It really doesn't matter what they do, as long as they do their job, protecting YOU.

They are trained to drive at high speeds. They know what they are doing. As with everything, there is always some jerk who will push the limits and possibly hurt someone else. But then, there are lots of road-racers out there doing that too...

We might not like it, because they are authority figures and seem to be setting bad examples.

HOWEVER - because you have no way to know what they are up to, it's possible that in ALL cases, they were on a call but wanted to run silent. Give them the benefit of the doubt. I've seen plenty of NYS troopers running without lights/siren... the first few times they passed me I got the little jealousy thing going... but the first time I drove up on that officer helping another officer control a bad situation, then the second time, and the third, or saw him pull over some other idiot that was doing 110 and passed me 5 minutes ago, etc... I learned to control that pang of jealousy ...

The original poster in this thread was going to bring up the officer speeding to try to get out of a speeding ticket. This is laughable. Sure, lodge a complaint if you feel so inclined, but that's not going to get you out of a speeding ticket. In fact, it might anger the judge because you and every other guy he's seen that day said "hey the officer was speeding too!"...Come to think of it, I've actually heard that defense in traffic court - didn't go well, to say the least.

 

I'd agree - as long as they are doing their job - protecting the citizens - I give them a ton of lattitude. In my experience on local highways however, they are easily some of the most aggressive drivers on the road. Tailgate until the car in front pulls over, floor it, hit the brakes 6 feet behind the next guy, tailgate until he can pull over, etc. I see this kind of stupidity regularly during 'rush-hour' and there is absolutely no excuse for it - no 'benefit of the doubt' is necessary. The guy should be charged with speeding, driving to endanger, and whatever else applies, regardless of whether he has a badge or not - just like everyone else on the road (oh, minus the politicians of course).

 

We should all mount video recorders in our cars like THEY do... then when they do something stupid, we can nail them.

I came so close to reporting a cop one day, that I wrote down time/date/car#, etc... and got so busy I didn't have time to.

He was in the middle lane of a three-lane highway, doing around 80. I'm in my Cougar with the wife and kids. I see this guy coming up on me, and I don't move, he blows by me on the right. People in the right and middle lanes in front of me, he crosses all three lanes and passes on the left. Then, flies around the next guy on the right again.

He suddenly slows to 45MPH, and everyone almost piles up to avoid him. He's on a CELL PHONE (which is illegal in NY)... he proceeds to do 45MPH until everyone gets the guts to pass him and then he speeds up AGAIN, passes through us all, and immediately exits at a left turn only 1/4 mile ahead. Unbelieveable...

Turns out he was a leutenant

On edit: I see I've almost totally switched my point-of-view, but I still respect them ALL until proven otherwise.

 

Cops use cell phones because too many criminals have scanners to avoid contact with the police.

I wonder how many of those complaining about cops driving fast would also complain about a slow response time if they were to need non-emergent police services.

 

I'll not argue with that sentiment. However, this is yet further proof that the majority of traffic laws are written not for public safety, but for the purposes of revenue generation. If the traffic laws were written in such a way that they were truely to the benefit of safety for the citizen, then the issue of cops breaking traffic laws while running stealth would be a non issue. That said, I will also state that while I generally respect cops, there are exceptions. I was driving home from the Granite Run Mall one evening, around Christmas, 5 or 6 years ago, when I came upon the usual speed trap for Upper Providence Police Department, at the overpass of State Route 252 and U.S. Route 1. The flow of traffic was 70 MPH, and I dropped to 55 MPH while driving over the VASCAR lines across the highway (local cops in PA are not allowed to use RADAR in Pennsylvania), then sped back up to the speed of traffic. The U.P. cop sitting on the ramp took off and merged, so I lifted and downshifted to drop back to 55. He zoomed up behind me and just about buried his Caprice's bumper in my rear bumper. He followed me all the way to the U.P. line, and into Marple Township. He followed me through Marple into Springfield Township which is where I live, all the while with his bumper nearly touching mine. I didn't want him following me home so I turned right onto Springfield Rd. I drove down Springfield Rd. with him so close to my rear bumper it felt like he was pushing me. I finally said "screw this" and accelerated. The second I did, he turned on his lights and siren, and tried to pull me over. I ignored him and kept going. The light up ahead was red, so I stopped. He got out of his car, ticket book in hand, and the light turned green. So I drove off. He ran back to his car, looking like a real life Barney Fife, and took off after me, and followed me lights and sirens, all the way to the Springfield Police Department. I parked, and got out of the truck, and started walking to the Police Department door to complain, and he pulled up behind my truck, and jumps out of the cruiser. He screams at me, "What the *@#! is your problem?! License and Registration, now!" I turned right around and screamed back "No! What is your #%*@in' problem, pal?! You aren't a Springfield cop! You aren't authorized to pull anyone over here! You are impersonating a Police Officer! I want your name, I want your badge number, and I want it RIGHT #%*@IN' NOW!" With that, he got into his police cruiser and took off, laying rubber and speeding through a school zone! A Springfield Cop came out to see what had happened, because we both were screaming pretty loud. He asked what happened, and I told him everything about what he did, and he got onto the Police radio and called the Chief of Police in U.P. He asked him what the U.P. officer was doing tailgating and trying to pull over people outside of his juristiction, and the U.P. Chief replied that he should have backed up his officer. The Springfield cop replied that if the U.P. officer ever came back into his town and harrassed any of the residents and peeled wheels through a school zone again, he would arrest him and impound the patrol car, and sell it at public auction. The radio went silent. He then asked me to swear out an official complaint with the Magistrate, but there was little we could do, because I didn't get the officer's badge or name or the registration on the patrol car. Never heard much more about it, but it was nice to get some backup from the Springfield Cop.

 

Its certainly interesting to hear tales of police 'mistakes', I've certainly had my share of interaction - both (mostly) good and (sometimes) bad. It certainly can be a hard job - I wouldn't want it, and I give all police respect until they've shown that its not deserved. But as in all professions, its has its bad apples - the question is: Do they actively find and eliminate the bad apples? At least in this state the answer is a definitive no - from police, to politicians & lawyers, to judges - too many apparently feel its more improtant to 'protect their kin' than do what's right for the state and its citizens. Any 'private' institution would never be allowed to do such (at least without serious consequences when caught), yet its allowed as a reasonable excuse when a 'public' institution is involved, and often just white-washed over. Just one of the many reasons 'public' institutions are in such a sorry state, and why the vast majority are held in such low regard - and rightfully so. Think 'Catholic Priests' and you've got the idea (funny how that is centered here in Mass also). . .

 

We've had our share on Long Island too...

 

Exceeding the speed limit is ALWAYS endangering life or property. If it wasn't we wouldn't need speed limits. Being trained for high speed driving is of little use on public roads because the other 99% of the people aren't trained and you never know what they will do. If the law is on their way to a call and are on a busy highway they need to either obey the posted limit or use appropriate emergency signals. They are often trying to save a life or property, but there is no reason to endanger other lives or property in the process.

Here's my funny police story. There's a long downhill west bound on 41st St. out in Sand Springs that has a 55 mph limit at the top and a 35 mph limit at the bottom. After I cross the top I just put my truck in 3rd and let it bellow all the way to the bottom. One afternoon I do this and a cop pulls out behind me and pulls me over. I pull into the Homeland parking lot (where he chews my butt for leaving the road when pulled over. WTH?) and get my license and insurance card out. As I always do, I insist on knowing why I was pulled over before giving these to them. The reason I was pulled over was for using a Jake Brake. My truck is a 1990 F-150 with a 300 that exhales through headers and a Flowmaster 2 chamber. After 45 minutes of arguing with the rookie about how there is no possible way for me to use a Jake Brake his supervisor shows up and wants to know why jr. hasn't moved in nearly an hour. Cop #1 says he wants to take me to jail for refusing to sign and accept a citation. Cop #2 tells #1 to get in his car because he wants to talk to me about going to jail. When I tell #2 that I've been showing #1 the numerous "unleaded fuel only" placards on the truck, the spark plugs and even letting him smell the fuel he gets absolutely furious. He made #1 tear up the ticket in front of me, apologize to me, and then chewed him out for throwing the torn up ticket on the ground. Then he explains to him why he can't write me a ticket for using a Jake Brake. After #1 had been sent away from the scene #2 told me that he would be suspended without pay for a week and that if I ever had any more problems to call him. A few weeks later they put up a sign that said "No Jake Brake use", which was changed a few weeks later to "No Loud Engine Braking". Now it say "No Jake Brake Use" again, so I'm back to rattling windows down that hill.

 

Silver Streak, that's pretty cool...

 

Some pretty good stories here!
The cops in my old hometown always speed, run stop signs, tailgate, etc etc, for no reason other than that they're bad drivers and small town cops, so they can get away with it. The up side of that is that they're small town cops, so they never did much to us foolish kids when we pulled something stupid. We did learn to watch out for the cops or the ambulance crew in town if they actually did have an emergency, though, because they sure wouldn't watch out for us. The ambulance crew once caused a wreck that got somebody killed because they were flying down the road and blew through an intersection without slowing down or looking...seems a little counterproductive for them...

 

I guess I have one more good story. The police car we had was about a 78 Crown Vic with a 400 in it and it was a turd. You couldn't catch a fat man on foot with it. To fix this problem the city spent about $5k putting a strong 429 in it. The first Barney (his real name was Clyde) pulled out in pursuit he floored it, the right rear tire blazed into a huge cloud of smoke and the engine ran up to about 7000 rpm before he could lift. It spit pieces out all over the highway right in front of the highschool.

 

Heh heh...that just reminded me of a county mountie story. The sherriff's deputy that used to live out in my neck of the woods had a Chevy 1/2 ton for a patrol vehicle...but our cheapskate county had only sprung for the V-6, and it was getting long in the tooth, so that thing was a DOG! Eventually everyone in the area knew that if they met Joe on the highway, as long as they were doing over 70 he couldn't get his crate turned around and up to speed over the hills to catch them. All the oilfield hands used to blow past doing 80 or 85, just smiling and waving as Joe flashed his lights at them...he probably could've done something about it, but he never did.

 

I was on my way to jail to serve my mandatory three days (conviction for DWI gets a mandatory 3 days). You're allowed to just show up and turn your self in to do your three days, so I was driving myself there.

Now I know that the jail serves dinner at 5 p.m. (how I know that is a long story) and it was about 4:55 p.m. when I left my house. So, yeah, I was in a hurry and was speeding a bit (I didn't want to miss my free dinnner). While en route to jail I got stopped for speeding by my friendly neighborhood police man (Dang! There goes dinner).

While we're discussing the details of driving too fast, he notices I'm not wearing my seat belt. So I explain that I had to take it off to get my vehicle registration out of the glove box (I'm driving a 77 Ford LTD, and the glove box is waaaaaay over there). So he says "fine" and just make sure I have it on when he comes back to my car with the ticket.

He comes back with the ticket, but I don't have my seat belt on. He doesn't miss a beat - I suggest you put your seat belt on. Well, he's got me now. I told him I didn't have any seatbelts. He took a peek, and sure enough no seat belts.

I explained that about two months ago I came across my buddy who was stuck in a ditch. For lack of a tow rope we just cut out the seat belts and tied them together until we had a tow rope. We were so impressed our ingenuity we toasted ouselves by cracking open his cooler which just happend to hold a dozen or so Oly-pop. After we were satisfied we were the smartest two guys on the planet we went on our way.

I didn't get too far before I'm getting pulled over by the police. Now I know for certain I wasn't speeding, and so I'm waited with baited breath to find out what the problem is.

The officer explains to me that there's about 20 feet of seat belt dragging beind my LTD. Oops. Well, one thing leads to another and I find meself standing on one foot while singing the national anthem and rubbing my stomach and patting my head. I couldn't manage to pull this off and wound up being arrested for DWI. And that brings us to why I'm speeding today...for the free dinner...at jail.

I was hoping for at least a slight chuckle, but no. I get - Sir, how much have you had to drink today? I said "No, I'm serious, it really happened that way". He said - No, I'm serious, I can smell alcohol on your breath. (Okay, I confess. As you might guess they don't allow alcohol in jail. I figured I'd better knock a few back before heading in for my long weekend).

Well, you guessed it., there I was again standing on one foot, singing the national anthem, rubbing my stomach and patting my head.

Soon after this all-to-familiar song n' dance, I'm sitting in the booking room at the PD with a ticket for speeding, a ticket not wearing my seatbelt, and a ticket for the equipment violation of not having seat belts. And, yep, you guessed it, another DWI.

But don't worry guys. He was speeding to catch up with me in the first place. And because of that the whole case will get tossed. And I'm going to sue the police department because they made me miss my dinner, starvation is cruel and unusual punishment, isn't it? Too bad Johnny Cochrin died, or I'd own these fools.

 

Cops pretty much do as they please, simply because they can. But every now and then, they get in a jam doing something illegal. Here in Michigan, the other day, a cop ran a red light, with no lights and siren, and hit a car that had the green light. The media was all over it.
How many times has an accident occured during a pursuit, and the cops say,"We broke off the pursuit, a long time ago"? Ha!