FHP

[Spike88]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq1sscJcZdA


Despite this happening 9 days ago, I didn't hear about this until today. The story from FHP's side is that the City of Miami officer was doing 120MPH on the turnpike(60-70MPH is the max) outside of his jurisdiction. He didn't have his lights on, and wasn't heading towards an emergency. The trooper calls in the the fact she sees him. Apparently she was told to just get his tag number and that her supervisor will handle it, the problem is they don't know whether or not she got this message.

She turns on her lights and gets behind him, following him for several minutes, and the rest you can see in the video.

While I do agree she shouldn't pull over another law enforcement agent while they're in a marked car, and she had no reason to draw a gun on him, the law is the law, and no one should be above the law.

I honestly think she should of handled this discreetly as it makes everyone look bad when law enforcement agencies squabbles amongst themselves.


The worst part is that, City of Miami is retailating and has spread feces on one trooper's car(who lives within the City of Miami) and another trooper was pulled over by City of Miami officer outside of the City of Miami(although this officer may lose his job as the FHP Officer's brother is actually an Internal Affairs officer for the City of Miami :doh:)

Law enforcement agencies throughout Florida are looking down on FHP officer. While the general populace is saying that it's about time someone stopped law enforcement agencies from speeding wherever the hell they want to(although as a note Metro Dade is actually the worst about this) The public's support of FHP and the news having their hands on it is just adding salt to the wound.

Long story short, both sides are being stubborn as it's boiled down to politics.


Also the Trooper in question just transferred to Miami 5 months ago, she originally worked in Northern Florida.

[CCIP]

Man, that's terrible. Honestly, while the response might seem extreme, I don't think law enforcement should be above the law when no emergency is involved. If you're driving at very high speeds and crossing lanes back and forth while going twice the speed the other drivers are, it is creating dangerous situations. So it's not wrong to consider him a danger. As one of the youtube comments there said, doing 120mph in gusty weather and traffic, you deserve more than a gun to the face. Where I live, doing something like that is a mandatory $10,000 fine, vehicle impoundment, and license suspension.

That said, having driven through Florida a lot with my friends there, all I know about FHP is that they are, by and large, highly retentive about everything. Still, I'd rather they be retentive about someone going twice the speed limit for no reason than about someone doing an extra few MPH on a clear stretch of road.

[Spike88]

Man, that's terrible. Honestly, while the response might seem extreme, I don't think law enforcement should be above the law when no emergency is involved. If you're driving at very high speeds and crossing lanes back and forth while going twice the speed the other drivers are, it is creating dangerous situations. So it's not wrong to consider him a danger. As one of the youtube comments there said, doing 120mph in gusty weather and traffic, you deserve more than a gun to the face. Where I live, doing something like that is a mandatory $10,000 fine, vehicle impoundment, and license suspension. I'd have to ask my parents(They are both FHP officers, which is how I heard of the story), but I believe it has a major penalty here too.



That said, having driven through Florida a lot with my friends there, all I know about FHP is that they are, by and large, highly retentive about everything. Still, I'd rather they be retentive about someone going twice the speed limit for no reason than about someone doing an extra few MPH on a clear stretch of road.

Florida State Statute lets you drive 5 mph over the speed limit, legally. Most troopers and other law enforcement agencies wont pull you over until your doing more than 10mph over the speed limit.


I've only been pulled over once for doing 10 over the speed limit. The officer(Metro Dade) let me go with a verbal warning after I explained my speedometer doesn't work(which it doesn't, it'll choose a random number and stay there :shifty:). I know that I should judge my speed by eye, but when you're on a strech of road alone, it's hard to judge.

[CCIP]

Never been pulled over by the FHP thankfully (been all over central and northern Florida by this point), but all I seem to remember about it is that (almost) everybody on the road kept the exact speed limit to a T. When I asked why that was, I was told that the highway patrol is ruthless about speeding. Being used to places where everyone habitually speeds (usually not by too much, though) that was an interesting 'cultural experience'.

In any case, it's not the speed that's the problem. It's going that much faster when everybody else in less-than-ideal weather and traffic conditions. If you're gonna risk other people's lives like that, you need a better reason than "I'm a cop you idiot!" (-A. Schwarzenegger)