I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen police in the US get away with speeding because they're the police. For some reason, I can't imagine it being much different elsewhere around the world since government corruption doesn't know geographic boundaries.
They'll come up with excuses like people trying to track law enforcement or something like that and that's why they won't be on the grid.
Almost every time I see a police car (even with their lights off) they are almost always going faster than the majority of the traffic who themselves are going more than the speed limit.
Yeah, and those damn fire engines always seem to be speeding too! Some people are such sheep they even pull over to the side of the road when they come barreling through! Imagine the nerve of those drivers... I can't do that even when I'm late to work! I swear, it's a conspiracy or something. Why are emergency workers special?
Firemen don't drive their fire trucks around all day. Police here in Ontario are constantly passing people on the highways and even smaller roads where the speed limit is 80KM/hr. Most people do about 100KM/hr on the 80 roads and the cops still pass people without their lights on.
Emergency workers driving to an actual emergency, announcing their presence with lights and sirens have cause to drive quickly. A police car on non-emergency business without it's lights or it's siren going has no business blowing down the left lane at 90.
Police officers can speed to get to an emergency and NOT use lights if its deemed safe by the police officer to speed without the requirement of people pulling over to the side of the road.
Lights = EVERYONE PULL OVER Speeding with no lights = I'm hopefully legally trying to get to a legitament call, but not a life or death situation where I need my lights or siren.
Even beyond this, in most cities down here (TX), an officer must request permission to drive "code 3," lights and siren, and sometimes require permission for "code 2," lights only. An officer may only drive with lights and siren if it is an emergency call requiring the officer to arrive as fast as possible. If he is on an urgent call (lower priority than emergency, higher than routine), he does not drive code 3, usually not code 2, but may drive as quickly as the circumstances allow.
Emergency workers driving to an actual emergency, announcing their presence with lights and sirens have cause to drive quickly. A police car on non-emergency business without it's lights or it's siren going has no business blowing down the left lane at 90.
I agree. In fact, the cops I see on the roads who ARE driving at the posted limit is few and far between.
In one case, I was almost wrecked by a cop who chose gross negligence over safety. I was driving a 2 lane 55mph rural road (lots of trees, deep
But those cops aren't. Their sirens aren't on, they're just cruising down the road, patroling. You did know that cops aren't legally allowed to break the speed limit when they aren't responding to a call or enforcing the law, right? I've seen tons of cops breaking the speed limit when they had no good reason to. Their sirens were off, they just wanted to go say... 10-15 over the speed limit since it was faster and easier.
Where I used to live, many years ago, there was a DPS officer with a DPS 'stang. He would commonly light up his tires through parking lots as he illegally circumvented traffic lights so that he could continue speeding 60-70 in 30-45 MPH zones.
I currently know other policemen that illegally drives his motorcycle without insurance because he's a cop.
Cops tend to be one of the biggest breakers of law; only their consider themselves exempt. Cops have one of the highest rates of spousal abuse of any career,
I think what he was talking about is best summed up by a thing I've seen many times. A cop car will approach a yellow light. One where you or I would have to stop. They will flip on their lights and sirens and go through only to turn it off on the other side.
This privilage of theirs does get abused. Can't say that I've ever seen that kind of abuse from other emergency workers.
We're special because when you're upside down, crushed, and near death because you spoofed the GPS system for others and decided to speed and drive recklessly, you'd like help quick, fast and in a hurry.
Police must have their light bar and/or siren on in order to legally exceed the speed limit. "High-speed patrol" and "high-speed end-of-shift" aren't emergencies. It's speeding, which is a crime.
I haven't seen a fire engine "speeding" while not responing. Speeding in a large, $350k piece of city equipment for no reason would be reckless and unprofessional.
This brings up another point: sometimes, it's OK TO SPEED.
1) Passing 2) Escaping a dangerous situation
If they're going to limit a driver's ability to drive their own car, the gov't might as well use GPS to drive the whole damn car - speed limits, turns, and roundabouts alike. I'm sure that'll work quite well.
Do you want to stay on the wrong side of the road for 10 seconds or for 2 seconds? The latter is way safer, but it probably means that you're speeding.
Why do you care if they speed or not as long as they're driving safely? You're just jealous, but you shoudn't be.
Why do they care if I speed as long as I'm driving safely? Oh, I know, because when I speed it generates revenue for the city and police dept. Am I jealous? Well, I don't know about jealous, but annoyed by the fact that the law doesn't apply nearly as much to them.
Interestingly there was a recent report in a motorcycle magazine in the UK which showed that police vehicles had been snapped by automatic speed cameras on 500+ cases. Automatically "notices of intent to prosecute" were sent out but the police decided not to prosecute themselves in all cases. They denied it one rule for us and another form them and it was always justified on operational reasons.
And there was that cop clocked by his own car doing 159 mph on the M54 at night, who got acquitted a couple of months ago http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/shropshire/4559 173.stm [bbc.co.uk] because he was "testing the capabilities of his new car"! Oh yes....
They *have* to speed. Ever seen what happens when a cop car ends up in freeway traffic? Nobody has the balls to pass them, even if they're going less than the speed limit.
Heh, one of my ex-colleagues used to study in the USA (Iowa I think), and once he was travelling inter-state, he sped at 100mph and passed a patrol car.
The cop then zoomed after him, pulled alongside and took a look at him and then passed him.
My clueless friend still didn't know it was a cop (!), and for some stupid reason he then drove faster and over-took the cop!
So in the end the cop pulled him over and asked what he was doing... Heh, surprisingly he didn't get booked for that!
This is all just a big vodafone subsidy anyway. The government can't tax and subsidise them, so it will just introduce a compulsory "purchase the black box" law after the preordaned "success" of this trial. Ensures Britain stays a major player in the mobile communcations industry by indulging in blatant communism.
I'm amazed that it got as far as the judge. Don't cops usually let each other off as a kind of professional courtesy? A friend, who is a cop's mom, even keeps her son's card in her wallet, and show it when getting pulled over; never gets a ticket.
This hardly ever happens, if at all, in the UK. Most police cars on motorways travel at a significant amount (>5mph) below the speed limit. This allows other drivers to overtake them so that the police car doesn't cause congestion on the motorway - since people won't overtake a police car if they have to speed to do it. Once they're safely beyond the police car, they can speed up a bit. The police obviously know this. It's a sensible policy on the police's part.
As for being above the law, my cousin is a police officer. Her boss (also a police officer, obviously) was disciplined for speeding in a police car. The boss is the assistant chief constable of that police force. There must be only about 30 officers of that seniority in the whole of the UK, so it's probably safe to say that the
British police are not above the law [bbc.co.uk].
On the other side of this coin, a couple of weeks ago there was a newsworthy court case where a British police officer was
prosecuted for speeding [bbc.co.uk], and the court let him off, basically on the grounds that he needed to do what he did.
since people won't overtake a police car if they have to speed to do it.
Unbelievable! In the US, and Southern California in particular, the average speed of traffic is about 80mph regardless of the 65mph posted speed limit. 85-90mph is the norm for someone in a slight hurry, and I've past State Troopers at 95mph when they themselves were doing about 85-90mph. In the States, there's a few factors, safe conditions trump posted recommendations so if everyone is doing 80 then it's safer to do 80 than 65mph
That $178 dollar ticket is not the trouble. The trouble begins when your insurance company finds out about your speeding ticket and automatically raises your insurance rates on your next renewal. Even one speeding ticket will increase your insurance rate for the next 3-4 years. Get a second speeding ticket and it will bump it up even more. Get a third ticket and most companies will drop you like a hot tomalley. Some companies will drop you on the first ticket!
In the UK neither the fine nor the insurance rise are the major concern - it's the fact you get 3 points on your license. 12 points means a driving ban. If you've held your license for under 2 years and clock up 6 points then you lose your license.
That is why over here you see so many skid marks before the (abundant) speed cameras. Not from those braking to lower their speed prior to entering the camera markings, but from those who are too busy with their eyes on their speedo to notice the guy in front's b
This hardly ever happens, if at all, in the UK. Most police cars on motorways travel at a significant amount (>5mph) below the speed limit.
Great idea, except how many times have you seen a tail back of slow-moving traffic caused by people driving at 65mph, too paranoid to overtake a cop car?
it's probably safe to say that the British police are not above the law.
Bullshit. British police are more brutal than most American ones. From Amnesty International:
In May an inquest jury returned a verdict of ''accidental death'' in the case of Glenn Howard, but added that the police officers had used excessive restraint and had subsequently failed to provide medical care. He died in January 1999 after being in a coma since December 1997. There were no prosecutions or disciplinary action.
There is a procedure called "badging" where, if an off-duty copy is pulled over, he shows his badge and is normally let off.
It's a sort of brotherhood of cops, to put it nicely.
I don't like speed law enforcement because I don't think speeding is dangerous if it's done with reasonable prudence (i.e. with due consideration of traffic conditions). I would prefer seeing more competent enforcement of other dangereous driving practices such as unsafe passing behaviour.
Back when I lived in Aloha, Oregon, several times I saw poice cars going 60+ mph in our 25 mph zone, lights or not. I called with the time and location, but I doubt it even produced a notum on a bulletin board.
Point being, no cars are magical, even with blinking lights. I recall a huge blood pool from a dog right outside our driveway. It could have just as easily been a kindergardener.
The highway is different. Let them go 90 mph and get out of the way. But I see no reason to critically endanger the o
In order to do my duty as a grammar Nazi, irregardless is pretty much a double negative. I think you mean regardless. Saying irregardless means having regard, the "ir' and the "less" canceling each other out. Dictionaries only list it because its so frequently used and sometimes considered a humorous mangling of the English language.
This mauling of the language is a plague and it must be stamped out at every turn, otherwise its going to destroy language as we know it.
I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen police in the US get away with speeding
Cops are allowed to do a lot of things that the general public are not allowed to do: speeding; carrying guns in public; physically restraining people; looking though your private things. Notionally they have the training and judgement that allows them to do these sorts of things safely. While most police forces have a policy against casual speeding, they aren't driving on a civilian licence anyway.
I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen police in the US get away with speeding
Has it occurred to you that perhaps they're responding to a call?
Maybe it's different in your jurisdiction, but here in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, there are 3 different priority levels assigned to various calls. A Priority 1 ("P1") call is the "get-your-ass-there-RIGHT-NOW" kind of call, with the lights flashing and the siren blaring. A P2 call is "urgent," but doesn't warrant scaring traffic and risking coll
Actually, in my local town in Massachusetts the Chief of Police installed GPS units in all the cruisers. The patrolman's union fought it, but the units were installed. The chief's reason was to track his patrolman and make sure that they weren't camping out some where when they were supposed to be doing traffic enforcement.
"Who alone has reason to *lie himself out* of actuality? He who *suffers*
from it."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't even begin to count the number of times I've seen police in the US get away with speeding because they're the police. For some reason, I can't imagine it being much different elsewhere around the world since government corruption doesn't know geographic boundaries.
They'll come up with excuses like people trying to track law enforcement or something like that and that's why they won't be on the grid.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Almost every time I see a police car (even with their lights off) they are almost always going faster than the majority of the traffic who themselves are going more than the speed limit.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:4, Funny)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1)
100 km/h = 62.1371192 mph
180 mph = 289.68192 km/h
To be that much of a moran should be criminal. Go home, putz.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1, Insightful)
Police officers can speed to get to an emergency and NOT use lights if its deemed safe by the police officer to speed without the requirement of people pulling over to the side of the road.
Lights = EVERYONE PULL OVER
Speeding with no lights = I'm hopefully legally trying to get to a legitament call, but not a life or death situation where I need my lights or siren.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1)
I agree. In fact, the cops I see on the roads who ARE driving at the posted limit is few and far between.
In one case, I was almost wrecked by a cop who chose gross negligence over safety. I was driving a 2 lane 55mph rural road (lots of trees, deep
Yeah, that's when they're on emergency calls (Score:2)
Re:Yeah, that's when they're on emergency calls (Score:2)
I currently know other policemen that illegally drives his motorcycle without insurance because he's a cop.
Cops tend to be one of the biggest breakers of law; only their consider themselves exempt. Cops have one of the highest rates of spousal abuse of any career,
Re:Yeah, that's when they're on emergency calls (Score:3, Funny)
Who's going to pull them over?
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1)
This privilage of theirs does get abused. Can't say that I've ever seen that kind of abuse from other emergency workers.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1)
It's alright (Score:1)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1)
I haven't seen a fire engine "speeding" while not responing. Speeding in a large, $350k piece of city equipment for no reason would be reckless and unprofessional.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
1) Passing
2) Escaping a dangerous situation
If they're going to limit a driver's ability to drive their own car, the gov't might as well use GPS to drive the whole damn car - speed limits, turns, and roundabouts alike. I'm sure that'll work quite well.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Or am I misunderstanding what you mean by passing?
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Why do they care if I speed as long as I'm driving safely? Oh, I know, because when I speed it generates revenue for the city and police dept. Am I jealous? Well, I don't know about jealous, but annoyed by the fact that the law doesn't apply nearly as much to them.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1, Informative)
Yea, right.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
The cop then zoomed after him, pulled alongside and took a look at him and then passed him.
My clueless friend still didn't know it was a cop (!), and for some stupid reason he then drove faster and over-took the cop!
So in the end the cop pulled him over and asked what he was doing... Heh, surprisingly he didn't get booked for that!
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
One law for us, and another for everyone else. And they wonder why people throw bricks at the police.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Not in the UK (Score:5, Informative)
As for being above the law, my cousin is a police officer. Her boss (also a police officer, obviously) was disciplined for speeding in a police car. The boss is the assistant chief constable of that police force. There must be only about 30 officers of that seniority in the whole of the UK, so it's probably safe to say that the British police are not above the law [bbc.co.uk].
On the other side of this coin, a couple of weeks ago there was a newsworthy court case where a British police officer was prosecuted for speeding [bbc.co.uk], and the court let him off, basically on the grounds that he needed to do what he did.
Re:Not in the UK (Score:2)
Unbelievable! In the US, and Southern California in particular, the average speed of traffic is about 80mph regardless of the 65mph posted speed limit. 85-90mph is the norm for someone in a slight hurry, and I've past State Troopers at 95mph when they themselves were doing about 85-90mph. In the States, there's a few factors, safe conditions trump posted recommendations so if everyone is doing 80 then it's safer to do 80 than 65mph
Re: Yeah Right!!! (Score:2)
Another thing, have an accident at 110mph i
Re: Yeah Right!!! (Score:2)
That is why over here you see so many skid marks before the (abundant) speed cameras. Not from those braking to lower their speed prior to entering the camera markings, but from those who are too busy with their eyes on their speedo to notice the guy in front's b
Re: Yeah Right!!! (Score:2)
Wow, I wonder why they do that. Probably have like 50 years of statistics to back it up, or some bullshit like that.
Re:Not in the UK (Score:1)
This hardly ever happens, if at all, in the UK. Most police cars on motorways travel at a significant amount (>5mph) below the speed limit.
Great idea, except how many times have you seen a tail back of slow-moving traffic caused by people driving at 65mph, too paranoid to overtake a cop car?
Re:Not in the UK (Score:2)
Bullshit. British police are more brutal than most American ones. From Amnesty International:
In May an inquest jury returned a verdict of ''accidental death'' in the case of Glenn Howard, but added that the police officers had used excessive restraint and had subsequently failed to provide medical care. He died in January 1999 after being in a coma since December 1997. There were no prosecutions or disciplinary action.
In June an
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
It's a sort of brotherhood of cops, to put it nicely.
I don't like speed law enforcement because I don't think speeding is dangerous if it's done with reasonable prudence (i.e. with due consideration of traffic conditions). I would prefer seeing more competent enforcement of other dangereous driving practices such as unsafe passing behaviour.
D
Re: (Score:1)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1)
Point being, no cars are magical, even with blinking lights. I recall a huge blood pool from a dog right outside our driveway. It could have just as easily been a kindergardener.
The highway is different. Let them go 90 mph and get out of the way. But I see no reason to critically endanger the o
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1, Offtopic)
In order to do my duty as a grammar Nazi, irregardless is pretty much a double negative. I think you mean regardless. Saying irregardless means having regard, the "ir' and the "less" canceling each other out. Dictionaries only list it because its so frequently used and sometimes considered a humorous mangling of the English language.
This mauling of the language is a plague and it must be stamped out at every turn, otherwise its going to destroy language as we know it.
Cops do not drive on a civilian licence (Score:2)
Cops are allowed to do a lot of things that the general public are not allowed to do: speeding; carrying guns in public; physically restraining people; looking though your private things. Notionally they have the training and judgement that allows them to do these sorts of things safely. While most police forces have a policy against casual speeding, they aren't driving on a civilian licence anyway.
Xix.
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:2)
Has it occurred to you that perhaps they're responding to a call?
Maybe it's different in your jurisdiction, but here in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, there are 3 different priority levels assigned to various calls. A Priority 1 ("P1") call is the "get-your-ass-there-RIGHT-NOW" kind of call, with the lights flashing and the siren blaring. A P2 call is "urgent," but doesn't warrant scaring traffic and risking coll
Re:And guess where they probably won't end up (Score:1)