A cycling vigilante has been criticised for taking advantage of a police car answering a 999 call by following directly behind it after traffic had cleared a path.
Adrian Chapmanlaw pulled over to the side of a busy road along with other motorists when the emergency vehicle approached them from behind.
But after it had sped by, the Liberal Democrat councillor made the most of the gap in the middle of the dual carriageway created by the drivers who had parted for the police car.
Rather than wait his turn to rejoin the traffic he filmed himself overtaking and undertaking the stationary cars ahead of him and catch up with the emergency vehicle.
Mr Chapmanlaw, who has been described as a pseudo cop for his habit of telling off drivers on their mobile phones, posted the video on his YouTube channel Dorset Safer Roads.
He was pedalling in Bournemouth when he carried out the move that he says was legitimate.
Accompanying his video, Mr Chapmanlaw said: ‘When the police part the seas for better filtering. It is always busy here, there’s no cycle lane and I always end up filtering through the queue.
‘The problem is that people rarely leave space to allow that to happen. So when a police car parted the sea of course I am going to carefully take advantage of that.
Cycling vigilante Adrian Chapmanlaw uploaded this footage of him taking advantage of the space created by an unmarked police car answering a 999 call – by riding through it
Mr Chapmanlaw is a Liberal Democrat councillor in Bournemouth who has something of a reputation of being loathed by drivers in the area for filming them and uploading their misdemeanours onto his social media pages
‘If I was in a car it 100 per cent would be [illegal]. However, I am not driving a car, I am on a bicycle and filtering is 100 per cent legal. The police vehicle just made it easier for me.’
However, the Home Office guidance states that, while it’s not explicitly illegal to ride a bicycle behind a police car on a 999 call, it can easily lead to prosecution for careless or dangerous cycling if your actions put yourself or others at risk.
And many other road users disagreed with Mr Chapmanlaw’s actions which have been called ‘dangerous’. Others called him an ‘idiot’ who lacked road manners.
A spokesman for the campaign group Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole (BCP) & Dorset Motorists said: ‘He acts like he is a pseudo cop and now he thinks he can ride like one.
‘He may not be doing anything illegal but he is tailgating a police car and overtaking and undertaking cars that have cleared the way. It is complete arrogance.
‘If you were one of those drivers you wouldn’t necessarily think to look over your left shoulder to make sure there is nobody coming up from your inside after you have seen the police car go through.’
Adam Bennett said: ‘Following an emergency vehicle and using that as an opportunity to overtake people is the stupid part, not anticipating that cars will just pull back to where they were originally in the queue is the dangerous part.’
Jess McHale said: ‘Squeezing in behind an emergency vehicle when cars have moved over to give it space is just stupid.’
Mr Chapmanlaw says he has reported almost 70 drivers to the police for phone use since 2023. He films his showdowns with angry drivers and pedestrians that he has caught on camera
Bernie Hughes posted in response to seeing the video: ‘You talk about safer roads, with you demonstrating how to get run down. If I tried that in a car or a van I’d be arrested.’
Mr Chapmanlaw responded by saying he was riding carefully at the time and was mindful of cars pulling back out into the road.
It is not the first time the elected member of BCP Council has incurred the wrath of motorists with his cycling.
He has repeatedly clashed with drivers over issues of not giving him enough room while overtaking his bike and tailgating him when he deliberately rides in the middle of the lane.
He has also had rows with drivers for parking on yellow lines and regularly calls people who park in zig-zags lines at crossing points ‘scumbags’.
Last year Mr Chapmanlaw was forced to apologise for accidentally filming children while he tried to catch motorists parking illegally outside a primary school in Bournemouth.
He has bragged about getting dozens of drivers in trouble by submitting videos of minor traffic offences to the police’s Operation Snap initiative.
He has been accused of deliberately trying to antagonise motorists to provoke conflict and make his YouTube videos more interesting so they get more clicks.
Several complaints to BCP Council have been made by people alleging that Mr Chapmanlaw’s behaviour is not becoming of an elected councillor.
But each time they are rejected on the basis he is acting in his own time while making videos for his YouTube channel.
