Should officers be required to use lights and sirens when travelling 10 mph or more over the speed limit?
Feb 10
Jaime Jerome asked:
There’s no doubt that trained officers are better drivers than most. However, I often wonder when I see a marked or unmarked car travelling at high speed if they should be going that fast.
If they are responding to a call that is non-priority, shouldn’t they be following the traffic laws? And if they are on a priority call that would require an upgraded response, they shouldn’t they have their signaling equipment turned on?
There’s no doubt that trained officers are better drivers than most. However, I often wonder when I see a marked or unmarked car travelling at high speed if they should be going that fast.
If they are responding to a call that is non-priority, shouldn’t they be following the traffic laws? And if they are on a priority call that would require an upgraded response, they shouldn’t they have their signaling equipment turned on?
Are there policies addressing this?
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I can’t speak for all departments, but I’ve always been trained to do exactly that. Non-priority, no lights/siren, not authorized to exceed speed limit. Priority, but not life-threatening, lights only, max of 10 over. Emergency, lights & siren, yet technically we’re still not supposed to go over 10 over the speed limit (unofficially, it’s officer’s discretion how fast you drive, but you have to put public safety first)
Sure there are policies.
However, there are situations where you have to speed and not use a siren and/or lights.
For example, if you have an alarm call or crime in progress call, you don’t need to be announcing to the world that you are nearby even though getting there fast is highly recommended.
Another example, a car goes by and you think it has expired tags or altered tags. But you can’t say for sure, it would be necessary to speed to catch up to the car.
As a police sergeant, if someone complains about one of my officers speeding without lights or sirens and the officer has a good reason, such as one mentioned above or something else that makes sense. I’ll let it go, even though it might technically be a policy violation.
If they are driving like an idiot just because, they get wrote up.
history of law enforcement responding to situations, increases of car accidents without such warning systems, the public needs to be kept safe on the roads..
yeah ok right,”a non priority” call would be any call other than when YOU need assistance.get a grip for gods sake,the police put up with enough **** and really dont need supposed do gooders suggesting to them how to do their job.If it were you on the waiting end of a police car,youd want them there yesterday!
Did you maybe consider that it may just possibly benefit the police to arrive “unannounced” so to speak???.With all the crap people throw their way,im suprised the majority of them show up for work on a daily basis,you should be supporting them,not trying to tell them what to do and when to do it!