I was just thinking when I saw this thread…“I haven’t written anything remotely close to this lately…”
Oh so the thread is 5 years old…now I get it.
Makes me think - DANG, I’ve known some of you fellow quacks for 10 years! wow.
Giving speeding tickets when the driver is doing nothing wrong or unsafe is immoral to begin with, so yes the cop off duty should not be ticketed, nor should anyone else.
The cop should be asked if under similar circumstances (if the cop was speeding like the person s/he pulled over was speeding), would the cop expect a courtesy? I would like this question asked on the record and in writing for every one pulled over of the officer.
I do believe the courtesy given is OK and should happen, but what is not OK is the punishment of some people, unfair distribution of punishment, and creating a privileged class. If’s it’s safe for a officer to do it off duty, it should be safe for everyone and there is no excuse for ticketing people for driving safely.
I also believe that there is a karmic cost to this unfair system, not for letting people go, but for punishing them for doing nothing wrong.
Awww, cute.
This is pure nonsense. ON DUTY police officers can be held accountable for failure to protect the public only in rare circumstances. Cite: http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=341&issue_id=72004
And it’s presence.
I am and have been a prosecutor for many years now, and I have had cases where officers have cited other officers. They usually don’t go to court, though. The officers who are cited know a good citation when they see it and just pay the bond amount.
It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. I have also been pulled over as a prosecutor and been warned, had officers say “Hi, Reloy - didn’t know it was you - see you around”, and cited on different occassions.
That was 40 over…
Excellent, excellent advice.
You think the cruisers that blow past you on the interstate are flying? You should see how fast they’re going when you’re not there to see them. I followed one once when I was massively late to meet someone in another city–as long as I stayed behind him he couldn’t exactly pull me over, ya know? He was doing about 83 in a 65 zone when passing people, but when there was no one else around it was substantially more. I don’t know exact numbers, but I was doing a steady 85 and I’d lose him over the next hill in about 45 seconds if there were no other cars. I’d say 95-100 easy.
Now, if I’d gotten popped driving like that, even at my relatively sedate 85, I’d have been looking at a couple hundred dollars in fines and probably 6 points on my license. If I’d been driving as fast as he was, it would have been a mandatory court appearance. No cop in the country would have let me off with a warning at either speed, not without a hell of a good excuse. Somehow I don’t think “I’m running late” would have counted. And if running late isn’t sufficient excuse to do 20 over the limit, “it’s Friday afternoon and I’m ready to go home” isn’t sufficient excuse to do 30 over. It’s just not, no matter how special and important you think you are.
Not only should cops have to, but I think it applies to all authority figures. It bugs me when I see a forum that does this. (And, no, I’m not talking about here. These guys do it intentionally, admit it, and then claim that it’s the right thing to do.)
Fortunately, such abuse of power by cops seems rare around here, so the forum type stuff is the worse thing I ever experience, and I do my best not to let it get my hackles up.
Off duty officers in New York never get traffic citations. Niether do any member of his/ her immediate family. I know this to be true through a family member that is a police officer. And he is only part-time smalll town cop. he gets stop quite often speeding to his real job because he is late, never gets cited. He recently purchased a motorcycle and has no license. Says he has a silver star for a license. His wife is worse. She travels frequently in the state of NY and gets pulled over about once per week. Flashes her husbands card and away she goes. The reason that the citations are issued are supposedly because your operating in an unsafe manner. however we all know its mostly revenue for the various state and local agencies. Isn’t it unsafe for an off duty police officer to travel 70 in a 50 like anyone else? How about his wife? They are also very arrogant about it. Wish something could be done.
Well, they are trained drivers, I think they’d be safe than the average driver at a certain speed.
This is a lot worse.
They are trained drivers, I’ll give you that, but the car can only stop so fast regardless of who is behind the wheel. The City of Calgary bought a police helicopter to eliminate high-speed car chases after a police officer was run over and killed trying to lay down a spike belt years ago; they have decided to turn high-speed chases over to the helicopter rather than endanger the safety of the officers and the general public on the roads.
My best friend in high school became a Detroit cop. He was a terrible driver, speeding all the time. I was with him many times when he was running lights or speeding. He never got a ticket. The cop always admonished him to be careful. He would just peel off and speed away.