I have seen this a few times now, first time it really ticked me off, now it seems so common that I wonder if it’s just accepted. I have seen cops in black and whites put on their emergency lights to go through red lights, stopping traffic, then turn them off as soon as they’re through. What’s up with this? i thought about complaining but then I thought, hmm do I want these guys mad at me? Has anyone else seen this?
I saw it quite a bit when I delivered pizza. One notable time, I had just left the store and was at a light to turn right onto US 1. Just as my light turned green, I heard a Fairfax County sherriff’s car turn on his siren and array. I stayed put, and he went through his red light at about 50 mph in the same direction I was going.
I made sure there wasn’t another emergency vehicle coming up behind him, then turned out. I looked up ahead, and he had turned off his lights, and was stopping at the next signal.
Granted, he could’ve been on a call that got canceled. But I saw dozens of FCPD cars do the same thing.
Wrong thinking is punished, right thinking is just as swiftly rewarded. You’ll find it an effective combination.
I know, and in fact taught martial arts, to several police officers. I wondered about this a few years back. Every single one of the officers I asked told me the same thing (which means they teach this at all police academies as the standard lie or they are telling the truth):
Sometimes they need to arrive at a scene without their lights and siren on so as to not scare away the suspects. However, they need to have their lights and siren on when going through an intersection for obvious reasons.
Glitch’s answer is probably right, but…
In my departments, especially after some nasty accidents, it became the hard-and-fast rule that you never significantly exceed the speed limit or go against a traffic control device without both the lights and siren.
And its a good rule. In practice, though…you might need to get past that one busy intersection on the way to a medium-importance call (like a robbery that just occured, but is no longer in progress), but feel silly running lights-and-siren the whole distance. And, frankly, running lights-and-siren at +15mph is often more dangerous, and takes longer, than running at the same speed without the fanfare but with appropriate caution. Why? Because people panic when they look in their mirror and see a cop car fast approaching with its lights on. Some weave left, some weave right, some slam on the brakes in the lane they are in. Very unpredictable; much more so than just “sneaking up” on traffic and passing them like 40% of the other drivers are doing anyway.
As an admission, more than once but less than a dozen times, especially late at night while doing building checks and the like, I accidently ran, or was about to run, a stop sign or stop light…turning on the lights at that moment would give a bystander the impression that perhaps I was actually headed somewhere, and intended to run that light. No excuses for this; I thank God for not being killed and not killing anyone.
“Married…one child…that didn’t work out, so he married a grown woman.”
–Police Squad