I’m sitting in the front of a police car, blue lights flashing, sirens blaring, and hurtling along the A3 toward reports of a pedestrian on the road.

While somewhat alarming for me, this is all in a night’s work for the officers of Surrey Police’s Road Policing Unit.

Just before New Year, I was invited to join the unit for an evening shift as they patrolled the roads around Farnham.

Operating out of their headquarters in suburban Guildford, the Road Policing Unit (RPU) are responsible for a vast area, responding to incidents, apprehending suspects, and ensuring the roads remain safe from irresponsible drivers.

Intelligence from previous police work and Information from the public is used alongside Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) and CCTV to locate and stop suspects.

Behind the wheel of the RPU’s Volvo V90 was Nick, an officer with 24 years of service and a wealth of experience, including high-speed pursuits at speeds of up to 160 mph and involvement in several major traffic incidents.

We began by heading towards Esher to calibrate the speedometer in the car, a process that involves driving between markers set out on the hard shoulder. But before we could do that, reports came in over the radio about an elderly woman walking down the A3 from the junction at Oxshott.

After switching on the blue lights, we rushed to find the pedestrian, who had been described as wearing a blue coat. We quickly located her and parked the car in front of her to get her attention.

It soon became clear that the woman wasn’t impaired—she had simply had a heated argument with her family and was intent on walking home. However, we learned that she lived 23 miles away in Godalming, a seven-hour walk on a cold winter evening.

Eventually, she agreed that it was best to accept a ride in the police car, which reassured the officers that she would get home safely.

Later, towards the end of the shift, we were in Farnham following a car with its brake lights on permanently. The driver’s case wasn’t helped by a lewd bumper sticker to warn off tailgaters.

We followed the vehicle for a few minutes while the officer assessed how the sage green car was reacting to the police car behind it.

After traveling from Coxbridge Roundabout, the vehicle was eventually pulled over at Tongham Services, where the officer questioned the driver about the faulty brake lights. She explained that the issue was due to a new fuse recently installed at Halfords and that she hadn’t noticed the problem.

A few laughs were exchanged between the officer and the driver about contents of the smutty sticker and then the woman was on her way to take her son to KFC for his birthday.

My main observation from the evening was the professionalism of the officers. Despite the challenging nature of their job, they remained consistently friendly and polite to the public, even when there was suspicion of criminal activity - or, as in this case, a bawdy bumper sticker.