Technology records speeding cops
by
The video catches a Murfreesboro Police officer exceeding the speed limit by 20 and 30 miles an hour.
The car never activates Lights or sirens.
There is no ostensible sign of an emergency.
Many of you weighed in on the Messed Up web site voicing your opinion and voting your thoughts.
That was going to be the end of it. One story. One issue.
Then I got on the phone with long time law man Billy Weeks, a cop who speaks his heart and his mind.
Weeks is the Public Safety commissioner for the city of Lebanon. He is in charge of all police and fire units in the city.
In a tone that screams “Take no prisoners,” Weeks lets me know that officers in his department don’t speed because if they do, they are reprimanded.
How is that? I query.
Because we have cameras in the cars that activate automatically at 75 miles an hour, regardless of blue lights or sirens, he says so aggressively I feel like he would slam me down on the asphalt and handcuff me if not for the fact this is a phone call.
Just exceeding 75mph activates the cameras? I ask.
They go 75 miles an hour and boom! The cameras come on he tells me.
Weeks tells me the cameras are a great investigative tool and they keep officers on the straight and narrow.
That is exactly the sentiment I get when I meet Lebanon Police officer Steve Green.
The 11 year veteran tells me that he loves the camera system for many reasons, including the fact that it automatically activates at 75 mph.
“What about big brother?,” I ask him.
“I think it makes you a better cop,” he says, his eyes scanning the streets ahead. “It makes you stay in line”
The system is sophisticated. It documents a car’s speed as well as other driving details like braking, light and siren activation; even longitude and latitude.
“We have a responsibility to drive in a safe and prudent manner,” he says.
Why couldn’t an officer who violates policy shut off the camera and back up the video I ask.
All involve tell me that the tapes are never touched by officers. The system is so high tech that as soon as a patrol car gets near the police department, the video is sent via wireless transmitter to the police department’s hard drive where it is reviewed by supervisory staff.
“From a supervisor point of view, you can look at this as performance,” Lebanon Chief Scott Bowen says.
Bowen is the long time chief of Lebanon. On this day, he is seated in front of his flat screen computer monitor where he has instantaneous access to innumerable Lebanon police videos.
“Like I said, one of the greatest liabilities we have in law enforcement is vehicle accidents. We want to look at and review these things to allow us to review our officer’s performance.”
Bowen reiterates Week’s assertion that the system is a great investigative tool. He tells me about the instant accessibility of video and automatic DVD burns for court. He tells me about a video flagging system that allows officers to go back on tape and see notated video. This is particularly useful for chases where a suspect throws out contraband on the side of the road. He tells me about the time and effort the new video system saves over the old system where supervisors literally had to pull tapes and wind them and dub them off.
But Bowen also reinforces the fact that speeding officers have been identified and reprimanded thanks to the new technology.
“When we got the system a supervisor was looking at a video there was an incident where the speed threshold was broken and the video started recording and we spoke with the officer who did not have his emergency equipment on, so the captain spoke with him.”
Weeks tells me citizens have complained in the past about speeding officers. He tells me that he has investigated such allegations, and when found to be true, he has offered John and Jane Q public the chance to sign the speeding citations themselves.
Weeks says that so many complaints poured in about speeding cops coming and going from the law enforcement training academy that he changed the color scheme of his patrol cars to black and white, so he could tell complainants; “yes that’s one of ours, or no sir, that’s another agency speeding.”
With the new system in place, Weeks says these calls are less frequent.
It seems that system reminds police officers to police themselves.
It’s a good lesson for all of us.
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I think the Mt, Juliet Police need a computer program like the one used by the Lebanon Police. I have seen Mt. Police speeding many times inside 35 to 45 mile an hour speed limits. All without having their lights on. Also saw one totally avoid a traffic light by going through a parking lot, only to proceed on, going in the same direction. Once again he didn’t seem to be on a call…Always thought you could get a ticket for that one! LOL
So, should you get a ticked from Davidson county police? After all you were speeding too. Cops can’t break the law to catch a law breaker.
I am a police officer. After looking at your story, it is obvious that the police officer in this car had no reason to speed on the way back from a training class, especially while out of his jurisdiction.
But……Had he been in the “boro” and was speeding I would assure you that it would probably not be “just ’cause he can”. In most cities, including mine, the police departments are understaffed and over worked. The majority of officers really want to provide quick service to those who need us. After all, you call the police and you expect an officer to show up in a “timely manner”. Most officers speed because they are going to a call…maybe your call! The quicker we can get to and answer your call, the quicker we can help the next person or catch the next bad guy. Most people have never walked in a police officers shoes, and probably wouldn’t want to in all honesty. In most cases there are reasons for things we do that you may not understand. It is part of keeping us and you safe, while providing a needed service.
So… all I ask is that when a officer in your city speed by with no lights and siren it is likely that he is trying to get to a location where someone has called for assistance. If it were your call wouldn’t you want the police there as fast as possible? Just think about it.
Anytime an officer is in a hurry to get to a call and has to speed to get there, would it be too hard to turn on the lights and sirens? That’s what there there for to warn others to get out of the officer’s way so they can get to a call quickly. There are plenty of instances where an officer speeds when he shouldn’t, just as other people do too. I’ve seen officers speed ahead of me just to see them up ahead sitting checking speeds. We ALL need to watch our speed!
Here is a tip that goes along with your current story on speeding police
officers. I am from Murfreesboro and have seen many Murfreesboro City
police officers breaking other traffic laws other than just speeding. I
work late and get off late on some nights. On my way home I sometimes get
stopped by redlights. Occasionally, I will be next to a police officer at
the intersection. What is messed up is that they will turn on their lights
and go through the intersection then abruptly turn their lights off as if
nothing happened. That is just infuriating as I have to stay at the
redlight while the police officer gets to go through it by flipping a
switch. It wouldn’t bother me if they kept their lights on and going to an
emergency, but when they just use their position to run red lights I get
somewhat annoyed. Just thought I would drop that line to you.
I usually agree with your pieces but NOT this one. Big deal if cops speed
once in a while!!! They risk their lives on a daily basis for us for
minimal pay. I do not have family that are cops or close friends. This
story really made me disappointed in the finger pointing! Police officer
deserve more positive recognition than they recieve. Negative feedback for
a thankless job does not help the situation. They deserve more respect and
admiration than this! Find something a little more pressing to fuss about!
I am an law enforcement officer too and wrote the following message earlier today for the previous story, but it obviously pertains to this follow-up story as well. But I would like to first quickly point out, that if these situations had involved Ambulances or Fire Engines exceeding the speed-limit, rather than police cars, I seriously doubt we’d be having either of these discussions. Again, “THAT’S MESSED UP”, so please just let us do our job.
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I am a Deputy Sheriff in TN and would like to elaborate somewhat on my perspective and personal experience regarding the public’s perception of officer speeding. First of all, be careful of what you ask for, you just might just get it. Realize, that the majority of our calls do not mandate the use of lights and sirens; this includes 9-1-1 hang-ups, residential/business alarms, home panic alarms, most domestics, majority of automobile accidents, and many other calls that most people would consider having the “potential” of endangerment to their life and/or property.
So my question to the public is this; do you REALLY want us to drive to the letter of the law (I.E. Speed Limit) if you or your loved one was in involved in a life threatening situation and dialed 9-1-1 but were unable to speak (choking, heart-attack, etc)…or if someone was breaking into your house activating your alarm…or how about if your child were being threatened by someone who invaded your home and your child activated the panic alarm as they were properly instructed to do…??? It may surprise you, but these are not lights and siren responses in my county! And what about situations where an officer is out of their zone because they responded to another emergency in another officer’s zone (I.E. backing up another officer), would you want that officer to casually stroll back to his regular patrol zone while your loved one began to have a life threatening emergency?? Keep in mind that many counties only have one officer that patrols a hundred square mile area. THP is even more thinned out, one Trooper may have to cover several counties.
These questions and real life scenarios can go on and on. Many in the general public have no idea what we as officers have to contend with. And these examples are only a small glimpse into the looking-glass of what we have to take into consideration. Take a walk in our shoes before being so quick to judge us and our actions. A situation that you may only experience once or twice in a lifetime, we have to deal with once, twice, or more per shift! In addition, many non-life threatening situations (when initially called in), can quickly become life-threatening while we are in route to them. Minutes, and sometimes seconds, are literally the difference between life or death. In some situations, it could literally take half an hour for the first officer to reach a victim on a 9-1-1 hang-up, then add additional response time for EMS to arrive - because in this situation, we have to initiate the request for EMS AFTER we evaluate the victim’s situation/emergency.
Currently, even though we are not authorized to run emergency traffic to these examples, we will drive to them with urgency (with prudence and public safety in mind) for YOUR BENEFIT. If you think about it, we are paid by the hour, so what’s in it for us personally to speed getting to your location?? After all, the slower I drive, the less calls and paperwork I end up having to do by the end of a shift. I became an officer to help save lives, protect & serve, etc. This means I have an obligation to do everything necessary to ensure I do just that. However so typical, the public continues to make this job a lose-lose situation for its officers. Either our response time isn’t fast enough for your potential emergency, or we’re perceived as driving too fast when passing you to get to someone else’s potential emergency. So we’re scrutinized by all sides, “why did it take so long for you to arrive??” or “why were you driving so fast??”
Society can’t have it both ways. Look at it from the perspective of which is the greater good for society. Forcing officers to reduce critical response time is NOT it, because response time will always be inversely proportional to the speed driven to get there. I just wish someone in the media would cover a story on how the police actually improve your quality of life as opposed to taking away from it. Therefore, “THAT’S MESSED UP”, so give us a break!
Best Regards,
VC
Deputy Sheriff
Cops that break the law should be punished! Why do they let them out with a warning if caught. Take for example the sherrif of Williamson county. He should have gone to prison for 20 years but got out by just resigning. Any of us would have been locked up and the key thrown away. What is so hard to turn on your lights if you are going on a call is that not what they are for? I would rather see your lights on so I don’t get run over!!!!!
VC, be honest here. What percentage of the time is an officer responding to a call where speeding is justified, when he/she is speeding? 5%? 10% 15%?
I just can’t decide what’s more messed up - the police thumbing their noses at the laws they are supposed to be enforcing, or trying to justify it through lame arguments.
I can agree that the officer should have not been speeding but at the same time News 2 must have been speeding as well.THATS MESSED UP!There is also calls were law enforcement officers respond to that do not require lights and sirens.If they are responding to a burglary in progress or a robbery in progress,you would turn off your equipment way before you get there.This would stop the escape of the suspect or turn the robbery into a hostage situation.So sometimes when you see the patrol car FLIP the lights on to proceed through a red light,he may be going to that type of call.Some calls are not coded as an EMERGENCY but to the officers,they need to get there.Such as 911 hang-ups,most domestics,wrecks with no reported injuries,general burglar alarms.Again,I agree in this case the officer was in the wrong.I am a 27 year vetern police officer and I have responded to several calls that were unknown and arrived and found people hurt or dead.I responded to a 911 hang up call one night,I drove the normal speed limit but when I arrived on the scene,a male stepped out on the front porch and opened fire on me with a rifle.He had been in a domestic fight and also set his house on fire.There is not many people that dont break the law sometimes,from citizens,lawyers,judges and so on.
I get the argument that sometimes the police are responding to a call. Sometimes they are, but laws are in place for a reason.
There have been many times that police have tailgated me (while my cruise is set right at the speed limit) in such a way that I feared if I had to hit the brakes, they would slam right in to me. I have seen them going in excess of 20 miles just to get to the same restaurant I’m going to to get lunch. I saw one nearly hit a pedestrian down town when the pedestrian had the right of way. That same police officer had been driving aggressively for the time that I was behind him, weaving in and out of traffic, all in down town Nashville.
Just because they are police officers does not give them the right to put another person’s life in danger. I expect the same law abidance by ambulances and fire officers. And I have a diabetic husband. Putting multitude of other peoples life in danger to save one is unfair.
And just as a side note, the last time I called Metro Police it took them over an hour and a half and three calls before I got someone to come out for a solicitor that tried to force her way in to our house after telling her no we didn’t want to buy her product. They still never came to talk to us like we requested, but just talked to her. She was not chased away from soliciting, even though she was in a non soliciting neighborhood.
I have read all the comments to this point, and there are some really good points made. But occasionally, there is one here and there that will step over the line, that`s why I agree with the Lebanon police camera system, atleast if they have to speed, they can justify it to the supervisors, so if there are any questions, there will be answers. I believe it should be state law for the cameras to run at or above certain speeds.
True story*
After work last June, aprox 6:10 to 6:30 A Metro cop flew passed by me at 80 to 85 MPH.I thought MMM no lights, No siren, Dum ass cop? But i did notice that a long Yellow scraping on the back bumper,and some sort of Anti drug sticker in the middle of the rear window. On my way home i stopped at The Krispy Kreme on Gallatin road.at Rivergate.And to my Shocking suprise,YEP! that same cop car in front of me.I Have NO respect for the law enforcement.This could of caused a serious accident,Just over a dam Doughnut! GO FIGURE
Sometimes, we get frustrated by officers doing things that we perceive as wrong, I skateboard, I have really heard my share of stories. But at the same time we bash police, who do we call if we need help fast? To get to us, they have probably had to drive fast, beat lights or do things they know is not proper traffic etiquette, but they have been trained for that. Ask yourself this, how many times have you drove at excessive speeds on the interstate and not gotten caught? How many times have you done things in traffic that you should have got a ticket, but didnt? I know I have, if I had got a ticket, I would have paid it, because I deserved it. Police are people too, they may make mistakes, but it is to be expected, its human nature. Again, its frustrating sometimes, and I understand that people think they should be held to a higher standard. Life is too short to be worrying about everyone else, take care of yourself and let them do their job. Who knows, they may be speeding to your call, or mine.
I have recently moved out of TN but on Bell Rd just a few months ago I was almost rearended by a metro cop at 10:30pm at night because he was too busy looking down at whatever he was doing & He was indeed speeding because when I pulled out of Walgreens parking lot I had plenty of time to pull out & then the light turned red at Bluehole. He skidded & swerved into the other lane to keep from hitting me at the red light. Alot of these guys have a holier than thou attitude & think they are above the law. Its bad enough the TN drivers don’t use their signals. But the COPS DON’T EITHER!
Well gang I am a former LEO (Law Enforcement Officer)and after reading the comments I see many do not understand the LEOs job very well. LEO are normally the most needed and least wanted on a scene. Even though we are called to a situation, most people fault us for doing whatever is needed to diffuse the problem. Whether it be an arrest or to make someone leave the area. Yes ALL officers speed. With that said let me explain why. When we get a call for a burglary in progress,we do not run lights and siren. We do not want the criminal to know we are coming or want them to know how close we are. If we run our siren ,our lights must be on as well. That is the law. En route to a burglary the siren would alert the burglar of the fact we are on our way.It would also give them an idea as to how close we are to them. If they know we are coming they get a chance to run.This makes it harder to solve the case. It has been proven by statistics that many times if they hear us coming the chance of them then finding a hostage to ensure their get away. There are many calls where we don’t use the lights and sirens. We use them in true emergencies. If someone is in your home and has a gun trained on you, do you want us to alert them we are coming or almost there? No you wouldn’t because it increases your chance of them shooting you by 84%. Yes sometimes an officer will accidentally speed because he has a lot on his mind. How many of you that are whining have never broken the speed limit? Ok , why did you do it? Not paying attention? In a hurry to get to an appointment? All LEOs are human just like you! Believe it or not. We do make mistakes. The general public expects us to be there in 5 minutes or less. Yet when we take the appropriate measures to do our best to meet the publics needs, the ones who have never done the job,wouldn’t do the job or even can’t do the job want to call us names. The public wants to complain about us doing our job. When you see an officer speeding he is doing it for a reason,not because he can or because he is going to lunch. Almost none of you know what the call is we are responding to. You have no idea of department policy. Yes we sped to Wa**le House, not to eat but to answer a call. Sometimes we answer a call diffuse the situation and if it happens to be time for our break or even our meal time ,sure we might have a seat and grab a quick bite. Until you have done the job ,went through the continued training and have learned all the department policies and are on the streets trying your best to abide by the laws and still try your best to meet the communities expectations then please don’t fault us for doing a thankless job. Many people perceive a situation to be an emergency when to them it may well be one, but to us it is not a life or death situation.