"I would suggest that you advise your significant others that if they are stranded and you go get some help that MAYBE they should try to stay where you left them.
And there is this.
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Anyways, she was calling from a call box and the dispatcher said that she was dispatching CHP and it would be high priority.
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added to this.
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So I start backing up on the on-ramp looking to see if I passed them. Midway down the ramp, the red light come on and a Sheriff's car pulls up to me (he had been parked at the bottom with his lights off).
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What makes you think that the SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT gets dispatched to highway patrol calls?"
Ok, I am thinking that this is getting blown WAAAAAY out of proportion. Perhaps some information on how LE works will help to clear this up. First, in any given area there are usually several local level agencies including the city police (that can often reach into the county), the sheriff's dept., and the Highway Patrol. All have different missions and yet not so different missions. Also, in many places they do not share radio nets or dispatchers. There is often a HUGE disconnect in information between them, so it is unfair to assume that the officers you saw even knew what was going on. Also, they may have been responding to a call that took priority like a crime of violence. The fact is that you do not know what was going on in the cars that passed you or even if they knew that the women needed assistance.
If your initial call went to the HP and you were stopped by the Sheriff's Dept, he had no idea what you were talking about and most likely assumed that it was a ploy to get out of the ticket. Think about it, how many stories have you heard about the girl that cries her way out of a ticket or folks making up stories about having to go to the restroom...etc. People get creative when trying to get out of a ticket and he probably thought that you were doing the same. It also sounds like you were a bit pissed and he picked up on that.
I hate to break it to the cop haters, but LE is not all knowing. Just because something is reported to a dispatcher somewhere, does not mean that all leos automatically know the information. There have been many many times that I have seen wrong, incomplete, or must plain no info coming from the dispatcher when a lot of info had been provided to the dispatcher.
Personal Example:
One night, I was off duty and waking to my house when I was threatened by a crack dealer on a nearby street corner as I walked by. For my own safety, I chose to confront him immediately, as he would have been able to see where I lived if he watched me go home (about another block). He ran...I chased and caught him in about 20 yards. I cuffed and searched, found some dope and a knife, called 911 and asked for a marked unit quickly, but no lights and siren. I explained that I was on scene, but needed another unit.
How it went out over the radio: The scene in safe, already an officer on scene, one in custody, no assistance needed...seriously.
Well, after his homies started coming out of the woodwork, I called back and requested it again and got it straightened out, but it still took 15 minutes.
The moral of the story is that information flow gets F'd up and it is not the fault of the guys on the ground. No cop I know would willingly ignore a glaring safety hazard and risk the lives of two women to write a traffic citation. Filing a complaint when the info probably never went out on his radio is over reacting. The fact that you told him is not all that much evidence either, since we all get lied to about why people do things on a daily basis and he did what most of us would have done, writhe the ticket and let you go on your way.
And there is this.
quote:
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Anyways, she was calling from a call box and the dispatcher said that she was dispatching CHP and it would be high priority.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
added to this.
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I start backing up on the on-ramp looking to see if I passed them. Midway down the ramp, the red light come on and a Sheriff's car pulls up to me (he had been parked at the bottom with his lights off).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What makes you think that the SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT gets dispatched to highway patrol calls?"
Ok, I am thinking that this is getting blown WAAAAAY out of proportion. Perhaps some information on how LE works will help to clear this up. First, in any given area there are usually several local level agencies including the city police (that can often reach into the county), the sheriff's dept., and the Highway Patrol. All have different missions and yet not so different missions. Also, in many places they do not share radio nets or dispatchers. There is often a HUGE disconnect in information between them, so it is unfair to assume that the officers you saw even knew what was going on. Also, they may have been responding to a call that took priority like a crime of violence. The fact is that you do not know what was going on in the cars that passed you or even if they knew that the women needed assistance.
If your initial call went to the HP and you were stopped by the Sheriff's Dept, he had no idea what you were talking about and most likely assumed that it was a ploy to get out of the ticket. Think about it, how many stories have you heard about the girl that cries her way out of a ticket or folks making up stories about having to go to the restroom...etc. People get creative when trying to get out of a ticket and he probably thought that you were doing the same. It also sounds like you were a bit pissed and he picked up on that.
I hate to break it to the cop haters, but LE is not all knowing. Just because something is reported to a dispatcher somewhere, does not mean that all leos automatically know the information. There have been many many times that I have seen wrong, incomplete, or must plain no info coming from the dispatcher when a lot of info had been provided to the dispatcher.
Personal Example:
One night, I was off duty and waking to my house when I was threatened by a crack dealer on a nearby street corner as I walked by. For my own safety, I chose to confront him immediately, as he would have been able to see where I lived if he watched me go home (about another block). He ran...I chased and caught him in about 20 yards. I cuffed and searched, found some dope and a knife, called 911 and asked for a marked unit quickly, but no lights and siren. I explained that I was on scene, but needed another unit.
How it went out over the radio: The scene in safe, already an officer on scene, one in custody, no assistance needed...seriously.
Well, after his homies started coming out of the woodwork, I called back and requested it again and got it straightened out, but it still took 15 minutes.
The moral of the story is that information flow gets F'd up and it is not the fault of the guys on the ground. No cop I know would willingly ignore a glaring safety hazard and risk the lives of two women to write a traffic citation. Filing a complaint when the info probably never went out on his radio is over reacting. The fact that you told him is not all that much evidence either, since we all get lied to about why people do things on a daily basis and he did what most of us would have done, writhe the ticket and let you go on your way.