View from the cop: Crime & punishment
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AJC.com > Metro > View from the cop > Archives > 2006 > May > 24
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Blue lights and high anxiety
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Things are moving along with the Sandy Springs Police Department. We’re down to two crises a day. The things we expected to be problems haven’t been and those things we thought were no-brainers have been difficult and time-consuming problems.
We are close to finding a building of our own for a few years until they build one. The radios are in. The cars are in. The guns are in and my bullet is in.
Stress is your friend?
Stress is a strange force in all of us. Some say there is good stress. Still waiting on that. I can definitely remember several stressful times in my life and “good” is not on the Top 10 list of words to describe it.
You can sometimes tell when your friend is getting stressed out. I like to think I’m perceptive, so I noticed when one of my fellow officers began to show signs of stress.
I went to him and candidly told him I thought he may need a day or two off for some mental-health time.
“Really,” he replied, “I’m stressing out but I didn’t think anyone noticed it.” I told him I caught wind of it by his change in demeanor — as well as the large patches of hair falling out of his head.
Police business produces a lot of stress. Most writers detail how it affects police officers but, if you think about it, cops dish out more stress, on a daily basis, than they receive.
You know that feeling when the police car pulls in behind you and the blue lights come on. Most of the time it’s a stressful situation knowing the officer has seen something he or she interpreted as a violation of the law and that will soon be brought to your attention. In most cases that’s true — except when I get behind you. You’ll know it’s me because I have the blue lights on and my left turn signal on, both by mistake. (See: Policing after 50.)
You never get pulled over when it’s convenient. We do that on purpose. It’s called being systematically unsystematic, or irregular.
Everyone pushes the speed limit to a point. There are a lot of people who don’t actually “stop” at stop signs. Slow rolls and “almost” stops will get by sometimes but beware, there are those officers who are “Lot-L’s.” Lot-L’s are those officers who enforce traffic to the “Letter of the Law.”
I was never traffic-oriented when I worked the street. If you had a good excuse, I was good too. I had a large gray area. Traffic enforcement is much needed. Look at the number of traffic accidents, serious ones, deadly serious ones. That alone is reason for traffic enforcement. Can you imagine what it would be like not having any traffic laws? You may think: “No problem, it would be smooth, like the Autobahn.”
Let’s face it. Most of us don’t drive all that well WITH the rules in place. Forget traffic lights. There wouldn’t be enough wreckers to pull all that sheet metal and fiberglass off the road. (By the way, why do wreckers always leave the big plastic front bumper on the side of the road after a wreck? Wrecker-Art.
Back to stress. Listen to me. Most cops still wait for the initial response from the driver before they decide whether or not to issue the ticket. This is in cases where there is actually a chance that you COULD get a warning. Here are some examples of when you shouldn’t expect a traffic warning.
— You ran over a nun.
— Drag-racing the jets on the new runway at Hartsfield-Jackson.
— Dropping your Prince Ivan Vodka bottle when you open the door of the car to initiate the sobriety test even though it hasn’t been requested.
— Just crossed the center line while reaching for your bong.
Everyone who gets a ticket gets mad. I do recall one guy who, after I stopped him, told me he appreciated me stopping him. I checked him for being drunk.
I got a ticket, many years ago, from a Florida State trooper outside of Lake City. I was going too fast in a construction zone. Some of you know what that means. The fine is generally equal to the GNP of most South American countries. I tried to talk my way out, badge my way out, beg my way out. No good. He said the airplane clocked me. Had it been up to him, he’d let me go but the pilot was calling the shots. I asked him to let me borrow the radio and beg the pilot.
I was devastated. I did what a lot of people do, I complained to anyone who would or who had no choice but to listen to me. I whined for about two weeks before I realized that nobody really cared about the fact that another officer declined to offer me the “professional courtesy.” In other words, I was treated like a common citizen!
I finally shut up and paid the fine.
Someone told me recently, in a community meeting, in front of an audience, that if we double the size of the existing number of officers assigned to the Sandy Springs area, the cops will be bored and therefore will harass people. I didn’t understand that. I didn’t care for the comment either. I figured that was coming off an Ambien prescription. (See: Reactions / River Dancing / 3 a.m. / Waffle House)
She contended however, that this happened to her in another (smaller) city.
In all the years of policing in Sandy Springs, I don’t recall any periods of boredom. I would hope that time away from calls would give cars time to patrol. I know that the residents here desperately need to see some patrol-car time in their neighborhoods.
Traffic enforcement generates more complaints than any other function in the police department. The officer will, in just about every case, be professional but when the tickets gets issued, someone is leaving mad and the story changes every time it gets told. To me, that’s OK. It’s part of the healing process. My friend Sully said, “If most cops would take the time to violate the law more, they’d understand how we feel.” (Sully had a drinking problem but he meant well.)
Regardless how you feel, traffic enforcement is a necessary inconvenience in a city like Atlanta and its monster traffic. What got us here is what you should be mad about. Deep pocket developers and greedy politicians continue to build and build until all you can see are endless subdivisions.
Remember when on GA 400 in morning rush hour, you could drive north, against the city-bound traffic, with no problem? There are no more windows of opportunity.
Look on the bright side. If we cram any more cars on the road, speeding will be a thing of the past.
