Serve and protect my ***

Appologies to all the 'good' cops out there. But I have a rant.

Leaving the Tuning GTG (thanks TDI Racing) me and a yellow BMW are barreling down 71 at 90 to 100. Being the good 'german' driver I am I'm in the slow lane and up and over my hood comes a beer can. Odd thing to see on a highway.

We approach a Buick in the fast lane, which upon seeing the BMW and I cuts off the person in the slow lane. We blow by and I see the passenger drinking a can of beer and the two people in the back hanging out of the window yelling at me.

I pull over and drop it into 4th. I have never, ever called 911, but I decide that I should. I let the Buick pass me and everyone is still drinking. I get up the guts to call 911. I give them everything they ask for. I decide to tail the car to make sure everything is in order.

40 miles later I call 911 again. Report it again. Ask them to please send someone before anyone gets hurt. We are not in rural Ohio, we're headed into 4 lanes of Cinci traffic. The driver is rather 'good' however you can tell that he's drifting lanes. The lady on the phone assures me that they will 'resend' a unit.

30 miles later, we're 20 miles into Kentucky. The kids in the back start turning around and looking at me. They know something is up because I've been tailing them (rather badly) for 70 miles. The DRIVER starts emptying bottles of beer out the window. They then get off on an exit with 3 lanes: left, left/right, right. They pull into the center lane. I can't be too obvious so I pick a direction and stick with it. Watching the driver's eyes, the second I choose left, he chooses right.

I let them go. I'm sorry. I gave them 70 miles of my time (I missed my exit by 20 miles).

I've been picked up twice for WALKING home from bars. Close to $2000, 24 hours of community service and probation because I made the right choice and walked home. I was not peeing on any buildings, throwing rocks at any cars. I was stumbling. The only ticket I've ever gotten was 85 in a 65 at 3 am. With no one on the road. I didn't pass 3 cars in an hour, if that. I've yet to see the 'serve and protect' i hear about and see more of a 'watch out, because we're your babysitter'

It may be the mentality of Purdue cops vs Cinci cops, but I'm sorry. I called twice. There were open containers in the car and everyone was very drunk, save the driver who may have been a bit better than the rest.

Lets hope a light blue Buick doesn't get into an accident tonight and hurt anyone else. I also just hope anyone else reporting crimes isn't ignored.

No State Troopers available to arrest drunk drivers that other motorists report is likely the fault of the budget crisis that states have faced since about 2002.

In the summer of 2003, I did an internship with the Illinois State Police for my bachelors degree. The whole time I was there, there were very obvious signs of financial distress throughout the State Police District Headquarters.

Memos were circulated stating that the troopers could only gas up the cruisers at certain brand fuel stations, because a whole list of other brands had cut off supply due to non-payment of the state fuel accounts. The Jiffy Lube down the road from the HQ cut off all lube services because of non-payment. The only place to get vehicle work done was at the Ford dealership (at inflated rates) because the owner of the Ford dealership knew he would eventually be paid by the state and he was charging a good interest rate on the late accounts. No new vehicles were being purchased by the state - to this day there have been no police cruisers purchased newer than 2002, and the old ones are passing 100,000 miles (which is a HUGE amount of miles for police service)!

Worse still, the State of Illinois is self-insured for vehicle accidents cause by state employees - that's to say that they just pay claims from accidents with private citizens out of an account. Well, the last few fiscal years the account has run dry with 4 or 5 months left in the budget year. If a private citizen had a vehicle damaged in an accident caused by a state employee driving a state vehicle, that private citizen had to wait months for the new fiscal year to start so that the account would have money in it for payment. If a state employee totaled your car in a traffic accident, could you wait 5 months for the money for a replacement? That's the current governor's solution to fixing holes in the budget - push payment of bill into the next fiscal year.

How does this relate to your concern? Every day that I did my internship, budget cuts in personnel meant that there were two state troopers patrolling 3 counties. TWO troopers in THREE counties. I'd sit at the front desk answering the phone, and if something important enough came across the dispatch the desk seargant from operations would have to run out to his car and try to respond if the other two patrol officers weren't nearby - leaving no seargant in command of HQ operations. Probably the same thing happening in Ohio. Not enough budget to keep a fair amount of troopers on the roads.

Wow. Given my penchant for not ever obeying any speed limits, maybe I should move to someplace like that!

On second thought; writing speeding tickets makes money. Chasing up a drunk driver requires work.

Some parts of Ohio are notorious for being speed traps.

Not the places I drive, though.

(Then again, the roads are such that, with the hills and curves and all, driving more than 10 over becomes a little tricky in my Civic... I usually run 5 over...)

I recently discovered the quality of our police force too -> http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=145279

I'm still steaming from that...

I like the approach by Texas DPS, it is encouraged that you speed in Texas.

You speed, you get a ticket, you pay big $$$ for the ticket, you go to traffic school, you get the ticket expunged from your record, you pay big $$$ to attend traffic school, get back out on the road. Not having learned your lesson because there are no legal or raised insurance rates ramifications, you get back out there and speed some more.

You repeat this process as often as they will let you.

Texas DPS makes money. You keep your license, and drive as fast as you want.

The only people screwed are the insurance companies. Win-win-win situation.

I have worked for the ISP for 10 years....I have been driving the same squad car now for 8 years and 185,000 miles. Some of my coworkers are driving rust buckets with 200k plus. This is what happens when the state government is 5 BILLION (yes, billion with a B) dollars in the hole, and have a Democrat for a governor that thinks of public safety as an after thought. Don't get me started...LOL

Oh....and when I started, our district had over 50 troopers patrolling the road. We now have less than 20, to cover 5 counties and 3 shifts....do the math. The public should be outraged.

To GoFaster....to clear up question of where revenue from speeding citations goes....my dept. doesn't see 1 cent of the revenue earned from a traffic citation conviction. The revenue is divided up three ways: county, township, and state road funds. The money goes towards maintaining the roads that you and I drive on every day. The only money that our dept. gets is $100 for each D.U.I. conviction, which goes towards buying new equipment.

Peoria_TDI said:

To GoFaster....to clear up question of where revenue from speeding citations goes....my dept. doesn't see 1 cent of the revenue earned from a traffic citation conviction. The revenue is divided up three ways: county, township, and state road funds. The money goes towards maintaining the roads that you and I drive on every day. The only money that our dept. gets is $100 for each D.U.I. conviction, which goes towards buying new equipment.

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**cough**

Peoria_TDI said:

Oh....and when I started, our district had over 50 troopers patrolling the road. We now have less than 20, to cover 5 counties and 3 shifts....do the math. The public should be outraged.

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So you probably work out of the ISP district office in Germantown Hills? I drive past there everyday on my way to work in Pekin. I noticed there always seems to be a few tired looking old squad cars parked out back.

If you see my car please say hi by turning off the radar gun.

Peoria_TDI said:

To GoFaster....to clear up question of where revenue from speeding citations goes....my dept. doesn't see 1 cent of the revenue earned from a traffic citation conviction. The revenue is divided up three ways: county, township, and state road funds. The money goes towards maintaining the roads that you and I drive on every day. The only money that our dept. gets is $100 for each D.U.I. conviction, which goes towards buying new equipment.

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Then it is obvious that Chicagoans don't drive fast enough.

We need to drink more IOT fix the roads, and get you guys some new cars.

Cheers

Gee....thats funny. I was leaving Tdifest last year and got pulled over in Ohio at 230 am with NO other cars on the road doing 75 mph. I got a ticket for it. Now I have to say that driving through upper Ohio is a god forsaken journey to begin with, but at 60 mph for the remainder of the trip and the usary tolls to boot.....AND A TICKET?! Thats just insulting. I dont feel bad for them at all. That was unecessary. In Massachusetts we have PLENTY of police, yet I can cruise the highway at 80mph....far above our 55-65 limits on a regular basis without much worry. And we have PLENTY of police to stop it.

If a person is endangering the public or themselves, they should be stopped and perhaps admonished, or given a citation. In the case of the beer can thowing group, perhaps they were a cops relatives.....Oh that NEVER happens. I have actual proof that it does. Perhaps they were in fact down on personnel, and unable to comply in a timely fashion..........that isnt even remotely believable in that area. For whatever reason, an inebriated driver and passengers may have escaped the law....why?

I gaurantee that if it were me in that car drinking, they would have deputized half the state to arrest me, so I dont buy the "we dont have enough personnel" bit. I dont know what happened, but it doesnt look kosher.

I'm not familiar with the laws here on this, or whether you can look up the plates... but if you've got proof somehow that they were driving drunk, maybe a citizen's arrest?

Like I said, I don't know whether it's possible to do one here in OH...

Peoria_TDI said:

This is what happens when the state government is 5 BILLION (yes, billion with a B) dollars in the hole, and have a Democrat for a governor that thinks of public safety as an after thought.

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Gee, and look what a Republican is doing to the federal budget... The party makes no difference IMHO. Adding to the picture is the fact that police officers don't always drive like they are concerned about "public safety". Many times I've seen our local officer roar through the school zone in front of my school at 45-50 MPH, lights flashing & siren blaring, chasing down a vehicle that passed through the 20MPH school zone at 30 MPH. Now, I ask, does he really have the safety of the kids in mind when he does that... or is he after the the ticket and "earned" revenue the city will gain? If I drove like a lot of police officers I see I would probably get a ticket from those officers. There is definately a double standard. Until that goes away and officers start obeying the laws they are supposed to be enforcing, I'm not much in favor of adding to their budgets. BTW I have seen three Dodge Charger Hemis being driven by the Oregon State Police this summer. Why, oh why do they need those. I say buy them a Camry... or other vehicle like most of the rest of us drive. Those vehicles encourage the officers driving driving them to engage in high-speed pursuits IMHO. Sorry for the rant.
No tichets in 30 years of driving!
-Chuck

I think that MIGHT be a photochop, though...

Ya think? LOL

Back in the early to mid 90's, Oregon and Washington had such inflated state highway police forces it was ridiculous: I once saw thirteen (13), yes, THIRTEEN state cop cars pulled over fourteen(!!) drivers in a 1.4 miles section of I-5 southbound near Olympia, Washington.
I sh|te you not.

That is why the voters have consistently cut state trooper budgets since the mid-90's. Period. Nothing but Nottingham Sheriffs. A police force that large is only good for extracting a road tax from its citizens and nothing else.

I want to say I've seen pics of somewhere in VA using MkV Jetta 2.5s, though...

Hmm, should I 'copvert' my Jetta to that? The police bumper would be kinda fun...

-J

A quarter century ago there were some Rabbit police cars in North Carolina.

cmitchell said:

BTW I have seen three Dodge Charger Hemis being driven by the Oregon State Police this summer. Why, oh why do they need those.
-Chuck

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Full sized cars are a necessity for police work, I'll give them that. There has to be plenty of room in the front seat for radio gear, a computer terminal, storage for flashlights, possibly room for a radar unit, a shotgun rack, etc. Behind the front seat there has to be room for a partiton to separate the back seat, but still leave enough room so that the front seat won't be shoved all the way forward. The trunk has to be downright huge to hold a full-sized fire extinguisher, possibly riot gear, a few milk crates full of road flares and other assorted gear, and bunches of other junk necessary for the job. Rear wheel drive is nice for more control and a far better weight balance. With that much weight in the car a V-8 engine is a need for pursuit - otherwise what good is having a car that can be outrun by any other car on the road?

A Toyota Camry? To small in the front, no room in the back for the cage. The GVWR is probably way too low for a full load of equipment for a police squad. FWD police cars are atrocious to try powering around corners, although the recent Chevy Impalas aren't horrible at that.

The specifics for the car leave three two choices - Ford Crown Victoria, Chevy Impala, or Dodge Charger. The Crown Victorias are a bit underpowered, and have that nasty exploding fuel tank problem that Ford hasn't voluntarily fixed. The Chevy Impala has a FWD V-8 - which if you read Car & Driver you'll find the driving dynamics of this car to be horrible. The Dodge Charger is new, and an outstanding car for police service. Any way you want it, the domestic three all price their police cars within $500 of each other to try and get the business.

Except for SWB, kinda short in the rear...

Somehow in Europe, they get away with things like Passat TDIs...

ever since i "discovered" the TDI, a tuned TDI would be ideal for police work! like an RC2 passat! man! those crown vic v-8s are gas hogs especially the way they are driven...

Saw the Charger up here in Minnesota, you aren't sitting in the back of that car unless you turn sideways.

Honest, I ran the Ohio turnpike during early July getting 52 MPG at 70 MPH, approx 20 OHP during that drive, so they aren't running short of money.

Although I have had a few tickets in my past...

Ohio - every time i drive through it - man, they have an insane number of troopers out on the highway looking for speeders... it's really really annoying... and i don't really even speed much, especially compared to most

Today, I was going a little over the speed limit (80 indicated... more like 70 actual... the minivan I was driving has a horrible speedo...), and a trucker cuts me off and drops to ~65 indicated (so about 55 actual).

And then, a few hundred feet later, we go right past a speed trap.



Thank you trucker! (FWIW, there was a line of traffic that I could tell wanted to go faster than I was going, but I was passing, dammit... so he saved a bunch of people from beng targets...)

MrMopar said:

Full sized cars are a necessity for police work, I'll give them that. There has to be plenty of room in the front seat for radio gear, a computer terminal, storage for flashlights, possibly room for a radar unit, a shotgun rack, etc. Behind the front seat there has to be room for a partiton to separate the back seat, but still leave enough room so that the front seat won't be shoved all the way forward. The trunk has to be downright huge to hold a full-sized fire extinguisher, possibly riot gear, a few milk crates full of road flares and other assorted gear, and bunches of other junk necessary for the job. Rear wheel drive is nice for more control and a far better weight balance. With that much weight in the car a V-8 engine is a need for pursuit - otherwise what good is having a car that can be outrun by any other car on the road?

A Toyota Camry? To small in the front, no room in the back for the cage. The GVWR is probably way too low for a full load of equipment for a police squad. FWD police cars are atrocious to try powering around corners, although the recent Chevy Impalas aren't horrible at that.

The specifics for the car leave three two choices - Ford Crown Victoria, Chevy Impala, or Dodge Charger. The Crown Victorias are a bit underpowered, and have that nasty exploding fuel tank problem that Ford hasn't voluntarily fixed. The Chevy Impala has a FWD V-8 - which if you read Car & Driver you'll find the driving dynamics of this car to be horrible. The Dodge Charger is new, and an outstanding car for police service. Any way you want it, the domestic three all price their police cars within $500 of each other to try and get the business.

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I totally disagree with nearly everything you've just said. How many full sized high HP gas guzzlers do you see as police vehicles in Europe? Pursuit? Honestly that is rarely needed in police work and we shouldn't encourage that anyway. Good way for innocent bystanders to get hurt. The problem I see is that given a car like the Charger the officers take on a Mr. Macho persona. I say give them a reasonable car and expect them to follow the rules like everyone else has to. Too many drive like they're above the law... and it seems to be getting worse... around here at least.
-Chuck

jrivers804 said:

A quarter century ago there were some Rabbit police cars in North Carolina.

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Winston-Salem NC to be exact . VW even had the a tv commercial toughting the fact Penn built VW Rabbits were roaming the streets on Winston-Salem as cop cars .

Cop cars in NYC have long used V-6s due to the lack of any practical highway use. Highway patrol cars can and do see some high speed travel, but big city types could easily get by with something else. A diesel would be good for all the idling that cop cars do.
However, in a big metro area, the need for the afformentioned riot gear, fire extinguisher, shotgun, etc. would be more necessary.
I did hear that Chicago PD was kicking around the idea of the Ford Five Hundred with AWD for Chicago winters.

cptmox said:

I did hear that Chicago PD was kicking around the idea of the Ford Five Hundred with AWD for Chicago winters.

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You mean Ford's blatantly obvious, oversized copy of a B5 Passat