Yesterday morning I went shopping at my local Circuit City, here in Hyattsville, Maryland, an inner-beltway suburb of Washington DC. The store is on a busy main thoroughfare, with parking available in a garage accessed from behind the building. As I am walking up, a DC police car pulls up ands stops in front of the store (remember, this is a lane of traffic.) He has his hazard lights on, and nothing else. The driver (I assume he’s a cop, but he was wearing sweats) gets out, as does a passenger, who was clearly his son. The two go into the store and proceed to shop for movies for about 10 minutes.
Aaaargh! Now I generally respect cops, and I try to see things from their perspective, but this kind of penny-ante, self-entitled bullshit really pisses me off to no end. This guy was too fucking lazy to park in the lot like us mere mortals, so he thinks his badge entitles him to block traffic for his own convenience.
I took a few pictures with my camera phone, so I have the car number and his license plate number. While I doubt complaining will do much good, certainly nothing will happen if I don’t. Any suggestions about whom to address a complaint to? And in what form should it be? Letter, email, phone call? Any advice would be appreciated.
I’m confused. Are you suggesting I address my complaint to the department in the jurisdiction where this occurred, rather than the department where the officer works? He was a DC cop, which is an entirely different jurisdiction. If he were a Hyattsville cop I’d just call the mayor or the chief of police.
You write an actual paper letter to the Chief of Police of wherever the cop is from. When I did that I got a very prompt, concerned call in return. Of course, the DC cops may be different.
I definitely think that DC cops are going to be different.
You’d probably get a more noticable result by spitting in the ocean. DC has so many cops who are outright criminals that something like this won’t even get the time of day, I’m afraid.
But you should complain, and be surprised if you even get a live response.
I hate to say it but if double parking in front of you was all this DC cop did, you probably got off lucky. DC cops are notoriously corrupt and even criminal. There have been many of them convicted of murder, dealing drugs out of their squad cars, prostitution, insurance fraud among other things. In all honesty you should definitely complain, but I would not expect much to come of it. For crying out loud the former mayor was busted in a hotel smoking crack with a prostitute, got convicted went to prison, got out then got re-elected as mayor.
I would send a letter to your local police department. They can certainly be on the look-out for DC cop scofflaws. If they issue tickets to the cop he might have to explain himself to someone. Maybe.
[off topic]I don’t understand why this type of behavior is not taken more seriously. Sure it is not a serious infraction comparatively speaking, but it is certainly an indicator of a more serious problem. Cops are not supposed to be above the law, when they do crap like this it indicates that they do not believe it. What other rules is this cop willing to break?[/off topic]
If you get no satisfaction You might also try in descending likely hood that they will eat up the “DC Cop pulls a stinker” aspect of this : the WaTimes, WaPost, NewsChannel 8, Channel 9, Channel 4, Channel 7 … local radio.
Another sad concurrence that the WDCPD hierarchy might just shrug this off, given their many problems and the often-poor quality of their officers, but it’d still be the right thing to do first. Then take it to the media if you get no satisfactory response, as jimmmy suggests.
You might consider copying the Hyattsville PD (and/or elected officials) on your polite complaint to the DC PD (after all it was a violation in Hyattsville, which the H. PD is tasked with enforcing). The idea is that cops might not particularly care about how they’re viewed by some random citizen (who can’t vote for the PD’s boss), but almost everybody cares about how they’re viewed by their peers.
I think that the disclaimer of “DC” cops is wide. MOST cops are corrupt. Trust me.
I tried to get a compaint filed against one who deliberately and knowingly perjured on a legal document to no avail. They truly take care of their own.
If I were you, I would forget about it. Yes, the cop’s behavior was arrogant, etc. But nothing serious resulted. The cop probably lives in Hyattsville, may even have friends on the Hyattsville force. There is the possibility of you being harrassed if you complain. If the incident was more seriously, though, I would complain. But to me, this incident is not worth it.
I guess it would have to be how you define corrupt. I’d probably agree that most are not corrupt, but would admit that they all take the occasional liberty with their authority. Of course if you call that corrupt, then, well…
“All” is a pretty broad term. My uncle was the Sheriff of a large county in a mid sized state, when his son (my cousin) was arrested, the officer called him to ask what to do. My uncle asked if he had probable cause to arrest, when the officer said “yes” my uncle said “Arrest the Son of a Bitch” and told the District Attorney to go forward as if it was any other defendant. The county was small enough that he could have had the matter dropped if he wanted, he did not, my cousin went to jail.