| Author | Message | ||
     Midknyte |
We were on the receiveing end of a hit & run last night. Everyone ok. Damage nominal. Was able to give chase to get plate, vehicle description, description of driver, and even a picture if only a blurry moving one. Pulled over at instruction of 911 to wait for an officer to make a report. When officer arrived, I was very careful to allow him to remain in a position of authority as I always do - cabin lights on, engine off, hands in view on steering wheel. I asked him if he wished for me to stay in the car or to get out. Tells me to get out and we begin... He actually gets disturbed with me for not being able to tell him EXACTLY where it occured. (It's the insterstate - not in front of a store or landmark, and the middle of the night...) "5 to 10 miles back from where we pulled over to wait for him" was not a good enough answer for him. Who keeps track of friggin mile markers? We work out an approximate point. From this point on he is prickish and treats me like any number of stupid people he has to deal with on a daily basis. I do not allow myself to loose my cool. I might have looked crossway at him at one or more time, but at no point do I raise my voice or resort to any gestures. No more or less nervous or wigged out than should be expected after being in a high speed accident... I give in the details. He repeats it back to me verbally. Goes back to squadcar and makes his report, comes back to relay things again and he's got it wrong. Again. And now he starts to get upset, with "me"... In the process of talking to him and him calling in the plate of the other vehicle, he writes down the name, address, age, and what I believe is the license info of the other driver on my paper and gives it to me. I know he's not supposed to do this. He tells me he is not supposed to do this. I take it and keep it. Other driver lives across state line and any more info I have is nothing less than bennificial for my insurance agent. So after doing my best to be patient with the treatment that I receive from him, he comes to the car, microphone on vest the whole time - I've no doubt it's on tape, and reminds me again that should not have given me the other drivers info and he then asks me if I have any complaints. I was pretty floored at this point as he seemed to have been subtley goading me the whole time to loose my cool so as to become beligerent for some reason (never did...). I told him "no, he came and did his job, what was there to complain about?" I took my paperwork and gave up on him at that point. It was the end of the transaction... So, I'd like to know if possible, what was he trying to accomplish. Was he trying to draw out a negative reaction from me for some ulterior motive? I've never been treated like this before, even when I have been at fault. Thanks. | ||
| Glitch |
Who knows. | ||
| Shea |
Not sure. All you can do is follow up on the report and make sure something is done about it and keep making sure they have the right info. Reminds me of something recently. I was cut off by a motorcyclist twice, once when the lanes were merging and again when I was in a turning lane. I honked at him the second time and he flipped me off and stopped so that I was sitting in the intersection, in the path of on coming traffic. He was obiously drunk, swinging back and forth and almost losing his balance sitting still. The officer failed to investigate at that time and missed the oppertunity to catch him drunk and take away his license. I phone back and the next officer I talked to agreed that it could have been handled differently....atleast, after finding out I was a medic for the same area they work in. | ||
| Kdan |
My guess is that he was high on donuts. | ||
| Hardcorps |
I don't know why you were miss treated, but the officer wants an exact location to locate debris. Especially any little piece of the lights or turnsignals to match to the offending vehicle. Just because you got a plate number that atleast in my experience is not enough to win in court. It is always frowned upon if the victim vehicle gives chase to the suspect vehicle, because of the potential hazard that you are creating to the other drivers on the road. As to the officers poor attitude, may I remind you that sometimes that officers have to work up to 16 hour shifts dealing with some of the worst of the worst of society. I am not saying that gives him the right to treat you bad, but were you treated that bad or were you still upset about the accident. It seems lately that every one on this board is quick to judge police officers. Maybe you were treated poorly and in that case you have every right to be upset, I just put out there a friendly reminder that your adrenaline was still sky high, and you might not have been the nicest person to deal with either. I know officers can be jerks, Look at Spidey's accident. I was present and the trooper that responded didn't want to listen to a word I said until I told him that I was a police officer. That is not right, but it didn't upset me and Spidey didn't end up getting a ticket so. Sorry not trying to hijack the thread. Hard Corps | ||
| Glitch |
Okay, if it's an excuse for cops to be nasty to folks, because they deal with the dregs day in and day out, it must mean it's a good excuse to be quick to judge cops after being treated nasty by them. | ||
| Naustin |
He probably didn't mean to be a jerk. He just has to put on his "attitude" when he goes to work to get though the day and deal with the crack-heads. It isn't something that can be turned off like a switch when he occasionaly has the opportunity to deal with a normal person. I do it at work too. My wife laughs at me when she comes in to work to see me because she says I have my "work voice". I actually speak differently, I guess... In a perfect world, the police would be specialized. One elite (special forces style)group to deal with the low lifes, violence, drugs, etc. and another group of less stressed-out, non-gun-toting, more people-oriented officers to deal with Joe Blow, average citizen in situations that have a low risk for violence.... Unfortunately that would mean hiring a lot more officers and we wouldn't be able to spend Trillions of dollars on wars anymore. Oh well. | ||
| Glitch |
In a perfect world the police would be un-employed. | ||
| Hammer71 |
Actually in a perfect world there would be no crime, hence no need for police. In a perfect world the police would be un-employed...........Until you need one. I personally give whats given to me in way of attitude and I work in one of the worst ghettos in New York. I work numerous hours and outside of work you would have no clue what I do for a living. To put on an attitude for work is bad practice..regardless of where you work or what types of people you deal with we all put our pants on the same way. | ||
| Naustin |
The duty of the police is to protect and Serve. Even if there is no crime, there is plenty for the Police to do. Change lightbulbs for old ladies. Walk children to school. Get cats out of trees. Etc. Too often the police forget that they are public servents whose main obligation is to HELP people, not just arrest them. | ||
| Midknyte |
It's not that I felt that I was treated particularly badly, I wasn't. Just not well. I just found it very very odd to have him ask me if I have any complaints [with him?]. I've never been asked that before and he was insistent for an answer. That was odd and is what I was curious for an opinion on... And yes. I know that I should not have given chase, but I wasn't in the mood to lay down and play full on victim. Too tired of other people not being held accountable for things... | ||
| Rhun |
When I got drafted into the MP Corp. I found that I had to be suspicious of every one to do my job. I didn't like that. I also found that I had to be assertive (not aggressive) to keep from getting my a* kicked. Maybe the cop realized he was overstepping things when you kept being congenial and that was his way of apologizing. Maybe the police send out random surveys. Employees in places that send out surveys are instructed to use key word to influence your response like "I hope everything was "extremely" well done for you' instead of 'hope all went well' That way you'll check the extremely well box instead of the satisfactory box. | ||
| Djkaplan |
I was run out of my lane by an idiot that passed in the emergency lane and then got stuck right in front of me at the next red light. I got his tag number, a vehicle description, and then I walked up to the drivers side and got a good look at the guy... "I need to be able to recall what you look like for the police" is what I told him (he took off... fast). Then I called the police and waited right at the intersection. The police came, eventually (apparently the worst place to call the police is a block away from the closest precinct). The tag number came up for a much older man in a totally different car when the officer ran it. The officer floored me when he said there wasn't anything he could do unless he witnessed it himself. I said, "The guy is driving with someone elses tag (a handicap tag, no less) on his car, he's driving like a drunken fool, one complaint has already been registered against him... and there isn't anything you can legally do?" BULLSHIT! I've been hassled for a burned out headlight, a broken windshield, and tailpipes exiting before the axle (even though plenty of totally stock vehicles come this way). But this guy didn't think that someone running people off the road in a car with a stolen tag was important enough to follow up on. Hell... at least the guy had two headlights, a good windshield, and tailpipes that exited past the rear axle. |
