Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

New guy here, and have been protecting and serving the public for 4 years now. I’ll try to help out where I can.

Machy uno – In my experience it has been the “speeders” who are the aggressive drivers.

As for your next question, In Pa the Police are allowed to run registration plates of any vehicle. So while I am at a traffic light I typically run the registration plates of the vehicles around me, Listening to the radio, and if I happen to look up and see a vehicle run the light I have to determine if I can safely negotiate traffic, and if in fact a violation has occurred. PA vehicle code section 3112a3i is the red light section, in short it must be a steady RED indicator for it to be a violation. The cars that get in the intersection on a yellow and turns red is technically not a violation of that section. It is however a yellow light violation. I believe section 3112a2, a vehicle must yield to the yellow indicator, so the vehicles flying through the intersection at 50mph is probably a violation of this section. It may not be that the officer is not concerned about the safety of the public but the issuance of the ticket is only a small part of the criminal justice system. For example I witnessed a violation of the yellow light section, I felt the vehicle did not yield to the yellow light as it came through the intersection with enough speed that I observed it lift off the roadway after bottoming out on the road curvature. I issued a citation. This person plead not guilty, and took a hearing. I testified to what I observed, the judge recognized that I was performing my duty as I saw fit but felt that the defendant learned their lesson and dismissed the citation. A week later a person was severely injured at that intersection when a vehicle attempting to beat the yellow light struck them as they were in the cross walk. So you see how discouraging it can be? Some Officers may feel that since the judge doesn’t enforce the laws why should the police and only issue citations that the judge will convict.

The truth is in most cases an Officer can find a reason to stop and issue multiple citations to any vehicle on the road, There are thousands of vehicle code violations and Police in Pa have the ability to issue citations for inspection violations, but enforcing EVERY violation that is on the books is rarely an effective way to control traffic, plus can you image all the complaints?

Sorry for the rant hope this answers your questions!

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

The Supreme Court ruled long ago that we can run any tag we can see on any roadway and public areas (like malls, gas stations, etc) and that there is no expectation of privacy and that running a plate and checking the registered owner is not violation of anyone's 4th amendment rights.

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

Any NCSHP here?

Going through the application process now and would love any tips other than the obvious.

Thanks for your service guys!

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

Just finished my first week at the police academy this past Friday. Our first test is Monday, tomorrow. I've been studying every night and all weekend but there are just so many things to remember! All the codes, felonies, misdemeanors, sections, subsections, etc. We are not required to remember specifics like 16-6-6 paragraph (b) section 1, but we do need to know what it consists of and whether it is a felony or misdemeanor, ages and some other things.

Officers... How do you remember all of it?!
Any tips for me?

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

Lol I find this very educational seeing as I'm pursuing a career in law enforcement lol.

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

My moral with driving a mustang that has some mods border lining the rules of the road (my car is modded to comply with the rules set within my province though) is simply this: Drive like a civil human being and the cops won't give a crap about you. I have been driving loud, done up mustangs since I was 15 and I'm now 20.

I had 1 ticket when I was 15 and learning how to drive cause the cop was being an a**hole to me until my dad said something. I still had my learners permit and still learning how to drive standard, but I stalled my car at a light, revved it up to make sure it didn't happen again and chirped the tires on my yellow 94 GT. Cop came after me and said I was "trying to race this other convertible" that I didn't see of any where and said I was "changing lanes erradically" when I literally turned out of a parking lot, into 1 lane and stayed there. My dad bitched him out and said to stop picking on the young kid because he has a sports car. Got a $140 ticket for stunting and that was it. Guy was on a power trip that day,

I have not had 1 ticket since, and my mach 1 has longtubes, o/r x pipe and borla stingers which most know is effing loud. My old 94 GT had a trickflow HCI on it with an o/r H and magnaflow mufflers, so it idled like something out of the 60s/70s. Never had ANY issues with noise complaints or anything since...

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

OK here my question, Can the police tow your car and in pound it.
My daughter and her boyfriend were driving my car around, they also had 2 friends in the back, They were parked in a parking lot and the police asked to search the car, I guess they said yes. Well the police end up finding pot on the 2 kids in the back seat.
In the case the Cops had the car towed away and sent it to a impound yard.
I was wondering , if my daughter and her boyfriend werent charged with anything why was my car taken away>?

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

I would call the police station and find out terms of release for the car. Then have a talk with your daughter about WHO is in the car and what illegal activity/possession can/will do to her life.

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

I find it stange that they towed the car at all. Maybe its a state by state thing but if she didn't get written up, and the car was hers, she shouldn't have anything on her record at all and the car shouldn't have been towed. I've had friends get caught with pot on them when I have been around on multiple occasions. Everytime they were given a ticket, had some probation, but were never arrested and the cars were never towed. It may depend on how much they had on them at the time and whether or not they were smoking in the car at the time they got caught.

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

You're respnosible for what's in your vehicle, including what other people have on them.

I went and paid impound and storage fees, With Daughters money over $300.00.. $180.00 towing and 3 days storage, sat, sun, got it out Monday at 9.am, still considered a full day.

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

Of course they can tow it. In GA if we find marijuana on somebody, they go to jail and their vehicle gets towed. If your daughter and her bf weren't charged with anything though, I don't see why they would've towed it. Were they charged with anything?

Re: Ask A Police Officer
 

ok new subject....
Anybody know if law enforcement can charge you by the foot for burn out marks??? is that true???