Can cops pull over other cops?

[RoJoHen]

I don't know if this happens where you live, but cops around here are probably the worst drivers on the road. They blatantly ignore traffic laws. They never use turn signals. They always speed way faster than the posted limit (without sirens or lights blaring, so you know it's not an emergency). I've even seen some completely blow red lights.

I would think that if a cop is going to break traffic laws, they should be required to have their lights and/or siren turned on so that other drivers know there is an emergency. Half the time I don't even see the cops coming, and then they cut me off!

 

[Amaris]

I don't know if this happens where you live, but cops around here are probably the worst drivers on the road. They blatantly ignore traffic laws. They never use turn signals. They always speed way faster than the posted limit (without sirens or lights blaring, so you know it's not an emergency). I've even seen some completely blow red lights.

I would think that if a cop is going to break traffic laws, they should be required to have their lights and/or siren turned on so that other drivers know there is an emergency. Half the time I don't even see the cops coming, and then they cut me off!

Many of our officers here flip on their lights as they plow through a red light and then switch them off on the other side.


J.

 

[RoJoHen]

I don't know if this happens where you live, but cops around here are probably the worst drivers on the road. They blatantly ignore traffic laws. They never use turn signals. They always speed way faster than the posted limit (without sirens or lights blaring, so you know it's not an emergency). I've even seen some completely blow red lights.

I would think that if a cop is going to break traffic laws, they should be required to have their lights and/or siren turned on so that other drivers know there is an emergency. Half the time I don't even see the cops coming, and then they cut me off!

Many of our officers here flip on their lights as they plow through a red light and then switch them off on the other side.


J.

As douchebaggy as it is, I would rather the cops around here at least show us the courtesy of using their lights. Here they just plow through red lights without any kind of warning.

 

[Amaris]

I don't know if this happens where you live, but cops around here are probably the worst drivers on the road. They blatantly ignore traffic laws. They never use turn signals. They always speed way faster than the posted limit (without sirens or lights blaring, so you know it's not an emergency). I've even seen some completely blow red lights.

I would think that if a cop is going to break traffic laws, they should be required to have their lights and/or siren turned on so that other drivers know there is an emergency. Half the time I don't even see the cops coming, and then they cut me off!

Many of our officers here flip on their lights as they plow through a red light and then switch them off on the other side.


J.

As douchebaggy as it is, I would rather the cops around here at least show us the courtesy of using their lights. Here they just plow through red lights without any kind of warning.

Oh, no. It's not for our courtesy, you see, the lights are triggered by emergency strobes, what you find on ambulances, firetrucks and police cars. This information is then recorded since we have red light cameras. That way, the police officer cannot be cited for running a red light in a non emergency situation. It has nothing to do with our safety at all. One time, in our town, someone was t-boned by a cop car that had ran a red light. The driver of the car that was t-boned was cited for failure to yield, since the cop car had flipped their lights right before going through. It was in the paper the next day.


J.

 

[RoJoHen]

That is completely retarded.

 

[Amaris]

That is completely retarded.

That's because our police force is completely retarded. It's not the first time, and it won't be the last.
Some of us call our police force motto "To Swerve and Deflect".

J.

 

[trekkiedane]

I don't know if this happens where you live, but cops around here are probably the worst drivers on the road. They blatantly ignore traffic laws. They never use turn signals. They always speed way faster than the posted limit (without sirens or lights blaring, so you know it's not an emergency). I've even seen some completely blow red lights.

I would think that if a cop is going to break traffic laws, they should be required to have their lights and/or siren turned on so that other drivers know there is an emergency. Half the time I don't even see the cops coming, and then they cut me off!

Many of our officers here flip on their lights as they plow through a red light and then switch them off on the other side.

I've seen this done a few times here (I live right next to the police station) -I think they only do this when they're in a hurry but it isn't an actual emergency.


No, They don't do that on their way to 'the doughnut shop' (or on the way to the bakery after Danish') as that is even closer than where I live to the station...

 

[Deckerd]

They wouldn't get away with it in this country. Right, Cultcross?

 

[Crusher Disciple]

They wouldn't get away with it in this country. Right, Cultcross?

Where's Nicholas Easter when you need him?

 

[Star Wolf]

Consider cops in many cases are trust into the para military role. Turning off the lights gives him a few extra seconds to access a combat situation he rolls into as the only person in uniform, thus the only person instantly recognizable and targeted as a foe.

 

[JustKate]

Many of our officers here flip on their lights as they plow through a red light and then switch them off on the other side.


J.

As douchebaggy as it is, I would rather the cops around here at least show us the courtesy of using their lights. Here they just plow through red lights without any kind of warning.

Oh, no. It's not for our courtesy, you see, the lights are triggered by emergency strobes, what you find on ambulances, firetrucks and police cars. This information is then recorded since we have red light cameras. That way, the police officer cannot be cited for running a red light in a non emergency situation. It has nothing to do with our safety at all. One time, in our town, someone was t-boned by a cop car that had ran a red light. The driver of the car that was t-boned was cited for failure to yield, since the cop car had flipped their lights right before going through. It was in the paper the next day.

It's illegal here for any emergency vehicle to go through a red light without having its lights on. There have been cases - though no doubt not many - when officers were disciplined for disobeying this law. And it's illegal, I am pretty sure, to use the lights if there is no emergency. Again, I believe there have been disciplinary actions, though these no doubt represent a fraction of the cases where the law is flouted.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

Cops are getting away with killing unarmed citizens these days what makes you think they are going to obey traffic laws?

 

[backstept]

one time I was at a stoplight, preparing to turn right, this cop pulls up in the left lane, which is the 'left-turn-or-straight' lane, and when the light turned just as he was rolling up to the intersection he TURNED RIGHT . . . crossed directly in front of me, such that if I had been any quicker off the line he would have hit me . . .
I was too surprised to even honk at him . . .

 

[tharpdevenport]

My understand is cops can pull over other cops. One town pulled over a fire truck after is spead through on route to a fire. When they came back through to get to the fire station, they pulled over and ticked them.

 

[137th Gebirg]

I remember a long time ago some speed trap site mentioned that a cop in Herndon, VA, pulled over a Fairfax County Cop for speeding without having his lights on. Herndon is a small town inside Fairfax County. They are known to be quite strict about their speeding laws. Them and Falls Church.

 

[nevermore]

I remember a long time ago some speed trap site mentioned that a cop in Herndon, VA, pulled over a Fairfax County Cop for speeding without having his lights on. Herndon is a small town inside Fairfax County. They are known to be quite strict about their speeding laws. Them and Falls Church.

Oh, I've gotten a ticket in Herndon, going up 15, I think. Hell, I think I've gotten tickets in half the podunk shithole towns in Virginia, at least the ones between DC and Charlottesville.

Anyway, a cop plowed into the back of my ex-boyfriend's car, ramming it up under the F250 stopped in front of him and completely totaling the thing. They were stopped to let some pedestrians cross. The truck got pushed forward into the pedestrians as well, scattering them into the cross lanes of traffic. This was on a 35 MPH section of the road. The cop claimed it was somehow Dan's fault; the cops that came to scene bought it and cited him for the accident, despite the fact that everyone at the scene was pointing out that there was no way it was his fault. He passed out his business card and got like 25 witnesses to come with him to court though, and the charges were dismissed.

Don't know if anything ever happened to the cop... Doubt it.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

My understand is cops can pull over other cops. One town pulled over a fire truck after is spead through on route to a fire. When they came back through to get to the fire station, they pulled over and ticked them.

 

[cultcross]

They wouldn't get away with it in this country. Right, Cultcross?

Well, not so much 'get away with', as 'get fired'

If we trigger a speed/red light camera, we have to justify it - that means show that we were responding to a genuine emergency at the time. Just having your lights on isn't good enough.
If you can't prove justification, you get the ticket like everybody else, plus a disciplinary sanction.
Needless to say, we tend to drive carefully

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I have a co-worker who says he saw a county cop pull over a city cop that was abusing his lights--had his lights switched on, but the county cop got on the scanner and saw that this moron wasn't REALLY responding to an emergency.

 

[cultcross]

I don't think I'd actually pull over a cop who was abusing his lights (and I have seen it, once or twice, sadly), but the car in question would get noted and passed up the chain (and was). Not only is it an abuse of power, it's dangerous. Response driving is a necessary evil in emergencies, but it should be done the absolute bare minimum we can get away with. People die in response-driver accidents every year, why risk more casualties to save waiting at a light?