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My run in with THE law

438 views 15 replies 14 participants last post by  labby 
#1 ·
Tonight about 9:15p wife and I were driving on a very dark two lane road approaching an intersection with a traffic light when we saw two sets of flashing lights ahead. I slowed down and saw two police cruisers on the far side of the intersection. Both vehicles are pointed in the same direction of traffic. They are beyond the intersection on our side of the road. One is pulled off the road by a good four to five fee and has the flashers in the rear window. The second cruiser is on the road close to the edge of the road. It has red and blue lights on the roof bar that are flashing. There is oncoming traffic. The headlights make it hard to see and it is a very dark stretch of road. There are no police officers in sight. Just the two cars on the side of the road. Wife and I cannot make sense of what we are seeing

I stopped in the intersection. Our light is green. No on coming traffic so I pass the the cruiser giving it a wide berth going into the the empty opposing traffic left turn lane. After I pass the cruisers I hear a muffled "Hey!" Look over my shoulder, look in the mirrors see nothing but the headlights and flashers of the two sitting cruisers so keep going. I pass by some opposing traffic then see in the distance a large truck probably a fire truck in my lane facing me. I stop and determine the truck is not moving. Nothing coming up behind me in the mirrors. More traffic in the opposing lane I wait for it to pass. Just past the fire truck I see two more cruisers with lights flashing parked nose to tail on the other side of the road. No officers in sight. As I pass the back end of the fire truck I see one fireman come into the lane from around the back side of the fire truck. Beyond the fire truck off the road and down the ditch is a rolled over SUV. About a half mile or more past the accident scene I see flashing lights coming up behind me and pull off the side of the road. The cruiser pulls in behind behind and I wait almost two minutes before he shows up at the window. Several cars passed by from behind while we waited. I rolled down the window, turned on the inside light and got my driver's license out, and kept my hands on the wheel.

When he does show up he is talking condescendingly and asks why I ran a police road block. The lane was closed he said. I told him politely I did not recognize it as a road block. It looked like one unit pulled up next to another off to the side, and no one was in sight. He says he could give me a ticket because I was over the double line, and that I had an attitude towards him.

I told him where I came from, the police used flares to block the entire lane, had their cruisers parked across the lane at an angle and were out in plain sight directing traffic. He then admitted he was talking with the other officer between the two vehicles by the front wheels, and said if I wanted to keep giving him attitude then he would issue a ticket and let the judge sort it out. I almost said do it, but instead said I did not want a ticket, but it did not look like a road block. He and Wife have a nice conversation about how Michigan State Troopers direct traffic. He backed off and said have a good night and that was it. He never asked for ID or registration.

I am tempted to call the Sheriff's office to complain about the stop, and to make the observation the way the road was allegedly blocked was confusing and made the accident scene unsafe for those working the accident. If the road was being controlled then why didn't the officer immediately follow me? He could have stopped me long before I got to the accident scene. He could have radioed to one of the officers closer to the fire truck to stop me. Instead I got stopped a good ways past the accident by the guy who was out of position.

Maybe I should just let it slide and be grateful he did not issue a ticket.
 
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#3 ·
I would send a very polite email to the chief or sherrif suggesting they review how they mark a closed road. Two patrol cars parked side by side with no one in sight does not a road block make. They should have been in the intersection directing traffic to turn away from the accident scene. In AZ they would have put out flares to get you to turn. A few flares could very well save a life.
 
#4 ·
Don't let it slide. Nothing ever gets better if law-abiding citizens don't speak up. It hasn't happened to us for awhile, but my black husband used to get pulled over at least once a month so that the local CHP could check to make sure the car wasn't stolen. Always on the same stretch of road, never got written a ticket. On more than one occasion I was asked if there was any problem or if everything was alright. Clearly there was an assumption that the only way a black guy drives a nice car with a white woman in it is if he's carjacked it.

We worked our way very far up the food chain with the CHP and amazingly enough he hasn't been pulled over in more than a year. If we hadn't said something, nobody ever would have known what was happening.

Make a written complaint. They put people in danger and then treated you like crap because you said so. Their superiors may not care, but they're never even going to know it's a problem till somebody says something.
 
#5 ·
Andy, file a complaint stating the facts. Present it to the Department head if you know what department employed this officer and any other departments with vehicles you saw on the road around the scene that night. To the other departments you might want to present it as a procedural concern for the officers and fire fighters safety. Send a copy to a local media person and or voice fo the people.

As an FYI, I am guessing the reason it took so long for him to approach you is that he was running your tag first. That is standard procedure.
 
#7 ·
Similar to what others have said, I would send in a polite report to the head of the department. Basically what you wrote with time of incident added. Ask for clarity on how you should recognize a roadblock verses and traffic stop or something else on the side of the road.
 
#14 ·
Even cops have bad days, but that's not nice when you're on the receiving end. We got stopped by a cop in Northern Ontario. We were being extra careful to obey the speed limit through a construction zone where the speed went from 90 to 70 and back and forth due to bad signage. He ran our plates and got nothing because he failed to notice our plates were from BC and not Ontario.
 
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