Re: Questions answered here
Nate, by law refusal to sign a aticket will get a free ride to jail. Signing says you agree to appear in court after you are released. Not siging means you refuse to appear, so you will be held to post a cash bond or held until court. We used to be able to jail anyone we felt wouldn't appear or pay the fine. It was standard to jail all speeders from out of state. Glad they changed that!<br />We sometimes use lights to get through traffic lights, then turn them off for a variety of reasons. It actually in heavy traffic takes me longer to get someplace with the lights on. Every car I get behind will jam the brakes, slow to 30 and start digging for registration or grabbing seatbelts. Not good when I am cuising 130mph! Also some calls like domestics or burglaries in progress I don't want to announce my arrival with lights and sirens, but I don't want to wait for traffic lights. I would like to say most of these cops are running what we call code 1. In a big hurry, but not at top response speed. I know some use it just to get through the lights which is a major abuse of power and a huge liability.Arrogant cops make me very mad. We have to be a little arrogant to take charge. Most of them let the bagde get to their head. <br />12footer, the free coffee and doghnuts is a nice offer for added protection. We used to have an all night gas station that gave us free fountain pop. Another that gave free coffee. One state trooper got complaints because he would stop in, grab a free pop and leave. He would then hang out for free coffee for hours, sometimes 4 hours a shot. I would take one small free pop, talk to the clerks then back on shift. I don't like free stuff. A local restaraunt/bar owner here tried to give me free pop. His bar was close to empty one night so I stopped in for a can of pop. He said it was on the house, I explained I couldn't take it and gave him a dollar. He said I see how this goes, and gave me 4 quarters in change. I talked for a few minutes and left leaving the pop on the counter. I couldn't owe this guy any favors!<br />Ken, that is the exact reason I do several drunk tests. The stress and nerves cause some people problems. And yes it is sometimes hard to stop the beating!<br />Fly Rod, I want to move to your town! After 9 years, being administration, I make 23,700 salery. No overtime in most Nebraska departments. The highest paid in this state is Omaha, around 60,000.<br />As for driving to a safe location to pull over, I am not sure the best way. We had a security guard around here a few years ago with a dash light. He was pulling people over, flashing his security guard badge, beating the crap out of them and leaving. Our advice was slow down, put on your hazard flashers and continue to the nearest well lighted place. BUT this may not work in all areas. If you have a cell phone call 911 and try to get connected to the officer. The bad thing is somehow making the officer aware you are going to a safe place, not eating dope or something like that. In Nebraska it is against state law to use un-marked cars to work traffic patrol just for this reason.<br />And no, a lot of guns is a sign of a person I want to know, not a dangerous gun nut. The area I live in it is very common to have several weapons, and there are a lot of collectors and hobby shooters. Here it is normal to have several guns. <br />Hmmmm, skinny, why do you ask? I personally think they should legalize marijuana, tax it and control it. It does have a long term intoxicating effect well after the high has worn off, and it does carry 10 times more cancer causing agents than cigarettes, but with proper warnings on lables and taxing so on. I think legal use and social acceptance we would see less abuse and addiction in time. The other drugs, meth. X, GHB, heroin, crack and so on I think is far too addictive unpredictable and dangerous to legalize. People say X is safe and harmless, but I have a few stories I could share.<br /><br />DJ, years ago we were trained to profile. A brand new car driven by white trash from a source state with no luggage and fast food wrappers on the dash, definate stop and search. But now that is a dirty word. I agree with the racial profiling side of the law to a point. I have seen cops stop a car with 4 black men because they were in a small town in the next county after dark. And the car was from another state and was cruising a residential area. I would have stopped them too. BUT I would have asked if they needed directions, which turns out they did. They needed to find a house to dump 20 pounds of weed, and were lost. The facts for the stop should have been a car from out of the area driving a residential neighborhood at midnight. Instead the officer reported a car with 4 black males driving a residential area after midnight. The black should have nothing to do with this case. <br />I totally disagree with the racial profiling sheets we have to do now. We have to log all traffic stops and what race the driver is. BUT the only choices on the form is black, hispanic, and I think one other. They do not adress aisan, middle eastern, american indian etc. Also my area just the way it is I might stop 30 cars driven by white people for every 1 driven by a hispanic or black person. if I find a need to search the car drivin by the non white person and only search one of the cars driven by the white man, then I will be sued for profiling. So even if I think that 1 hispanic man has drugs in his possession, I can't ask for consent to search for drugs unless I have set several hispanics free in the very recent past. <br />It is an excelent idea and has a good concept, but typical for government work is the stupidest thing I have heard of in a long time!
DJ! I always try to live within the system and I'm sure alot of other people do also!! "But sometimes we just can't do that, after all, none of us are perfect!!! 
