Police Behavior (Phoenix, Chandler: attorney, school, legal)

[jimj]

Originally Posted by KurtAZ

Again...standard operating procedure. The officer won't turn their lights on until he has documented all the needed information with dispatch, ran the plate and finished their communications with dispatch. THEN they will flip on the lights and at night, flip on either their high beams or the "take down" lights. These guys and gals deal with nasty stuff all day every day. Officers are shot and killed in seemingly ordinary traffic stops all the time. It is more for their safety than yours. Besides the intimidation factor, once that officer is on your bumper, you know they are there and can prepare yourself to be pulled over.

For the record, I don't think you are complaining...just wondering why this behavior is repeated. Yes, they are taught to do this. If it makes you nervous, just find a safe place to pull over and do it. It makes their job of driving and communicating with dispatch that much easier.

Let's not forget the frequently heavily tinted windows. Impossible to see the occupants from far away so I'd guess they want to "light up" the interior as much as they can of the car they're about to pull over to see what they're dealing with before calling backup.

[Colt AZ]

Originally Posted by PhoenixSomeday

Then I remember oh yeah, we're in Yosemite Sam land, this is a thing here.

Originally Posted by PhoenixSomeday

You guys jump on things far too easily around here without reading carefully (and when one or two people make a disparaging remark, it starts a bandwagon).

If your purpose was to put together a serious post about police behavior, you immediately defeated your own purpose by turning around and insulting Arizona in general.

Then you follow that up by scolding the responding posters who present you with excellent points about police, and who rightfully do not accept your disparaging remark about their home state.

No one is climbing on a bandwagon. This is what we believe.

[Hap1719]

They also pull up quickly to monitor the actions of the occupants of the vehicle when they realize they are being stopped by the police. The officer would then be able to observe any furtive movements by the occupants that you wouldn't be able to see from a further back position. Officer safety issue. I'm sure you're for our law enforcement officers being safe, especially in the climate that our country seems to be in at this time.

[goolsbyjazz]

I understand the OP's question about the aggressive surveillance and agree with the explanations given. I must add my two cents, though. I have had nothing but good interactions with local law enforcement since moving here more than 18 years ago. I have been stopped or pulled over numerous times (for various reasons) and have always been treated with respect and never felt unsafe.

[SoCalCpl2]

In my 44 years of driving in a bunch of states and cities, I have found there are crappy cops and great ones.. I have been pulled over by both... I have been given tickets, warnings and help but have never really had a "bad" experience with them.....

[azriverfan.]

I've lived all over the country. I'm from California and have lived in Florida, Texas, Illinois and New York. Arizona by far has the best police in terms of how they treat their residents and this is particularly true of police in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Responses will depend upon perspective. If you have not spent much time in areas where police are more aggressive and intimidating, you are not going to truly appreciate the police in Phoenix. And you can certainly gauge this by the comments. Your level of sensitivity to this issue depends on your experience. If you have experienced police officers who pull the intimidating act like they do in the south and rural areas, you will see the OP's post as being somewhat oversensitive. But if you have lived in areas where police are generally pretty respectful and decent, you will empathize more with the OP. To me, being tailed closely by a police officer before being pulled over doesn't even faze me.

[azriverfan.]

Originally Posted by Zippyman

a surprising number of traffic stops turn into chases - if the cop is already right up on your bumper, running doesn't seem like as good of an option. I agree, it is aggressive & I don't personally think the aggressiveness is a good trait to condone. That said, you're thinking the stop was about a headlight, and most all "traffic stops" are pretext stops - where the cop is expecting you to be high, drunk, or in a car full of stolen merchandise, the headlight is just an excuse to tweak you & see if something "fun" or "exciting" comes out of it. Cops aren't in the "safety" business, or the "protection" business, they're in the arresting business. Just like a salesman looks for easy sales, a cop looks for easy arrests & defective equipment is their chance to pull the handle & see if any quarters come out.

The police officer in this case was doing his job. It is a safety issue. People get lazy and don't fix their lights or vehicle issues. It's human nature, people procrastinate and police officers know this. Unfortunately, it takes pulling someone over before they address it. It is very much a safety issue. If the cop in question truly wanted to pull someone over to see if he can find drugs etc, he doesn't need a broken light to do so. If a police officer wants to pull someone over, he can cite a myriad of subjective reasons like "following another vehicle too closely." Trust me, he didn't pull the OP over to see what treasures he could amass. And really, if he wanted a reason to arrest someone, a cop could easily do so. All they need to do is turn their lights off and sit in a strip mall on a busy road like Ray or Ocotillo. You will find the d-bag in the raised truck going 15 over the speed limit and swerving in and out of traffic. That is an easy stop and possible arrest. They are not looking to amass easy arrests. They are trying to protect us.

[sexxxcblac]

I had a police officer do the 6 inch bumper ride on me in Phoenix for at least 2 miles.
I was dropping my date off at her house on a Saturday night.
I figured it was the fact I was driving a new Mercedes with a woman that happened to be a different ethnicity than I.
The favor of God was on me as usual which kept me out of a bad situation.

[jimj]

Originally Posted by sexxxcblac

I had a police officer do the 6 inch bumper ride on me in Phoenix for at least 2 miles.
I was dropping my date off at her house on a Saturday night.
I figured it was the fact I was driving a new Mercedes with a woman that happened to be a different ethnicity than I.
The favor of God was on me as usual which kept me out of a bad situation.

No, he was just drafting and hoping to get you aero loose!

[new2colo]

I definitely do not take the attitude that all cops deserve our respect. A good handful should be fired immediately. However, I have done a ride along with DPS for work. Oddly enough during our ride, there was a woman in a small car racing east on the Red Mountain Fwy near 44th Street. The trooper I was with turned on his lights to execute a stop. The woman, however, did not pull over. The trooper literally had to tail her and then she pulled over around 52nd Street. Once the officer returned to his vehicle after receiving the driver's license and insurance, he said the reason that she didn't pull over immediately was due to the fact that she didn't see him.

So in all actuality, the officer could have pulled up really close to you to ensure there was no mistake that YOU were the operator of the vehicle he was trying to make contact with.