Rules of the Road don't apply to Cops

[Sapphire Silk]

Nota Bene: I regard law enforcement with great respect having worked with many police officers over the year. But what happened this morning really didn't sit well with me.

I was driving to work this morning, and took the route I always do through the neighborhood onto a back country road that lets me avoid driving through town to get to the college.

I'm preparing to make a left turn when an SUV followed by a local marked police car pass by. I make the turn and follow the cop to the intersection where I'll turn onto the back country road.

The SUV stops, does not signal, and makes the turn to the right.

The cop signals, but does not even slow down as he whips into the turn to the right behind the SUV.

"Aha!" is my thought. Someone's gonna get a ticket.

Nope. SUV was speeding, but the cop still did not pull him over.

Up comes another stop sign. SUV again does not signal, does a "California roll" and turns left. Cop does not slow down, again whips around the corner.

Note: this is a busier road with a lot of trucker traffic as the warehouses for several furniture companies are in the area.

At a stoplight shortly down the road, SUV turns right. Cop goes straight, then comes to a complete stop at another red light (and a notoriously dangerous intersection).



I could get this if the cop was on a call . . . but if he was, he should have run lights before running stop signs. Just MHO

[Mytical]

You are absolutely right, but sadly I see it all the time. Turn light on, run light, get to other side .. turn off light. Or stop signs, or heck not even bother turning the light on.

[crazylegs]

There could be any number of reasons for his driving, he could be responding to a call 'silently' which is something done to prevent people from realising that the police are responding (generally people attempting suicide that sort of thing) and he was then cancelled.

Or he could just be an arse - if you got any identifying numbers (licence plate, vehicle fleet numbers etc) then it would be worth contacting that PD to make a complaint.

[Sapphire Silk]

I did get the unit number, so I decided to call and complain. I did think about the silent call bit, but it didn't make sense seeing how the cop stopped at two red lights, had previously been speeding and was tailgating the SUV (a detail I left out, sorry).

I started by calling the non-emergency number for County emergency services (non-emergent 911 basically). A very nice lady took the complaint. She asked me to verify that it was a marked police car, and with which department (we have a two large city departments, the sheriff, plus several smaller college agencies and town agencies in the area). She did ask me, "Can you give me a description of the officer?'

Me: No, I didn't get good look.
County: Well, you might want to call the duty sergeant and make a complaint there too, They can find out what officer was driving and find out what was going on.

So, I call the number the dispatcher gave me. I give her the same story I gave County. Then I get asked this question:

Duty Sergeant's Desk: Was the officer white or black?

Me: I . . . don't know. I didn't see the officer.

So that's something else that is not sitting well with me. Our local big city police department is undergoing a lot of controversy right now due to allegations of racism within the department . . . several officers are suing the department. I've always thought most of the complaints were bogus . . .now I'm not so sure. It struck me as an inappropriate question to ask. Asking me to provide a description is an open ended question, and includes issues like gender, and all races including Asians and Hispanics.

Asking "black or white" is closed ended, nothing about gender was asked, and struck me as judgmental.

I've really got a bad taste in my mouth.

[fireheart]

Sounds like the cops on Superbad.

[crazylegs]

They shouldn't need to get the description of the driver.

I'm sure that like any other decent fleet in the world they have some sort of vehicle management system, even down to sheets in the car that give days/times as to who is driving - you've given them that information so it's down to them to go fish.

[PepperElf]

that's assuming they'll do anything about it.


and yes, i too hate it when cops use the lights to get through a spot of traffic just because they don't want to wait. i had one do it to me - oncoming cop car preparing to make a left turn in front of me... the fucked up thing was that i was already slowing down to let him go ahead of me anyway. so he didn't even need to use the lights to force it but... yeah he did.

[crazylegs]

that's assuming they'll do anything about it.

True, but if you don't report it you're absolutely guaranteed nothing will be done about it...

[Andara Bledin]

True, but if you don't report it you're absolutely guaranteed nothing will be done about it...

Self-fulfilling prophecy.

^-.-^