LR11MZY - On the phone, punishment pass, reported to police

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LR11MZY
LR11 MZY

6th July 2017, 13:15, Broughton Street, Edinburgh

A late upload, since this was submitted to the police and they just got back to me.

I originally reported the driver for being on their phone - because of his reaction to me telling them to get off his phone (To close pass me and then give me abuse), if he had just driven away sensibly, this wouldn't have been reported at all. Officers came to view the footage, but said that it wasn't clear that he was on the phone, and wouldn't be able to report him for being abusive (Not that I asked them to!) because I swore first, but they gave me the paperwork to report it as a close pass, under #opclosepass.

The paperwork is actually good in my opinion, and appears to be you filling out the paperwork that an officer would normally have to - which makes sense to me, since it streamlines the process for the police. One of the sections asks what you would like the outcome to be, in an ideal situation:
[ ] Driver is summonsed to court for their driving
[ ] Driver is sent on an improvement course at their expense (And will be taken to court if they refuse)
[ ] Driver is spoken to about their driving by officers
[ ] No action
I've no idea why anyone would spend 45 minutes filling in the paperwork just to choose "No action", but I guess it's for completeness. I opted for the driver improvement course, since I don't believe being spoken to by officers would have any effect unless the driver is unaware of what they did - and in this case I'm convinced this was deliberate.

The police got back to me today and told me that because I had shouted at the driver first, this would be seen as provocation if the driver contested it and it went to court, so they'd be unable to make the driver do the improvement course. They said that they would however speak to the driver about his driving (and hopefully give him some words of advice about the law regarding using a mobile while driving).

On the whole, I'm a little irked that telling someone to get off their phone can be considered provocation for a close / punishment pass, but I still think that the operation close pass initiative is a good idea.