mobile phones whilst driving - despite the advertising campaign so many people take no notice and risk other people's lives through their stupidity.

It is not uncommon for the police to check vehicles and documents when drivers are pulled over by them for whatever reason - imagine the outcry if they stopped someone, didn't check them or their vehicle and later found out they had let continue someone who had been involved in a serious crime. It's annoying if you are just a law abiding citizen going about your business but they have no way of knowing that unless they check you out. :)

Gordon Bennett!  I can see a spate of 3 points on licences and fines for picking noses.  Hmm on second thought that might not be a bad idea :P

Seriously, I saw a man with mobile in one hand and cigarette in the other only a couple of days ago and it is important these twits are caught.  However, I do think the police should have made some sort of acknowledgement that they were mistaken in your case.

I think the police were a little hasty and it makes me wonder how I would have fared as I usually put my phone on the dashboard if I haven't taken a bag out with me. (makes mental note not to pick nose, bite nails, scratch ear)

Ducking below the parapet, flak jacket and tin helmet securely fastened  :D

It is often the case that the police are damned if they do and damned if they don't :) 

Today, whilst sitting at traffic lights a young woman drove past me chatting on her mobile and eating a huge baguette with the other hand!! How she was steering the car I don't know - with her elbows??!

I'm going to put my handbag in the boot from now on so if i do get pulled over and wrongly accussed of using it i can point out that i must be a wizard or something :)

I'm also going to stop biting nails when at the wheel from now on. :)

I actually had no problem with them stopping me as i knew i had done nothing wrong. My issue was the lack of manners, even a thank you for stopping would have been something. I rang the police station because i was really upset by the attitude. Ok they have paper work to fill out and have wasted their time (not to mention mine) but that wasn't my fault and they shouldn't take it out on me!

Well the duty sargent rang me up and set about looking into the case. The policemen didn't give me their details or anything which he wasn't too happy about. He also wasn't too happy that they were both questioning me when i was on my own. He has since been in contact with the 2 traffic cops (who were then off duty) who have both apologised about their attitude and any distress caused.
So it was definately worth ringing them whilst in my rather distressed state.
The sad thing is that one day that rudeness will come out with the wrong sort of person who'll try taking them to court.

Really glad to hear you recieved a more positive outcome, just a shame you had to initiate it.
Im absolutely with you..Ive always been a believer of 'behaviour breeds behaviour' and we should treat others with at the very least a little common courtesy we'd expect ourselves ;)
    I wont tell you the comments I get from officers Im training when I teach crash helmet removal and demonstrate with one of our Met issue helmets its very naughty but seeing as it was a traffic officer who told me this, the saying goes "If those that were picked on at school become police officers..then those that were picked on by their Relief become Traffic" ;) ;) ;)
   But its like any proffession/service... there are the good and decent and then sadly the minority of bad who end up tarring everyone :(
I train hundreds of officers a month and have yet to have met a bad one..every dog has its day I guess.

Well they do say manners don't cost a thing! :) Feeling much better than before. I am now seeing the funny side as if they had done that to my sister or had she have been with me they would soon have know about their attitude. Bless her, she can be very blunt and gets annoyed easily!! Lucky for the policemen really.
Hopefully these 2 men will now think about their manner and hopefully won't find themselves at the sharp end of someones tongue or worse.
On a positive note, the duty sarg was brill as were the 2 ladies that dealt with me at the beginning. Am going to make a point of putting handbag in the boot just incase (its always on silent anyway) just so there is no suspicision of wi[ing the callm record (god knows how you do that anyway!:rolleyes:).
Thanks for the support guys at least I can be safe in the knowledge that I'm not being an irrational pregnant woman! :)

worse than that mollymoto is the person who loses their rag with the police for unjust behaviour like this and then ends up in court themselves for threatening/being aggressive etc towards the police.

I don't think that anyone ever has an excuse to attack a police officer (my brother was one and was attacked on many occasions), but the police should be trained in their approach to people - aggression breeds aggression and causes situations to escalate - they should know better.

Mollymoto, I'm so glad the police got back to you, it only takes a few numpties like these for the whole force to be tarred with the same brush. Manners cost nothing and there is no excuse for rudeness from someone in a position of authority. Faith in police suitably restored again :D .

Put in a complaint, have it logged. my opinion is they were bang out of order, you were a women on your own and they took the P!
I would have put in a complaint and asked them to log it. They then will give you a log number. It comes under the new Harresment Law.
Especially being pregnant. Some police out there are bully boys. If it is loged and they do it again for any reason. You have got them on the harressment Law. It is quite serious. The police have all your details on there screan the min. they put your car no. in.
It tells them your name and address, insurance company, the date your m.o.t. was got and runs out. if you have a full drivers lic. ect; ect;

I would write a nice letter to your local paper and if you have them give the officers names. You are more that Ok to do this. Especially being 7 months pregnant the papers may love the story.

There is too much of this going on nowadays. It is no wonder at times the public are the way they are to the police.