“Coo! Coo! Coo! I’m in hot pursuit!” cried Hazzard County’s fumbling Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane when ever he’d radio headquarters while chasing the General Lee. The same sadly, can be said for London police who gave chase to four jet skiers down the famous River Thames this past August.
The Metropolitan Police boat was first spotted at 6:30pm on Friday, August 3rd, speeding after the four watercraft traveling from Greenwich to Canary Wharf. According to a report in The Independent, “Scotland Yard said it was ‘able to make them change their course’, but eventually called off the chase citing health and safety concerns.”
Leigh Jackson, an onlooker to the high speed chase, watched part of the chase, “You often do see police boats coming up and down here patrolling, but you don’t often see them engaged in a chase,” he said, continuing, “Then 15 minutes later they came back the opposite way, again being chased.”
Witnesses feared the jet skis would collide with other river traffic. PWC are not allowed upstream of the Thames Barrier, to the east of where the pursuit took place. These two factors gave Metropolitan police further reason to pursue the skiers.
A spokeswoman for Metro told The Independent: “The jet skis were approaching central London and the Marine Policing Unit were able to make them change their course. Following this the decision was taken to no longer pursue the jet skis for safety reasons.”
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