Why Am I Doing This?

America's police force...trained to protect and to serve, and occasionally...give their lives in the line of duty. Nowhere is this more evident than in New York City on September 11, 2001.

For their courage and sacrifices, I salute America's police forces.

HOWEVER!

Despite their courage to do what they do and despite their occasional sacrifice, I do have some issues with what I consider to be misplaced priorities and abuses of power by some officers and in some cases, entire police departments.

Cases in point:

ONE
I recently received a speeding ticket while travelling in North Dallas. I do NOT dispute the fact that I was speeding, I freely admit it. But what I DO dispute is what the officer said when he came up to my window. He said "I first clocked you at 80, but I will just write the ticket for 70." I would not have a problem with that had I actually been driving 80, however, I WAS doing 70. I did not appreciate him trying to make me feel like I was breaking the law worse than I already was.

This issue I can overlook as it is also possible that his radar may have clocked another larger vehicle which was passing me at a higher rate of speed (which CAN happen), however, the next three issues I have with officers, I cannot excuse...

TWO
My mother in law was recently involved in a traffic accident. Her car was heavily damaged by a driver who had neither a drivers license or insurance. The officer gave the offending driver two tickets...one for no license, and one for no insurance and then proceeded to let him DRIVE OFF!!! When filing for an insurance claim under uninsured motorist coverage, we found out that the officer NEVER filed the accident report. Therefore, the insurance company would not approve the claim. As a result, my mother in law ended up paying over $3000 out of her own pocket for repairs!

THREE
This issue is one of my biggest problems I have with officers abusing their power...officers who regularly turn on their lights only so they can drive through a red traffic light even though they are not heading to a call. They turn on their lights, drive through the traffic light, then turn their lights off again. I find this highly unprofessional and an abuse of power on their part. I always thought that unless they were heading to a call, that they should also follow the same traffic laws that the rest of us are supposed to follow. If any officers are reading this, please be aware that I do carry a camera in my car and I will try to catch officers who do this on film and report it. One day, an officer is going to abuse his power by driving through a red light in this manner and he is going to get t-boned by a driver legally driving through the green light...and I will have no sympathy for the officer who does this.

FOUR
One of the biggest issues I have with the police...officers are spending so much time trying to entrap speeding drivers on the major roads and highways that they are ignoring school zones. I pass through FOUR school zones on my morning drive to work...and over the past 5 years that I have traveled this route, I have NEVER seen a single officer patrolling ANY of these zones while other cars around me regularly and blatantly ignore the 20-mph speed limit during the posted school zone hours, thus endangering children on their way to and from school. While trying to extort money from highway motorists, our children are having to dodge and duck drivers who ignore school zone speed limits by 10 mph or more!

So until police get their priorities in order, especially on these last two issues, I will continue to provide helpful information regarding known speed trap locations to the driving public.

I certainly hope this and the accompanying sites help you to avoid getting a ticket, HOWEVER, I do NOT condone the intentional breaking of the law by using these sites to your advantage to drive at extreme speeds over the speed limit in areas where not speed trap is listed (in other words...don't go driving 90 mph in a 55 mph zone simply because no speed trap is listed in that area because I would be more than happy to report such blatant activity to the authorities...yes...I DO carry a camera in my car!)

HAPPY (AND SAFE) MOTORING!