"That's not my job"

[trekkor]

We saw something disturbing on the highway last night.

About 11:00 pm on I-80 in Fairfield, Ca.
Guy driving a pick up with a large camper shell towing a boat at 70+ mph.
( Speed limit for towing in Ca is 55 mph )

Anyway, he was weaving 2-4 feet into the adjoining lanes.

I held my distance.
Then up comes a City of Fairfield police car.

He passes me and slips in along next to the guy for a good two miles with the truck driver weaving and speeding the whole time.

The police officer changes lanes and exits the highway...


I guess his shift was over.

I should have called 911.


KT

[JJ 911SC]

Originally Posted by trekkor

The police officer changes lanes and exits the highway...


I guess his shift was over. ..



KT

... He could hear the Tim Horton (better than Krispy Kreme) donut calling him.

[Taz's Master]

Maybe the pickup driver was a co-worker?

[stomachmonkey]

Many years ago I was driving a friends car home from a concert and clipped another driver.

We pull off the parkway and start talking, very minor cosmetic damage.

Car was full of a bunch of atypical Long Island guidos.

Driver is insisting that I give him something as collateral, money, jewelry whatever so "he can be assured that HIS car would be taken care of".

My buddy notices the car has rental tags and the conversation changes to "go pound sand, YOUR car is already covered".

Friend of his goes and calls the cops which concerned me for various reasons.

Local county cops show up, "where did this happen? on the parkway? that's State Trooper jurisdiction, call them, they should be along in an hour or two, see ya, bye."

[RWebb]

call his chief & report what happened

[wdfifteen]

Sometimes they have to pick their fights.
A couple of decades ago I got stopped. I was sitting in the cruiser while the officer waited for the office to check into my criminal record :-). Right in the middle of it they came over the radio and said some cop talk with 10 codes and locations and stuff and the cop told me to get out of the car. He took off with lights flashing and siren going. I don't know where he went, but whatever it was, it was more important than giving me a speeding ticket. So, maybe he had something more important to do.

[trekkor]

I just made the call.


KT

[RWebb]

re picking fights - sure -- cruiser seems not to have been in any hurry tho & they can weed that out after the report

[tabs]

They saw it was Jerry Brown smoking a Dubbie and decided that they would let the next Govenator of CA slide...

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by RWebb

call his chief & report what happened

Do NOT do this, horrible advice.

Originally Posted by trekkor

I just made the call.


KT

oops, too late, hopefully the call was anonymous

Interstate is CHP jurisdiction.

Dialing 911 to report someone pulling a trailer in an unsafe manner/too fast would be just as likely to get results if you called to tell me about it.

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Dialing 911 to report someone pulling a trailer in an unsafe manner/too fast would be just as likely to get results if you called to tell me about it.

You had me wondering if calling 911 in my state would be a waste of time. Why looking up my state I came across this CHP web page. It says 911 calls are routed to CHP.

Cellular 911

[Moses]

My son was driving his girlfriend home at 1:00 AM this morning. There was a drunk driver varying speeds between 50 and 5 MPH. The driver left the freeway then re-entered GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

My son called 911 and the roads were full of patrol cars in minutes. No feedback on whether or not there was an accident or arrest.

[Laneco]

Marked patrol cars do require servicing (and repair). Not usually a uniformed officer who takes the vehicle to/from the repair shop. Some states they will put "not in service" cover over the lights, but not in all.

Just throwing that out there. If it's the 20 year old college kid who washes the cars for summer money driving, he isn't going to do a traffic stop.

angela

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Tobra

Do NOT do this, horrible advice.

oops, too late, hopefully the call was anonymous

...

reason you say this??

[Schumi]

That is very interesting. I never knew that.

Originally Posted by Laneco

Marked patrol cars do require servicing (and repair). Not usually a uniformed officer who takes the vehicle to/from the repair shop. Some states they will put "not in service" cover over the lights, but not in all.

Just throwing that out there. If it's the 20 year old college kid who washes the cars for summer money driving, he isn't going to do a traffic stop.

angela

[Rick Lee]

I had a &^$^% pull a knife on me as we were exiting a bus in NJ a few years ago. I had yelled at him to quiet down, as he was practically yelling into his cell phone for the whole ride back from NYC. I managed to get into my car, which was parked right where we got off the bus. I drove less than a mile to the nearest police station and told them they could still catch the guy, as he was on foot and headed toward the apt. complex where all of them live in my old town. Cop said that was a township problem and not boro, gave me the address of the "right" police station a few more miles away. Unreal.

[Laneco]

Originally Posted by Schumi

That is very interesting. I never knew that.

It's one of those things that no one really thinks about. Obviously the cars need service/repair and most police departments do not have their own garage. Even if they did, warranty work still goes through the dealer. You certainly don't want to pay a uniformed officer to sit there twiddling thumbs with no wheels to answer a call while the transmission gets serviced - much better things for that person to do. Thinks like "protect and serve"!

So, you send a flunky.

angela

[slakjaw]

maybe he got another call. maybe someone was getting raped, or killed, and he had to take care of that before slapping some bad driver on the wrist.

?

[Tobra]

Parfessor, setting aside the fact that it was outside the jurisdiction of a Fairfield cop and it would be a waste of time to call the wrong people, it is a wrong headed way to go about it. You call the chief to tell him his officers are not doing their job, that is a great way to make friends in the PD. "There is that tile laying, trouble making MFer in his big red truck," on his way from Napa to Dixon(or wherever), "I will show him." There is absolutely no upside to doing what you suggest Randy, it is an awful idea. You could call to report the unsafe vehicle, but that would be to the CHP. It is stupid idea to call the chief of police to ***** about it.

Moses, the CHP must have changed how they do things. I have called 911 on drunk drivers, crazy speeders etc, many times and have never gotten any response as you describe. One time, I called dispatch about a burned out car with no license plates and they did not want to come out unless I went and got the VIN number, seriously.

[trekkor]

I would have liked it if the police officer stopped the speeding drunk and held him until the CHP arrived...

That would have been serving and protecting, in my opinion.

( BTW, my call was anonymous to the FF police. No future hassles to big red truck driving... )


KT