ASK THE POLICE: Exempt From Vehicle Code?
SUBMITTED: It bugs me that cops, including ours, don’t often signal when turning or changing lanes. Is there a reason for that?
REPLY: ”To be effective as a patrol officer you need to constantly be shifting your focus to take in all of your surroundings. Many times I have made a last minute decision to make a turn in order to follow a suspicions vehicle, to check out something I just observed or have been dispatched to an emergency call. Unfortunately last minute turns do not always allow enough time to signal the turn. This is the exception and not the rule. I appreciate your comment and while bring this up as a reminder to our deputies at our shift briefings”.
Steve Arthur, Sergeant
Ventura County Sheriff’s Department
Ojai Police Department
402 South Ventura Street
Ojai, CA 9302805-646-1414
Sergeant Arthur,
I’m tired of hearing this type of excuse that cops provide for just about all their poor habits. I very often see cops all over the country speeding, making illegal lane changes, making illegal turns, tailgating, driving excessively slow for no reason, driving excessively fast for no reason, parking illegally, and just general poor driving.
Cops know that they won’t be pulled over or cited and do whatever they please on the roads.
Face it Sergeant, they are only human and not some super human crime fighting hero that is intensely focused at all times!
Sorry to be a bit harsh, but I’m really tired of it and I’m always watching…
Sergeant Arthur
Sorry that was a very weak response. Now if you would have said the officers should follow the same traffic laws as anyone else on the road I wouldn’t be writting on this blog. At least Sergeant admit police officers do screw up and need to be reminded they are not above the law eventhough they have the badge.
I wasn’t crying, at the time I was laughing because of the obsurdity of being tested for sobriety early in the morning, but did the cop really need to park going the wrong way either?
Compassionate Larry:
That’s why signs are posted for one-way streets. Take the ticket and stop crying.
Ok, I live in Ojai but this happened in Ventura. I was unfamiliar with Ventura at this time and when after crossing old main st. I saw that the road butted into the large park so I had to make a decision to go left or right. There was a patrol vehicle parked so I quickly turned right, the direction the patrol officer was parked I didn’t see the one way street sign. I have to admit I was fooled by the officer parked going against one way traffic. Well he saw me and quickly pulled me over. He made me take a sobriety test and he searched my car. He found nothing but he got to give me a ticket for driving the wrong way on a one way street. End of story. Seems like kind of a tricky way to boost revenue…. but it worked.
Dolf Star that is a bunch of b.s.–of course if they’re on a call and focused on pursuing someone I wouldn’t expect them to signal nor even stop for a stop sign or whatever–I know what the writer is talking about and I’m sure he or she means “when the cop is not on an emergency call.” Police Officers are held to very high standards and as the upholders of the law we LOOK to them for inspiration. Signalling a lane change surely should be automatic, and what dear person do we say about the cops who DO signal when they lane change? How about cell phone use–surely if it’s a duty call they should be exempt from the law (just like we are allowed to call 911 from a moving vehicle with a cell phone), but if they’re yakking to their wife about mundane affairs does that count? Are they above the law? How is daydreaming related to signalling a lane change? Why should cops then have to obey any laws since they are “in the zone” and focussed on other matters. I hold our police in the highest esteem and it pains me to hear people dissing them because they think “they’re above the law.”
I agree with Sergeant Arthur. Law enforcement officers must be “in the zone” at all times, that’s what we pay them to do. They are taught to be intently focused. Unfortunately they aren’t taught how to switch it off. This is one reason why they have such a high divorce rate. A daydreaming cop would be like a daydreaming brain surgeon…someone is going to die. So please, give them a break!!!