A dangerous driver who thought he’d given police the slip after an 80mph pursuit has been jailed for more than a year, thanks to the power of body-worn video (scroll down for the video footage).
Most police forces now have body-worn cameras, and they are proving to be an incredibly powerful tool in the fight against crime.
In this particular case, motorbike patrol officers asked the driver of a black VW Golf, Amjid Ali Khan, to pull over when they saw he was trying to avoid them as they passed over the Swan Island along the A45 into Birmingham on th8 April.
But the 37-year-old sped off through a red light, triggering a rare pursuit involving highly-trained motorbike officers.
Khan hit speeds of 80mph in a 30mph zone, driving on the wrong side of a dual carriageway against traffic and the wrong way around a roundabout.
Motorists were forced to swerve out of the way to avoid Khan, and the pursuit was eventually abandoned in the interests of public safety.
During a pursuit, police officers will always carry out a second-by-second dynamic risk assessment to balance the need to apprehend a suspect with the overriding priority to keep the public safe.
But the officer who spoke to Khan through the passenger window had activated his body-worn video, capturing a crystal clear image of the man behind the wheel and his driving during the pursuit.
Another officer recognised Khan from the image. Days later he was arrested by the officer who had first pursued him. Khan, of Lower Ground Close in Aston, was banned from driving until 2022 at the time.
Sgt Ade Brown, of the Central Motorway Policing Group (CMPG), said:
“This was great, diligent police work from start to finish. Not only did the officer’s original suspicions around the driver turn out to be well-founded, but he had the foresight to capture a clear image of him which was shared among other officers and led to Khan’s arrest.
“Although our motorbike officers are highly skilled and more than capable of engaging in pursuits, it’s quite rare because they don’t have the ability that our cars have to make tactical contact or box drivers in.
“This was appalling driving by Khan, and he’s now got plenty of time in prison to think about the mistake that he made when he decided to try to escape justice.”
Khan admitted dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.
He was jailed for 15 months at Birmingham Crown Court on Thursday 23 May and given a further three-year driving ban.
