Posted: 7/23/2009 2:17:05 PM EDT
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Today I saw something that seemed off to me. I want to know what you would do in this situation. (MS Paint to follow story)
I'm sitting at a traffic light headed southbound. Right behind me is a marked Police unit. We are in the far left lane travel lane. Left turn lane is empty. A pickup with a trailer is headed westbound. He slows and turns right to go northbound. His trailer is loaded with boxed floor tile. As he makes the turn, probably 20 boxes of tile slide off the trailer and shatter across the roadway, completely blocking the northbound lanes. I look in my rearview, expecting the cop to do something. He points out the window at the guy, but makes no move. I figure he's waiting for the light to turn green so he can get over and direct traffic or something. Light turns green, I go. Cop follows along right behind me. Doesn't even do anything. There's a huge fucking traffic hazard, and he just cruises by like nothing. WTF? Why wouldn't he try to protect the public???? 
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If he was headed to a call he might not have been able to stop. If he was transporting someone he COULDN'T stop.
Too many unknowns. Was he a from that jurisdiction? Was he off? 
Who knows. There are circumstances when i have had to drive by stuff like that for one reason or another but called it in on the radio. Gr |
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If he was headed to a call he might not have been able to stop. If he was transporting someone he COULDN'T stop. Too many unknowns. Was he a from that jurisdiction? Was he off?
Who knows. There are circumstances when i have had to drive by stuff like that for one reason or another but called it in on the radio. Gr Could have been on the way to a call. He wasn't lit up, it was his jurisdiction (city of Glendale, Glendale PD), he had no one in the car. He and I traveled probably 5 miles with him in my view before I turned off. If he was going somewhere, he wasn't in a hurry, and we went an awful long way. I don't think Glendale PD has take home cars. So, I would think he was on duty. Maybe his shift was almost over and he didn't want to deal with it? |
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End of shift. Call it in to the next shift and fill out paperwork on the other stuff he did that day. Next shift guy goes right to scene to see if it is still a mess and do what is necessary. I don't honestly know? That could be. I wonder how he would feel if someone got killed in the intersection cause he didn't stop. |
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Transporting someone? I radio it in and do nothing.
Out my jurisdiction not responding to call or on official business? I stop and try to clear the roadway, advise someone having jurisdiction, etc. Out of my jurisdiction and responding to call or on official business (i.e., I have to be somewhere at a specific time?) I radio it in and do nothing. On my way to a serious call? I radio it in and do nothing. On my way to a minor call? If it looks like I can clear the roadway myself in a small amount of time, I stop and clear the roadway. If not, I radio it in and ask for instruction––-should I continue to ####, or should we set the call for service back in the stack and I deal with this. Bear in mind I may be going to a traffic accident with injuries on the interstate with EMS already on scene––no lights, but I need to get there ASAP and clear the roadway. Routine patrol? Stop the driver and get him to start clearing the roadway with my assistance. Tailing someone on an active wire case? (I'm in narcotics.) Do nothing period, not even radio, until I get switched out and then I call it in via radio. (Of course, in that case it doesn't look as bad, since you wouldn't have known I was a policeman. Admittedly, the last scenario doesn't really apply, but out of the other six, in three cases I would appear to do nothing. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of lazy cops out there, but it is almost impossible to tell from the stated account. I realise things like this look bad, but sometimes there is no avoiding it. As a side note, I once got a complaint to internal affairs because I blocked a road. They called PIB with my license plate number and a fair description of my unmarked white CV (when I was in auto theft I had a white CV with 7 blue, one white, one amber, and 10 red lights to the rear, and my car was pretty universally known around town,) and complained on me. And why was I stopped in the middle of St. Charles Ave., you ask? Because someone had dropped a bunch of lumber in the road and everyone was just driving up onto the nuetral ground and streetcar tracks to get around it. When I drove up on it I stopped, turned on my rear lights, put the lumber on the grass strip by the sidewalk, and cleared the dang road. Still pissed someone off. |
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End of shift. Call it in to the next shift and fill out paperwork on the other stuff he did that day. Next shift guy goes right to scene to see if it is still a mess and do what is necessary. I don't honestly know? That could be. I wonder how he would feel if someone got killed in the intersection cause he didn't stop. Killed? please do explain. I know the world is full of retards, and if this was a freeway or other high speed through fare maybe, but a low speed intersection, with cars stopped already?(which will cause a slow down of gawkers) we can't protect everybody from them selves, we try, but minimal effort is required from the public. |
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End of shift. Call it in to the next shift and fill out paperwork on the other stuff he did that day. Next shift guy goes right to scene to see if it is still a mess and do what is necessary. I don't honestly know? That could be. I wonder how he would feel if someone got killed in the intersection cause he didn't stop. Killed? please do explain. I know the world is full of retards, and if this was a freeway or other high speed through fare maybe, but a low speed intersection, with cars stopped already?(which will cause a slow down of gawkers) we can't protect everybody from them selves, we try, but minimal effort is required from the public. Not a low speed intersection. 45MPH zone. Sure, the current cars sitting there know what happened, but it only takes one inattentive driver to ruin someone's day. All in all, I didn't think of all the possible reasons why he didn't stop. I wonder if the guy in the pickup did? All the tile was broke, the cop kept right on going. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy in the truck did the same thing. |