Editorial: Police are ever ready to test you

Breath-testing ... it can happen any time, anywhere.

8.10am for example, 50m from my driveway on a school day.

I am not surprised I was breath-tested.

An observant police officer would have noticed my vehicle reverse out of our driveway, onto the wrong side of the road, before crawling hesitantly toward two police cars parked with flashing lights.

Having seen the patrol cars, I had assumed there was some sort of incident taking place, so I was contemplating turning around and driving out the other end of the street.

However, a bus went past, so I gestured to the policeman who I had slowly advanced toward, with a hand movement that I thought quite clearly asked "can I get out of this end of the street".

He responded with a hand movement which quite clearly indicated "come here please".

I lowered the window and started the conversation with a friendly "Morning".

I was about to ask what was happening when the policeman held out his cellphone for me to look at.

It took a few seconds for me to register that it was a breath-testing device. I was surprised, but more than happy to oblige with my name and address.

It was a much less traumatic experience than the time I accidentally ran over an police officer's breath-testing device, which he had dropped seconds before I stopped.

That was late on a windy, wet night.

This week though, I had barely digested my breakfast.

Police aren't out there on the assumption that Northlanders pour gin on their cornflakes and slug whisky in their coffee.

It is simply a fulfilment of the oft-repeated promise that you can indeed be stopped anywhere, at any time.