Do I have a police record?

Jello82

I'm seeking others opinions on this as I genuinely have no idea if I'm in the wrong or not.
A large van was parked on a zebra crossing on a very busy road in terms of both traffic and pedestrians. I started driving (rolling) VERY cautiously over the zebra crossing. A woman and a teenager (together) stepped onto the visible part of zebra as I was driving across. I stopped. The woman had a very big go at me (lots of swearing) while the teen took a pic of my car. Three weeks later I've had a letter from the police saying that the woman has reported me. No action will be taken but the incident will remain on record.
Do I now have a police record?
What recourse do I have to push back as in all honesty I could have been doing no more than 1-2miles per hour at the time. The woman must surely have seen the nose of my car long before she stepped from behind the van. Tho I didn't spot her at all before rolling forward which was odd.
It might help to explain that the pavements there are narrow. Always lots of pedestrians so slow speeds always along that road in case someone steps out. And that particular zebra (there are 3 along the road) is two steps outside the main door of a Tesco express, so particularly busy .
Many thanks for any guidance.

MX5huggy

You do not have a “police record” presumably they have only written to you as the registered keeper of the car.  

Nasqueron

There has to be something wrong with you for reporting a driver very carefully edging around a van illegally parked and not say the van that is endangering pedestrians. It's a shame you can't respond to the police and add notes etc to explain what happened etc. Good reminder to get a dashcam though just in case

CliveOfIndia

It depends what you mean by "police record".  It sounds to me like you've been given a gentle warning with nothing official being recorded.  You local force may keep a record of the fact that you were sent a letter, but that's about it.

If you're worried about it showing up a Disclosure application - either for employment or for working/volunteering with children/vulnerable groups etc., then no, it won't be "recorded" in that sense.

Mildly_Miffed

No, you don't have a "police record". You haven't been charged with anything, let alone convicted or accepted a fixed penalty or formal caution as an alternative to prosecution.

They've merely had a report from somebody that they aren't putting any investigate effort into. But they might (or might not) have made a little note of your name just in case similar comes in again.

However, let's look at what the incident involved - and we're only hearing one side of it.

You were crossing a high-traffic zebra crossing, with very compromised visibility due to a badly parked vehicle.

You didn't see the pedestrians crossing it, despite the fact that you think you were travelling at less than walking pace.

I very much doubt you were travelling at just 2mph - at a speed of less than one metre per second, it would take you about five seconds to move the length of a typical car, or eight seconds to move the length of a larger van.

I suspect that your perception of the incident does not tally exactly with that of the pedestrians using the zebra crossing at the time you drove over it. This is not to say either of you are wrong, just that you have different perceptions, due to your differences in viewpoint and physical proximity to danger.

Without video evidence, this is only ever going to be "he-said-she-said", hence the police taking no action.

Mark_d

You do not have a police record.  You have done nothing wrong.  But if a lot of people make similar reports about you then they might decide to investigate.  Having said that, it is unlikely as you caused no risk or harm to anyone or anything.

Car_54

OP, the only "police record" you can have is of the fact that they have written to you.

The police have no idea who was driving.

Nasqueron

Mildly_Miffed said:

No, you don't have a "police record". You haven't been charged with anything, let alone convicted or accepted a fixed penalty or formal caution as an alternative to prosecution.

They've merely had a report from somebody that they aren't putting any investigate effort into. But they might (or might not) have made a little note of your name just in case similar comes in again.

However, let's look at what the incident involved - and we're only hearing one side of it.

You were crossing a high-traffic zebra crossing, with very compromised visibility due to a badly parked vehicle.

You didn't see the pedestrians crossing it, despite the fact that you think you were travelling at less than walking pace.

I very much doubt you were travelling at just 2mph - at a speed of less than one metre per second, it would take you about five seconds to move the length of a typical car, or eight seconds to move the length of a larger van.

I suspect that your perception of the incident does not tally exactly with that of the pedestrians using the zebra crossing at the time you drove over it. This is not to say either of you are wrong, just that you have different perceptions, due to your differences in viewpoint and physical proximity to danger.

Without video evidence, this is only ever going to be "he-said-she-said", hence the police taking no action.

You could take it that someone came out of the Tesco, walked behind the van and out onto the zebra all of which could happen in a couple of seconds (2 steps out of the store, couple behind the van onto the zebra) while walking at a sensible pace all out of view of the OP as they were looking forward and were level with the front of the van. Creeping forward, whatever speed, the nose will be on the zebra and starting to poke out behind the van where the pedestrians saw it and walked anyway until OP could see and stop.

eskbanker

Nasqueron said:

Mildly_Miffed said:

No, you don't have a "police record". You haven't been charged with anything, let alone convicted or accepted a fixed penalty or formal caution as an alternative to prosecution.

They've merely had a report from somebody that they aren't putting any investigate effort into. But they might (or might not) have made a little note of your name just in case similar comes in again.

However, let's look at what the incident involved - and we're only hearing one side of it.

You were crossing a high-traffic zebra crossing, with very compromised visibility due to a badly parked vehicle.

You didn't see the pedestrians crossing it, despite the fact that you think you were travelling at less than walking pace.

I very much doubt you were travelling at just 2mph - at a speed of less than one metre per second, it would take you about five seconds to move the length of a typical car, or eight seconds to move the length of a larger van.

I suspect that your perception of the incident does not tally exactly with that of the pedestrians using the zebra crossing at the time you drove over it. This is not to say either of you are wrong, just that you have different perceptions, due to your differences in viewpoint and physical proximity to danger.

Without video evidence, this is only ever going to be "he-said-she-said", hence the police taking no action.

You could take it that someone came out of the Tesco, walked behind the van and out onto the zebra all of which could happen in a couple of seconds (2 steps out of the store, couple behind the van onto the zebra) while walking at a sensible pace all out of view of the OP as they were looking forward and were level with the front of the van. Creeping forward, whatever speed, the nose will be on the zebra and starting to poke out behind the van where the pedestrians saw it and walked anyway until OP could see and stop.

OP does concede that "I didn't spot her at all before rolling forward which was odd" so that hints at the other side of the story, i.e. that wording suggests that s/he should have seen the pedestrians....

TooManyPoints

None of this really matters. as Car_54 says, the police do not know who was driving and unless they ask via a "Section 172" request they won't find out (unless you get in touch with them and indicate that you were the driver) . All they can record is that the vehicle in question was involved in the incident. There is no point in writing to the Registered Keeper in this way and I don't know why they bothered.