I've found police in the UK are generally harder to provoke than in the US. However it only takes one bad cop having a bad day for things to go sideways fast.

At risk of sparking a controversy, I do think the UKs tighter gun control laws help. It means fewer people are carrying guns and thus fewer officers need to be armed. Sure, there's still the other deterrents -- which can be nasty too. But guns can causes a situation to escalate so much faster so mostly removing that from the equation must help matters.

I think there’s a specific condition where this advice applies, FTA:

"It would be extremely unusual for an officer in plain clothes to be working alone. If they are, they should be calling for assistance with other officers arriving very soon. This is standard practice.”

So, don’t run away from uniformed officers, don’t run away from multiple officers.

To your point, I’m reminded of Nicole Harper, whose vehicle was flipped by an officer’s pit maneuver as she continued down the road lookong for a safe place to pull off the highway, hazards flashing, just as the police department’s own “drivers license study guide” advises.

https://jalopnik.com/cop-flips-pregnant-womans-while-she-tri...

For a well dressed white person it would be sensible advice but I’m not so sure how well it would pan out for a black guy at 3am in Tottenham or even a white kid in a shell suit in Castlemilk for that matter. You almost certainly wouldn’t be killed, but you probably would get chased and tackled to the ground and it would be up to the interpretation of the police officer, prosecutor and ultimately judge or jury as to wether it was a reasonable thing for you to do or if you were just trying to use the Everard case as an excuse.

At least in my home town (central Illinois), our drivers education instructor actually taught this. If you’re being pulled over in podunk nowhere, turn on your hazards, reduce your speed, and proceed to the next well populated area (I.e. gas station).

It would probably be fine as long as you do it calmly and don’t make any crazy sudden moves. The current climate would make it even easier. But I’m not a habitual law breaker so not really into running away from cops. By ‘running away’ I take that to mean move yourself calmly to a more public / busier area rather than obviously trying to disappear into the night.

Edit [I’m from the UK and offering a UK perspective. I have been accosted calmly by UK police and I have UK friends who are officers.]