Pull Over - Question for Law Enforcement Types

Bird · Jan 11, 2008

does that make you a Po Po Po

I reckon it does.

orezok · Jan 11, 2008

A friend of mine is a retired LA police captain (motor patrol)and I asked him. He gave me one interesting sidelight. In California, a vehicle displaying only lights is not an "emergency" vehicle and you don't have to move over for them. They have to have both lights and siren operating to be an emergency vehicle.

Interesting...

MikePA · Jan 11, 2008

dmccarty said:
One can always dial 911 and see if they have an officer at a traffic stop at your location. The officer should have called out the stop and dispatch will know the location.

In our area, 911 doesn't directly dispatch all local police departments and they do not dispatch state or city police.

RobertN · Jan 11, 2008

Bird said:
There were some studies done on the national level that found, if you want vehicles to move away or use extra caution, yellow or amber is best. And that's why you see the yellow lights on the back side of the most law enforcement light bars. Having red lights flashing to the rear is especially dangerous because drunk drivers will home in on the red light. Dallas had lots of cars rearended with just red lights and the frequency of that dropped dramatically when the amber lights were put on the rear of the light bars. And as to whether drivers will notice, yield, or stop better for red or blue, the conclusion was that neither was better, but to gain the most attention, either red or blue, or both, should alternate with white. So now, most of the marked cars have all three colors to the front; red, white, and blue. They'll have amber to the rear, and possibly some of the other 3 colors.

Different light studies done to stop this...

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Bedlam · Jan 11, 2008

I would say if in doubt do as people have said the hazard lights should indicate that you see him/her behind you. and find a safe place. On a legal standpoint you should definetly call 911. and explain that you are being followed by a suspicious vehicle. This way you will have the audio tapes to back up your frame of mind.
many times locally here i have almost take the door off of a police car, because they don't have the common sense to wait till its a safe spot.
And one time on a smaller back road. they were doing radar and stopped old granny. She stopped in the middle of the road. (dead stop) the other cop motioned me to go around on the other side of the road. As I did this a car came over the hill and went into a skid. I swerved back in lane and , then went and called 911 to report a road hazard . They didnt say much when I told then just what the hazard was.You need to consider that they seem to sometimes think that lights and a badge protect them from accidents..

dmccarty · Jan 11, 2008

MikePA said:
In our area, 911 doesn't directly dispatch all local police departments and they do not dispatch state or city police.

True, but I would hope the 911 center can call dispatch to ask if they have a stop going on at a given location.

My "guess" on PO PO was that it was derived from POlice. I hear POlice used as well. My MIL pronouces Clorox as ClOrox.

Later,
Dan