Behind the Wheel - Mar 26, 2008 - Good Cop, Bad Cop!
Good Cop, Bad Cop!
I want you to focus your energies on the reckless behaviour of many police officers. I realize that not all of them behave this way but it is a significant number of them. Many of them don't seem to respect the traffic laws. Where do they get this attitude from?
I always held to the thought that if I couldn't follow the rule myself, I couldn't write a traffic ticket to someone else for that particular behaviour either. Since I knew what the rules were, I expected my driving to be an example for others to follow, not to criticize. This is what the public expects from the police and they are correct to complain when it is not delivered.
Seeing this occur bothered me too. If I was working, I would sometimes comment over the radio suggesting that they either turn on their emergency lights or slow down. Even though response without emergency equipment can be justified legally, the public does not understand why it is being done and see it as an example of poor driving rather than the hastened response that it was.
This couldn't be justified when it was the officer driving their own vehicle while off duty though. My policing career was done in medium sized detachments and that was not enough for anonymity. The public soon knew which officers followed the rules and which didn't, which probably brings us directly to the request for this column.
What to do? Make the same driving complaint that you would for any other driver on our highways. If the driving was justified, the supervisor should be able to find out why and provide an explanation. If not, police officers can be issued traffic tickets too. Believe it or not, I've seen it done!
Reference Links
Have you ever met anyone who would admit to being less than a better than average driver?
Search Behind the Wheel at http://www.drivesmartbc.ca
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