Police have no speed limit

[El Camexican]

You said it señor. The police department is about the only government run agency besides the taxation branches that can turn a profit and does not need direct tax dollars to survive. It is accomplishes this by generating revenue by issuing fines. While there is no written rule I have been told by officers I know that there are quotas placed on them by their superiors i.e X times hours in patrol car has to = $omething. Simple economics, if all they did was write warnings all day your taxes would spike.

There is no money in busting a kid with a pin joint, or breaking up domestic disputes (every cops favorite activity ), so they have to hand out fines to cover all the other non-profit tasks they do each and every day that keep us safe.

[El Camexican]

it's funny how all of the sudden everybody drives so perfectly when there is a Police car around...

Speak for yourself. Some of the most boneheaded things I’ve ever done on wheels have been right in front of cops.

[TrickShot]

Frankly, I would like to see them stiffen up enforcement on alot of the "petty" traffic violations... changing lanes without turn signal, aggressive driving, failure to move over for stopped police/emergency personnel on the side of a major highway, towing/hauling way out of class for the vehicle towing/hauling, no lights on in inclement weather when visibility is poor...... to name a few.... But I know some things are more or less "pile-on" things they will hit you with if you are the cause of an accident and not something they can initiate a traffic stop solely for.

All of these and several others I didn't mention do pose a significant threat to public safety on the highways. I think overall, pretty much everybody could stand to take a deep breath and chill the frick out on the roads, LE and private citizen alike.

But it's funny how all of the sudden everybody drives so perfectly when there is a Police car around... That tells me people do in fact know how to properly drive..when they need to.

The ATA did a Police ride-along with a trucker sort of thing a few years back. Most cops after spending the day in the passenger seat of a big rig seeing how people behave around trucks when they don't think a cop is watching couldn't believe they were traveling the same roads they usually patrolled.

Tennessee has a Semi to catch violations such as seatbelts, texting, unsafe lane change/driving etc. The truck was seized from a drug dealer and repainted to match TN Troopers cars, with lights and all. This pic was taken at my companys terminal in Chattanooga TN

[Scootertrash]

These are some of the things I like about cop bashing threads:

however yes it does suck to get stuck behind one playing interstate pace car.

If they are playing "pace car" and going the speed limit, what's the problem?

they do it around here deliberately to catch speeders.

And if you're not speeding then you have nothing to worry about, right?

was on way to work one day and a guy decided to pass everyone on the shoulder and got nabbed by the cop at the front. felt bad for the guy because if the cop had been doing his job he would be enforcing left lane=passing lane law.

If the cop was going the speed limit and the rest of the traffic was going the speed limit, the left lane=passing lane law wouldn't matter. The guy would be speeding in the left lane too, and still get a ticket when he rolled up on the cop. AFAIC if you rip down the shoulder passing cars in a fit of road rage, you deserve a careless/reckless driving ticket too. Driving down the shoulder is a jackhole move that could cause an accident.

10 over without the lights on, like the rest of us, is fine but around here they consistently do 80-90 with no lights. I drive this speed normally and the few times i have been pulled over for it the officers are always super pissy with me for driving so fast. because "they are trained professionals."

So did you tail these cops or are you guessing that they are doing 80-90? Do you have experience in visual clocking of speeding cars?
Are you saying you "normally" drive 80-90 mph? And you've only been pulled over a few times?

Have you ever taken a defensive driving course, or a course similar to the ones that some cops take to sharpen driving skills? They're better trained than you.

[RIDE-RED 250r]

Fabio: you are right about the uber-courteous.. It can be very dangerous playing "traffic cop" for the sake of being nice. People get confused, accidents happen. I have witnessed it personally. I was on a 4 lane boulevard in a smallish city near MIK6's place. A vehicle was waiting to come out of a side street on my left to make a left turn and go the same direction I was heading. Someone coming the other way stopped to let the person out... ON a 4-lane road, not a good idea. So you can probably predict, the car pulls out right in front of a JB Hunt truck coming at me in their left lane that didn't realize the car to his right stopped to let someone out.... Needless to say, it was just a minor fender bender, but that JB Hunt driver's day just got long and crappy.


But then there are those who occupy the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Put both groups on the same highways and this mess we have is what we get.

And then there are those who truly are clueless about right of way and general traffic rules. I actually spoke to an ignoramous who said that when she sees a construction zone with a lane closure ahead she intentionally stays in the lane closing as long as possible because in her feeble mind she believes it keeps traffic moving better....

I no longer drive tractor trailer. Did it long enough. I started a new job at my town highway department the first of this year and I like it alot better. I still drive trucks, they just have one hell of a cow catcher on the front!! People tend to give me room in that 10 wheeler with 14' of iron hanging off it! LOL!

[Scootertrash]

Let's not forget about the people who hit their brakes on the freeway to let drivers on the entrance ramp merge into traffic. It's the merging drivers responsibility to adjust their speed to merge, not the other way around. Drivers Ed 101.

[fabiodriven]

Which reminds me of my favorite move ever- Stopping at the bottom of an on ramp as they're trying to merge into traffic that's doing 65.

[Red Rider]

It's the merging drivers responsibility to adjust their speed to merge, not the other way around. Drivers Ed 101.

Exactly! I see this all the time. drivers coming down the onramp, just cruising like they're out for a beautiful, Sunday drive. By the time they reach the bottom of the onramp, after having wasted the whole length of it, they're only going 40-45 mph, and then try to merge into traffic that's going 60-65. Just fricken brilliant!

Which reminds me of my favorite move ever- Stopping at the bottom of an on ramp as they're trying to merge into traffic that's doing 65.

Glad to say I've never seen this manuever.

[Scootertrash]

Yup Fabio, I've seen that one too. Marooons! One the very few times I actually tailgate is coming down a ramp behind someone driving like they are going thru the drive thru at MikeyD's, giving them the "git movin'!! Hand signal

[El Camexican]

Which reminds me of my favorite move ever- Stopping at the bottom of an on ramp as they're trying to merge into traffic that's doing 65.

As my Dad says everyone someone pulls a move like that “He’s been driving 40 years and never had an accident… caused a few dozen though”

[bkm]

These are some of the things I like about cop bashing threads:



If they are playing "pace car" and going the speed limit, what's the problem?


And if you're not speeding then you have nothing to worry about, right?



If the cop was going the speed limit and the rest of the traffic was going the speed limit, the left lane=passing lane law wouldn't matter. The guy would be speeding in the left lane too, and still get a ticket when he rolled up on the cop. AFAIC if you rip down the shoulder passing cars in a fit of road rage, you deserve a careless/reckless driving ticket too. Driving down the shoulder is a jackhole move that could cause an accident.




So did you tail these cops or are you guessing that they are doing 80-90? Do you have experience in visual clocking of speeding cars?
Are you saying you "normally" drive 80-90 mph? And you've only been pulled over a few times?

Have you ever taken a defensive driving course, or a course similar to the ones that some cops take to sharpen driving skills? They're better trained than you.

This guy^^^^^ Pffft, look at him, trying to use logic and rational thought.

[DohcBikes]

You pretty much answered your own question, revenue, revenue, revenue. I am speaking for the agencies I've worked for and the ones that surround my area. It's all about the money and you are evaluated based on the numbers you produce.

I have worked with guys who couldn't work a simple stealing to save their lives, but could stroke the hell out of a traffic ticket, and they are the ones who rise to the top. Unless you work for a big agency with real crime, police work is not rewarded, but writing tickets and producing revenue is.

You also have to remember what is the one thing you do on a daily basis where you can be observed by law enforcement without cause.................driving. Most crimes happen behind closed doors and are not observed by police and are 99% of the time only aware of such because it's been brought to their attention. So they fall back on the one thing they can observe constantly, and that is everyone driving down the road.

Most of the time if a guy is speeding, he's probably going to a call on the other side of the town and may have his response times monitored like a hawk by his supervisors, so he kicks the speed up a notch. Does that make it right? No. But it's the nature of the beast.

I know the county where I live in, there are about 8-10 deputies (sometimes less) on at any given time and cover about 700 square miles. Do the math regarding response times and speed limits.

Did I forget to mention that was rhetorical? Ooops.

Glad to hear some truth on the matter

[trike savior]

See this is what I love about cop threads on this forum. I give my opinion and then get nothing but grief from cops and daisy do-gooders about how bad my opinions are and how much of a jerk I am for driving the way I do.

Keep in mind I speak strictly from the stance of big city driving. Which is a big shock for most rural folk how and the speeds we drive. Driving 55 on highways around here actually opens you up to a lot more danger than traveling 65-70 like everyone else.

BKM said I need to choose one stance: thought I was clear that cops should do 10 over like everyone else. And I also appreciate the honest insight of our law enforcement community’s core values.

I have no problem with cops doing the speed limit but the ONLY time they do it is when they are on Bull$#!t trying to catch speeders or maybe need a confidence boost. Yes, I am usually the a$$hole who stops the BS and does 5 over right past them, and end up taking a whole bunch of followers with me. Admittedly I’ve been lucky and gotten away with it. But these days I have heard some agencies are now desperate and writing tickets for five over, so might think about it next time.

Don’t get me started on people that come to a complete stop to merge. Totally agree it is day 1 stuff that I see too often, and believe is the reason Chicago rush hour traffic has gotten as bad as it is now. Not sure if it is a ticket able offense but should be if it is not.

If I have the passing lane law incorrect than I would appreciate it if a law enforcement official would correct me. But my understanding is IT IS ILLEGAL TO SIT IN THE LEFT LANE of a multi-lane highway. This law is not only supposed to help increase the flow of traffic but keep a lane open for emergency vehicles. So the correct way to use the left lane is to be passing a slower vehicle and then get back over. Or if you travel at my speeds then you can stay there if you are consistently passing vehicles. YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG IF you are in the left lane and: 1) you are doing the same speed as the person to your right or 2) there is no one in the lane next to you. This is one law I wish law enforcement would enforce more. I am sick of running up on people doing the speed limit in the left lane and refuse to move, forcing me and countless others to pass on the right. Wouldn’t make me so angry if there was not a law against it.

So scootertrash this would have been relevant during the time I talked about because there was a line of cars sitting in the left lane not passing, everyone doing the same speed as the officer, 3 lanes wide (I call them jag-off walls). This made it so those of us that would have sped by, couldn’t, and would have saved that citizen a reckless driving ticket. ALSO the line of cars behind this cop was about a ½ mile long (that I could see behind me), what if there was an ambulance (with someone going to die) back there the officer could not see. How would they ever get by?

And I know the speed the cops around here travel because when they get about ¼ mile ahead I pull out and follow them at the same speed. The safest place to speed is often behind a cop. However if you are going to try this keep a safe distance and an eye in the rear view mirror because they sometimes travel in packs and the guy following him can be some distance behind. Pull out too soon and the second one might get ya.

I generally stick to no more than 10 over when driving in town. I realized in college 90% of my tickets from 16-20 were in town speeding. As soon as I stopped speeding in these areas I stopped getting so many tickets. There are just too many places for cops to hide and more officers per miles of heavily traveled roads. The odds are against you.

On the other hand highways are much easier to get away with speeding and if you can keep your high speed constant it is possible to really cut some time off a journey. My 2 most common destinations are Chicago to southern IL or Chicago to Iron Mountain MI. Both are roughly 5 hour trips at 70-75 mph (limit mostly 65mph) I found by keeping speed constant at 90-95 I could shave almost an hour off my travel time. The fastest I ever did Chicago to Carbondale was a little over 3 hours. But that was stupid fast, right after I modified my Mark VII (7), fairly constantly above 100mph with a few top out runs. Ford A9P computer limit 140 something mph. And before you get your panties in a bunch, let’s be serious, if you have never done something like this at least once in a fast car, it is because you have never had the chance or are too much of a tight wad.

As far as cops being better drivers, if you really believe that you are horribly naïve. The amount of police crash videos I have seen on the internet are proof that thought is BS. Defensive driving schools are a great tool to help but that and any civilian sport involving pushing a motor vehicle to the edge of its limits and beyond, will make you a better driver and more prepared when things go wrong. The amount of police crashes also prove no matter who you are, if you push it often enough, you will get bit from time to time. I think most are good drivers even though I have seen a few that were ridiculously simple maneuvers they crashed on. Not to mention how many forget to put it in park during a stop. LOL

In my opinion the most dangerous drivers on the road are the ones that consider themselves safe drivers in their own mind. Hands at 10 and 2, hunched over with face 6 inches from steering wheel, seatbelt on, doing 5 under the limit and stopping to merge. Ok exaggerations but you get the point, the average everyday driver, the 90% who has no interest in taking a course or even going and doing some doughnuts in a parking lot when it snows, getting some kind of experience of a vehicle out of control under safe conditions. These are the people that when they need to make an evasive action or lose control in bad weather, are not prepared to perform the proper actions and end up endangering their lives and those around them.

And even though I am a habitual speeder, I am all for police cracking down on more moving violations. I may speed but I obey every rule of the road and am sick of watching people change lanes without a signal, talking on cell phones and so many other things.

the best way to do this is to go completely to unmarked cars. that is the way quite a few municipalities have gone around here and I know Racine WI has most of their new vehicles coming unmarked. Hard to tell the new interceptor Taurus is really hard to tell from the civilian counterpart.

I got a ticket this past November up there. was cutting through gaps in traffic and blasted past the guy at over 100 mph (he was traveling in the traffic). just as I went past him I thought to myself that could have been a cop car, nailed the brakes hard and half a second later my valentine (radar detector) went off and I heard the sirens shortly after. one of the cooler cops I have encountered in a while, he said "I don't know how fast you were going when you went past me but I got you at 80". that was 1 of a short list of tickets I gladly accepted.


Sorry for the long post but wanted to express my full opinion.

[bkm]

Did you email your password to Barnett?

I honestly just skimmed over it like a Barnett post,but this was my favorite part:

"I may speed but I obey every rule of the road"

[El Camexican]

FACT: As long as an officer is using engine lubricant with a minimum .467421% ZDDP content, iridium plugs gapped to 1.734mm, 92+ octane fuel and a tire pressure of no less than 16 sq. meganewtons there is no reason to question their speed.