On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 12:13 PM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 9:02 AM, Scott Stroz <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 12:01 PM, Scott Stroz <[email protected]> wrote: >>> On Mon, Sep 20, 2010 at 11:45 AM, Judah McAuley <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> If you treat all police officers as if they are one of the 'bad' or >>> 'corrupt' ones, even a 'good' one might be put off by your attitude. >>> There is a way to protect your rights, even from the 'bad' ones, and >>> still be respectful and keep the situation safe. >> >> >> Did I just say the same thing as Sam? :D > > I wouldn't know. > > As for how you approach police officers, I think that it differs > institutionally versus personally. Institutionally, we should treat > officers very well and do our best to make their job as rewarding and > worthwhile as possible. They do a tough job and deserve to be treated > with respect and admiration as a whole. But there should be a very > strong, proactive program for weeding out the bad ones. I have a hard > time coming up with anything more dangerous and vile than a bad cop. > Pick your choice of quotes: with great power comes great > responsibility. Trust but verify.
Agreed. The current IAD system in most places does not seem to do an adequate job of finding and getting rid of the bad apples. > > On a person to police officer interaction, simple prudence says that > you should approach the situation as if you have the most to lose in > any interaction. Keep things calm, don't say anything you don't have > to, don't assume that the police officer you are dealing with is on > your side. Any encounter has the potential to turn ugly and if it > does, you are going to lose. And, again, there is a way to do this and not have an attitude about it. Most people will encounter police officers as part of traffic stops. Traffic stops are typically the most dangerous situations for a police officer simply because of the unknown. Who is in the car? How many? etc.. Everything I have been told to do, by other police officers, during a traffic stop is designed specifically to reduce the suspicion (and as a result, stress) of the police officer performing the traffic stop. Its funny. If you look at my driving record, before I became a paramedic and learned these things, I have a shit ton of moving violations. I have not changed my driving 'style' all that much, but I have very few moving violations since I started heeding some of this advice. The 4 things I think make the biggest difference (in no particular order): 1. Keep your hands, palms facing up, on the steering wheel as the officer approaches your car.. 2. If its dark out, turn on your interior light so the office can see more clearly that you are not up to something (I know some might not like this idea, but I am OK with it). 3. If you need to get your license out of your pocket or insurance etc out of glove box, explain to the officer what you are doing BEFORE you do it and do it slowly. 4. Start or end every sentence with 'sir' or 'ma'am'. (If I know the police officer is a state trooper, I will also use 'trooper' or if I notice they are a sergeant, etc, I will refer to them by their rank - they seem to like that) Have I still gotten tickets using these? Yep, but not nearly as many. Usually, I am let off with a 'warning', sometimes written, sometimes not. -- Scott Stroz --------------- You can make things happen, you can watch things happen or you can wonder what the f*&k happened. - Cpt. Phil Harris http://xkcd.com/386/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology-Michael-Dinowitz/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:327534 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
