State Trooper Speeding Issue
 

How fast are the police allowed to travel to answer a call. Tonight, I am coming home in the shop beater(86 5.0 mustang, ) I live in a very rural area, and the speed limit is only 25 . I was probaly traveling about 50 when all of a sudden in my rear view mirror, I see the huge crash bar and lights of a State Trooper. I think oh #$%$#, I am getting a ticket, I start to slow, and the guy goes around me. Whew, but he took off like a rocket. I let him get a couple hundred feet in front of me, and I decide to follow him and see where he is going. I got close to 85, and was not gaining on him at all. So i get to the end of the road, and I see him pull in to the local stop and go. He stops ,and has a coffee. WTF???. This is the kind of stuff that gets my goat. I wonder how much driver training these guys really have at those kind of speeds. These are roads that I have been stomping for the last 15 years, every day, and I know every hole, bump, and turn, It is a rare occasion that I see a trooper back here. It sort of makes me wanna turn him in, but on the other hand , I dont like to make waves. I just hope my next speeding ticket is not from him.

I once had a local cop (not a trooper) pass me on the road with his lights going. About 200 feet ahead of he there was a turn and as he entered the turn he hit some sand, started to lose it, over-corrected, and skidded across the oncoming lane and off the road, doing a 180 in the process. fortunately I was the only one around... if there had been oncoming traffic they would be dead meat.

Hot donuts are reason enough to speed for some of them.

Rent Supertroopers, all will be explained.

They are above the law almost everywhere and especially in small towns. I had a NJ Statie once go out of turn at a four way stop and toss a cigarette butt onto my hood. I got the car number and wrote a letter to the chief. No answer.

A few months ago I watched a local LEO change the lights at an intersection. My light (that I had been patiently waiting for) turned from green to red before I could even get my foot off the brake. The cop cruised through the intersection without delay. I followed him into the local Starbucks. Guess he needed his coffee FAST.

I dont know about where you are at but in OK the troopers have tons of training at speed. Our guys train other states even. Now if they got caught doing that they would probably get canned.

A few years ago I was nearly rear-ended by a trooper on the interstate who felt that 160 was an acceptable speed to hit on a down ramp.

I've told this story here once already, so here is the Readers' Digest version. I followed a Washington State Patrol trooper on I-90 one day, westbound from the summit of Snoqualmie Pass. We touche 100 mph a couple of times. He got off at an exit in North Bend, and I followed him. Straight to a Taco Bell, where two other cars were parked. He was very young; so was the officer in one of the other cars. The third was older, like my age, and dressed in a WSP windbreaker rather than in uniform. I listened to enough of their conversation while I was in line behind them to overhear stories about several stops they had made. I got the impression the older guy was training them. So, I mentioned how fast I had paced the one trooper. No response from the older guy. I asked him if he wanted my contact info for his report. Blank stare.

There was a San Diego police car that nearly hit an elderly lady crossing the street as he was speeding, about 50 in a 25 zone and was caught by two civilian drivers when he stopped at a 7-11. The supervising sargent that responded to all the fuss said quote "speed limits are only a guide line". The chief put both the sargent and the speeder on unpaid leave for 30 days and appologized to the old lady. It was all over the news here a few years ago.

****ing *****bags.

Cops are just people guys, any cross section of folks given the same power would do the same shyte. Don't hate the player, hate the game:D

disagree when it comes to state tax collectors. IMO there is an enourmously high ratio of pricks to nice guys (as some no doubt are very nice fellows who honestly want to use their position to help people and save lives).

"Nearly"? LOL. Here in Ft. Laud, we had three (recent) incidents where speeding cops hit and killed pedestrians. One guy was hit so hard, his body split in pieces. That cop wasn't charged as the pedestrian was jaywalking. I believe the cops in the other two cases lost their jobs and one went to jail.

I had an incident (road-rage) involving a BSO deputy (in a marked car, out-of-uniform). Dude races around me at a right on red after honking his horn (I was checking for traffic). We're driving down the street, side-by-side, windows down and yelling @ each other. Hilarious. I filed a report, IA investigated and, surprise, surprise...no findings of wrong-doing. Douchebags.

If i was a cop i would speed my balls off. I know this because i'm not a cop, and i speed my balls off.

A teacher's aide at my daughter's school was in an intersection (in a car) when a cop came racing through a red light and killed her. This happened about 6 months ago and the her parents have never received a satisfactory explanation why the cop needed to be going so fast or to crash the light. They held a big protest meeting at their house and invited the press. The police chief came and promised to get to the bottom of it. As far as I know they didn't and nothing every happen to the cop.

We shouldn't have to worry about speeding cops crashing red lights (no siren or lights on BTW) at high speed. The girl who was hit was something like 20 and sweet. Snuffed out for no reason.

It's my understanding if they have lights on then no limit. +1 on the power trip

A friend of mine rode with a cop friend of his back and forth between Huntsville and Birmingham, AL on I-65 a year or two ago and he said they hit 110 mph on occasion. :mad:

I also read a headline recently about a bunch of cops getting tickets from speeding cameras and they were complaining that they shouldn't have to pay them as they have "diplomatic immunity". Whatever. This "do as I say and not as I do" crap sucks.

lol:D

There was a case in DC two years ago where one cop got so fed up with other cops speeding in front of his house, that he started running radar right there even when off duty. A cop he got going double the limit with no lights on refused to stop for him when he lit him up. They actually had a chase all the way to the precinct and almost came to blows once there. And the cop got in trouble for running radar and trying to write tickets while off duty. Nothing happened to the speeding cop who refused to stop.

There was a guy on the old porschephiles mailing list (in PA or ME?) that was driving along on a relatively deserted stretch of 4-lane highway when he was passed by a state trooper going well over the speed limit (no lights on or anything). He sped up and basically followed the trooper for a few miles and then the trooper pulled into the left lane, slowed drastically and whipped in behind the guy and pulled him over and wrote him a ticket.

The guy fought it but in the end he was basically told to "drop it, or else...". It was suprising the total disregard that the troopers had for the law and how he was treated for bringing that to their attention.

no offense len, but that is utter horse ****e.

If you are going to be a professional, you have to act accordingly

The shame of it is these guys COULD be the front line in the war on illegals.

'We can't just round up 11 million illegals' say the pussified lameasses. Hmmm....I wonder how many revenue requests...err tickets....are written in the US in a day?

Hell, if you just tell the little pricks that they get a box of free donuts and an honorary FBI badge for every illegal they round up we will be free of this scourge in two weeks' time.

Hey it's not an excuse, rather an explanation. I'm not saying it's ok for them to do this crap, just that the system is such that human nature takes over.

Ah yes, the great equalizer. I love it. The speed cameras have no idea who they are photographing. Until, of course, they put something like a very prominant blue bear sticker in the back window of their private vehicles...

Here in Washington, we only have red light cameras. All film and photos are "reviewed" by a police officer before a ticket is mailed. "Hey Ed, come here and look at this... is that a blue bear sticker?" "Looks that way to me, Frank." "I don't think I see a violation, do you?"...


I was very surprised the WSP officer didn't do this to me. I followed him for over ten miles at sometimes triple digit speeds. I was a couple hundred yards back, though. He must have been too focused on that taco.

Maybe he had to stop and "go?"

Agreed. But ultimately it's more profitable and you can make more money with less work by simply dishing out tickets to our own citizens. Going after real criminals and illegals is a lot harder work, riskier and doesn't make us any money.

Besides, we're just civilians anyway. We're scum. Trash. Garbage. Worthless. We're not part of the fraternal elite who gets to follow its own separate set of rules.

I have all the respect in the world for police officers who keep the rest of us from having to deal with the dirtbags of society, who bust up meth labs and nail "gangsta" pieces of crap and incarcerate thieves, muggers, rapists and scam artists. This is what being a "lawman" is all about. I wish them good hunting and success.

However, the money-driven crusade against our own citizenry simply undermines their cause. Unless someone is FLAGRANTLY endangering other people by driving recklessly and dangerously, let's put our priorities in order here. Commuters who happen to be going 10 or 15 over the speed limit in matched-speed traffic are not the problem. The problem is illegals, criminals, lowlifes and other vermin. Please, please, please go take care of those problems - even if they don't bring in as much revenue for your corrupt bosses at City Hall. Please do this and restore dignity and respect to your profession.

Not long after I had moved to Chattanooga, I'm driving home after working late. It's just after dark. I'm planning to stop for gas just up the highway. In the mirror I see a car closing like crazy. I'm speeding, probably 60. The car passes my by at an easy 100, cop, no lights. I see them on the brakes hard going into the same gas station I was going to. I think they might be getting robbed. I pull up cautiously. The "officer," a young, fat, black woman is selecting a soft drink. She checks out, chats with the clerk, gets in her car and squeals the tire out of the parking lot.

http://www.injuryboard.com/national-news/trooper-facing-24-million-lawsuit-in-death-of-two-teens.aspx?googleid=238968

Taxes, tickets, and building permits - local government revenue sources. Building permits down, they need to write more tickets.

IF the cruiser had his emergency lights on then he _probably_ got an emergency call. In most jurisdictions, he needs to proceed at a safe pace. A state cop definitely is trained in high speed car control. The state patrol policy manual will spell out exactly what he can or should do. sometimes there are state laws also (i.e. legislature passed law).

If his lights are off, he still may be on an emer. call (but needs to sneak up on thieves, for example).

He may also be headed for some hot do-nuts...

But generally a state trooper will the the cream of the crop (not counting the FBI - their agents are far above even that). I said generally. There are bad apples everywhere.

IF you see something wrong going on - try to videotape it. Or get another witness. File a complaint - or call and ask if it was an emergency. IF not, or if they won't tell you, then file a complaint. Good govt. requires that the people be involved, and that includes some degree of "policing the police."

Small town cops are - again generally - the worst. Those little township things they have in Penn. and NY are terrible and have been the subject of some really bad news articles.

Tidbit for you:

In Oregon, any citizen can enforce the traffic laws. And one citizen in Portland has taken a cop to court for a traffic violation he caught on video tape. I dunno the outcome of the trial.