Heart-warming LEO story...

[Toecutter]

My wife works at a local school. They have an on-campus school district officer for a good part of the day.

The school is located on a busy street that normally has a 40mph speed limit, but has signs posted for 25mph "When Children are Present".

The officer began parking his patrol car out on the street during the time when students were being dropped off and picked up before and after school, with the emergency lights going, to remind people of the need to slow down during those periods.

It wasn't long before he was contacted by a motor officer and told not to do that, as it cut down on his action. Seems he would rather hide in the bushes and let people speed through school zones so he could give them citations than actually have all the traffic slow down during the times when kids are near the street.

Yeah, it's all about the safety....

 

[wheatonFJR]

So he's using the kids as his ticket producer...instead of figuratively standing between the kids and the metal.

...wadda maroon. :glare:

 

[Crash Cash]

Hopefully he told the motor officer to suck his eight inch non-dairy creamer?

 

[ponyfool]

I think that motor officer needs to be talked to.

 

[airboss]

There' an officer that gets an "atta boy award", you guess which one.

 

[TriggerT]

Good on the school cop. The motor cop should be put on some other type of duty. He obviously forgot about the "To Serve and PROTECT" part of his job.

 

[HotRodZilla]

In most departments, motor officers have no more rank than other officers. Unless that motor guy was a supervisor, I would have told him go hug a root. We park and warn people like that ALL the time. There are places that are good hidey-holes. School zones are not one of them. :angry2:

 

[vectervp1]

Yeah, definitely time someone called his station and reported him.

 

[EODSarge]

Sounds like someone forgot that a traffic unit's job is to increase safety on the roadway, not revenue or numbers. That's coming from a former traffic deputy... still in the business, just not in traffic any longer.

 

[fretbender]

Similar point for speed cameras. They generate revenue, but any effect on 'safety' would be suspect at best.

 

[brazos parker]

Not sure this particular LEO has found the right line of work for him yet!

 

[Silver Penguin]

Not sure this particular LEO has found the right line of work for him yet!

Maybe a career with the IRS might work better for him.

For responsible drivers, sometimes an attention getter is all that is needed, to remind them to do the right thing. It's relatively cheap, easy and involves minimal paperwork. On my way to work is one of those 'Your Speed Is.....' signs, adjacent to the posted 30mph limit sign. At seven in the morning, the kids are all on their way to school, so it's really 25mph, according to signs nearer to the school. To me, it's a personal challenge to clock as close to 30 as possible at the sign, then take it easy around the school and the kids. I've only hit the magical 3-0 one time, but I've seen the display read 60mph for the joker in the other lane.

Jill

 

[Caba]

On my way to work is one of those 'Your Speed Is.....' signs, adjacent to the posted 30mph limit sign.

Those "Your Speed" (or over here "Vasa Richlost") signs are all over here in eastern Europe. To be honest they are one of the most effective things I see to slow people down. That and when the sign has a cop sitting 100 feet past it.

As far as the traffic cop, it's frustrating when people forget what the purpose of what they are doing is....Or maybe their bosses forgot the purpose.

 

[Kevin Daly]

Man thats just sad... and stupid... and wrong. Kind of like using kids as human shields.

 

[wheatonFJR]

Similar point for speed cameras. They generate revenue, but any effect on 'safety' would be suspect at best.

Hey, if a cop is speed patrolling...hey that's what they do and we takes our chances.

But the ****** motor patroller asking the school laison officer to TURN OFF his lights...because it was actually working and slowing cars down around the kids when the kids were crossing the street or whatever...that is the crux of the issue.

Trying to reduce the kids' safety so he could drum up revenue...THAT is bassackwards. :glare:

 

[fretbender]

Similar point for speed cameras. They generate revenue, but any effect on 'safety' would be suspect at best.

Hey, if a cop is speed patrolling...hey that's what they do and we takes our chances.

Maybe I wasn't clear. . .I'm not against a living, breathing officer doing speed patrols. I'm just not a supporter of mounting automated cameras that take your picture and end up with you receiving a ticket in the mail. I'd rather stop and have a conversation with the officer as my chances are MUCH better being given a verbal reprimand than with a camera. If you don't know there's a camera there, you don't know about it until you check your mail several days later, so it's done nothing to reduce risk at the time & location of the offense. It's the old prevention vs cure argument, though there is no 'cure' if somebody gets hurt.

I see that as a similar situation when comparing high visibility vs stealth enforcement in school zones, though a combination of the two would be great (not that we could pay for 100% enforcement of that approach).

 

[Silver Penguin]

Those "Your Speed" (or over here "Vasa Richlost") signs are all over here in eastern Europe. To be honest they are one of the most effective things I see to slow people down. That and when the sign has a cop sitting 100 feet past it.

To me, that's an intelligence test, just like the DUI checkpoint warning. If you're not willing to pay attention to the freebie warning, the good luck to the cop sitting 100 feet beyond.

Who, in their right mind would drive drunk, through a marked DUI checkpoint? If you see the warning, don't you turn off and take another route should there be any doubt about your sobriety? Or are they looking for those who are too drunk to notice, or care?

 

[Caba]

Who, in their right mind would drive drunk, through a marked DUI checkpoint? If you see the warning, don't you turn off and take another route should there be any doubt about your sobriety? Or are they looking for those who are too drunk to notice, or care?

I think you might have answered your own question.

 

[ponyfool]

While based solely on the information provided, what I'm about to explain doesn't appear to be the reason. But there is one situation where, given similar circumstances, it is wise to have the school police officer turn off his lights in a school zone, and it has nothing to do with revenue.

Simple truth is, a police car, with lights on, draws people's attention. For most of us, it causes us to be aware of our surroundings, and perhaps slow down. But for some, it causes them to look for the officer, look for the car that was stopped, look for the reason the officer is there in the first place. If it draws a driver's attention away from the kidlets in the area, it can potentially make the road situation more hazardous. Like I said, probably not the case here, just offering a slightly different perspective in case that was in fact the underlying issue.