However, the ‘pursuit’ was called off owing to ‘safety concerns’

Thursday 9th August | by Cop(ex) | @ES_Humour

It’s not often that you see or hear about the Met Police Marine Unit being involved in a boat chase, or in this case, a jet ski chase.

During my time in the Met Police, working on a 999 response team in London that was directly adjacent to the Thames, I certainly never heard of a similar incident taking place – and that was over an 8-year period (that’s not to say that boat chases didn’t take place, just that I never heard of them).

However, the Met Police Marine Unit revealed via their Twitter feed that they had indeed been involved in a relatively rare pursuit of four jet skis.

You might wonder why the Police did chase the jet-skis rather than just letting them carrying on darting around on the Thames like lunatics on their 60MPH water-based ‘mopeds’?

Well, from my own time spent volunteering on the Lifeboats, my former volunteers and I were often told about jet skis which had run-aground (during low tide) which were involved in shuttling drugs to-and-from London.

Suffice to say, that these water-based drug runners were often hurt following such reckless acts.

So who is to say that maybe the individuals on these jet skis weren’t potentially involved in a similar activity?

(Video Credit: https://twitter.com/TonyMoorcroft)

We also know that the Thames could potentially be used by terrorists in order to launch an attack on London, so, with this in mind, security has to be tight.

The only thing that really surprised me about this incident, was the fact that the chase was ‘called’ off due to ‘safety reasons’.

I am not sure if it was called off by the Marine Unit Crews onboard the Police Boats, or if the pursuit was called off by a nervous Inspector in a command room somewhere.

If it was the crews themselves who called off the pursuit, then fair enough as they know best as to how risky the pursuit is becoming.

Having been involved in quite a few vehicle pursuits in London, I can understand why, occasionally, such vehicle pursuits have to be called off owing to concerns about public safety.

But I am not quite sure if such ‘safety’ concerns also apply to the River Thames, unless there is heavy marine traffic in that particular part of the Thames at the time of the pursuit?

And besides, if the jet skiers happen to hit a bridge or happen to hit a barge carrying ballast then the old adage ‘play stupid games, win stupid prizes’ surely applies?

The Marine units involved in the pursuit appeared to be doing quite well in relation to keeping up with the jet skiers but, to be fair, having also spent many hours riding jet skis in heavy seas (don’t ask) the riders seem to be quite incompetent.

Either way, its a shame that the rogue jet skiers got away, but I am fairly sure that my former oppos in the Met Police Marine Unit couldn’t quite believe their ‘luck’ at being involved in a very rare ‘boat pursuit’.

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It’s a shame that a Royal Navy Frigate didn’t just happen to be in the area at the time, as its not often that they get to practice a ‘live fire’ exercise on a moving target (or targets)

@MPSOnTheWater tweeted:

“Marine Policing Unit officers pursued four jet skis this evening after reports that they were speeding down the River Thames.

“The jet skis were approaching central London and we were able to make them change their course.

“The decision was taken to no longer pursue the jet skis for safety reasons”.

@Psst_Peer_Supp said:

“I was watching as you chased them past the Cutty Sark If it’s any consolation, the speed they were going, you could clearly see what a dreadful, pummelling ride they were getting….”

Let’s hope that a new ‘craze’ of people recklessly riding jet skies doesn’t now spring up along the Thames.

I am pretty sure that jet skies are not allowed anywhere within the Port of London Authority jurisdiction anyway – but I could be wrong.

Having said that, the Met Police Marine Unit does have some pretty ‘Gucci’ kit and it wouldn’t be long before such a ‘craze’, if it did turn into a ‘thing’ gets nipped in the bud.

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