Met Police eLibrary - RPU Handbook

Road Patrol Unit Handbook

Introduction

The RPU is a major division within the Metropolitan Police.

The Roads Policing Unit is focused on patrolling and protecting the motorways and larger arterial routes throughout the City. The RPU team provides the tools, knowledge and training to allow officers to achieve this in the most professional way possible. The RPU team are well known for their high-speed vehicles which gives the team the tactical advantage to deal with vehicle pursuits including dangerous driving and allows officers to take control of these situations enabling the officer to carry out their lawful duties.

Duties

The RPU teams across the city are responsible for not only the safety of all members of the public but focusing primarily on the use of roads and transport to aid criminal activity.

Officers who undertake this role will be expected to carry out their normal constabulary duties, but have a mind to improve on the primary focus of the team, from looking out for misuse of vehicles on the roads, to high visibility patrolling in known high criminally active areas particularly involving vehicles.

TPAC – Tactical Pursuit and Containment

Arresting Procedure

As per the Metropolitan Police Officer Handbook, all officers must abide by the basic arresting procedure and must always read out their rights.

“You do not have to say anything, however, it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something in which you will rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in as evidence.”

Communications

To ensure officers safety, it is imperative to all operations that radio communications are exemplary. Once an officer joins the Interceptor team, they will be assigned a static call sign, this does not change depending on the vehicle that officer is in (with exceptions if the officer is deployed within any special vehicle that has a pre-defined callsign or requires them to identify as another) which will be within the following format:

Interceptor, Number

This call sign must be shown on any the Metropolitan Police Discord, and TeamSpeak to assist in other officers identifying you and show be shown in the following format:

[INT-00]

Officers should identify on the radio at all times as this call sign and should follow basic radio procedure at all times. As officers specifically trained in pursuits, when attending pursuits officers should not only focus on taking over for less skilled officers, but also focus on pursuit commentary.

Example:

Interceptor 8, I’ve got a vehicle that’s currently failing to stop, heading north on Strawberry Avenue, can I have additional

[BREAK FOR RADIO TRAFFIC] - This allows any responding officers to announce their response

Interceptor 8, update, vehicle is a [COLOUR] [MAKE/MODEL], currently driving at speeds of around [MPH] and driving [BEHAVIOUR (dangerously...)]

Training

In addition to the training you will have already had, the Interceptor Team and Roads Policing Unit has additional training that is mandatory and is marked at a pass or fail level. This mandatory training, once complete will assure management that you’re able and correct for a position within the Interceptor team. You must show a high level of competency when attending and completing these training courses.

Within the training session you will be expected to demonstrate, in a safe manner examples of high-speed pursuit driving. This will be within a controlled manner and will involve another Interceptor team member posing as the suspect. They will endeavour to make this as realistic as possible, however bearing in mind the logistics that surround this and taking into account causing as minimal damage to the vehicles as possible.

You will also be expected to pass the Advanced Driving Course which will test your advanced driving skills such as TPAC. This will always be demonstrated to you first; if you do not feel confident enough to achieve this first time round please ask your instructor for another demonstration. This training is to ensure you’re able to carry out the duties involved, therefore do not be afraid to ask to see this again.

TPAC – Tactical Pursuit and Containment

Remember, before performing any form of TPAC you must have completed and passed the Advanced Driving Course.

All risks must be summed up before TPAC is performed, this includes but is not limited to:

Speed
Danger to life (both other members of the public and officers)
State of all vehicles involved
Vehicle markers
Length of pursuit

Before any TPAC is attempted, the lead member of a pursuit that is a member of the Interceptor team must seek authorisation from a higher-ranking officer. The pursuit must be on-going for more than 5 minutes, or there be a significant risk to life if the pursuit is continued at its current state.

For more information, please refer to the Advanced Driving Course

Boxing

Boxing a vehicle whilst stationary or moving is one safe way to bring a fleeing vehicle under control, and to reduce the speeds that the vehicle is travelling at. This is an effective method of containment, however requires the use of several officers and vehicles therefore increasing the chance of vehicle damage.

In order to perform a box, a minimum of three vehicles must be used, although it should be noted that it is possible to achieve a box using two vehicles if the fleeing suspect is against a structure and is travelling at very low speeds thus only requiring officers to cover 75% of the remaining vehicle; which can be achieved with both officers covering the two retrospective corners of the vehicles to contain as much of the exposed 75%.

First an officer must go ahead of the pursuit, this will allow the front officer to control the speed of the pursuit and will allow this officer to slow down when necessary in order to achieve the containment.

Two officers must then drive either side (if 100% of the vehicle is exposed; remove one officer if the exposure is 75%) of the vehicle and begin to enclose into the vehicle with the front vehicle reducing speed to enclose the box.

Finally, one officer must then finish the containment by driving at the rear of the fleeing vehicle ensuring their matching the speed of the suspect but also taking into consideration the speed reduction that will be applied to the pursuit by the other officers involved.

At all stages clear communications must be completed during this method, with the rear officer taking lead of these stages set out above.

Boxing Demonstrate

An officer must demonstrate an appropriate box manoeuvre using a minimum of 3 vehicles; the officer being tested must take turns at first being the officer in charge of the speed of the pursuit, therefore being the officer in front of the suspect. They must demonstrate good listening skills, following the primary officers instructions (this is the officer at the rear of the vehicle controlling the manoeuvre).

Once successful the officer must then switch roles and take up the primary officers role, demonstrating good communications skills in directing the other officers to take their positions correctly and contain the suspect appropriately.

The officer will have 2 attempts at both methods; if this is failed then the course will be suspended.

PIT

A PIT manoeuvre if performed correctly is a very quick way to end a pursuit quickly and effectively. However as stated above, a high level of evaluation has to be complete before this is performed.

In order to perform a PIT on a vehicle, two or more officers are required. Once approval is sought, an appropriate location must be decided taking into account the risk to life of other members of the public. The officer will then move toward the fleeing vehicle and match their speeds; once confident that all checks have been completed the officer will then move up to line their front bumper around the fleeing vehicles rear wheel arch. Once ready, and again the final last-minute checks have been completed the officer will then steer toward the vehicle applying pressure to the fleeing vehicle and causing the vehicle to spin out of control.

Whilst this is on-going, the additional officer(s) should ensure that clear communications are being given across the radio to enable the primary PIT officer to focus solely on the task at hand.

Finally, once the fleeing vehicle has spun and come to rest any and all officers should immediately and within a safe manner move toward their vehicle emulating a stationary vehicle box.

When can a PIT manoeuvre be performed?

A PIT manoeuvre may be performed if:

1) The offending vehicle is confirmed to be armed with a firearm

2) The pursuit has exceed 5 minutes

3) The offending vehicle or any of its passengers have harmed anyone (cops and civilians, includes ramming)

4) If any member of the vehicle poses a significant threat to life

PIT Demonstrate

An officer must demonstrate an appropriate PIT manoeuvre, taking into account the principals of TPAC. They must initiate a pursuit with a vehicle then skipping time forward by 5 minutes use appropriate radio communication to ask for permission to PIT the suspect vehicle, giving the correct information to the training officer acting as the higher up in order to successfully receive authorisation. Once this has been granted the officer must react to this authorisation and successfully PIT the vehicle.

The officer will have 2 attempts at both methods; if this is failed then the course will be suspended.

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