Various inane questions

['86 Samurai]

These are just a few things that I've always kind of wondered about police in general and the CHP specifically.

1) Where do you guys fuel your automobiles? Does each CHP station have its own gas station? Do you get reimbursed if you have to fuel up at a commercial station? I've only ever seen one police officer filling up at a commercial station...so I would guess that you've got your own at your headquarters.

2) Do you guys enforce the usage of turn signals? I always use mine because it's respectful and kind to other drivers, but do you pull people over solely for not using turn signals, or is it an additional thing to tag once you pull someone over?

3) This is more CHP specific. How do you guys go about getting food while on patrol? Is it all fast food and take out, or do you bring lunches?

4) How much of a difference do you notice in surrounding peoples' driving habits whilst in your patrol car compared to your personal vehicle? I can imagine it being somewhat frustrating not being able to exercise your police powers when seeing something particularly egregious while in your personal vehicle.

5) I think I already know the answer to this, but I've never really been certain. Around schools, does, "When Children Present" mean only when they are present outside of it, loading and unloading from cars and walking to and fro school, or does it mean whenever they're present on the grounds a speed of 25 must be obeyed?

6) Do you (as the CHP, in southern California) ticket people in the carpool lane as much as those in the regular lanes? I ask because the carpool lane often cruises around eighty (as a whole entity) whereas a person trying to go eighty in regular lanes would often be required to weave around slower traffic to achieve a comparable speed. My dad was in a vanpool for several years to take advantage of the carpool lane on his lengthy commute. It seemed from him talking that he felt that the CHP gave a free(er) pass to most in the carpool lane using it as the fastest lane (partly because it's isolated from the rest, in sort of a tunnel behind the double yellows).

5) Would it be legal to run around as a civilian with a radar gun lit up while driving to screw with peoples' radar detectors? :biggrin:

[Chippysgt]

1. There are gas pumps in most, if not all CHP offices. I retired some time back but I think officers still carry a state credit card in each car that can be used to make purchases at a retail outlet if necessary.

2. Not using a turn signal can be a violation of law and it would be entirely appropriate for an officer to take the appropriate enforcement action if this violation was observed. It would be pretty unusual for someone to get pulled over for something like speeding and then have a charge tacked on for not signalling when make a turn or lane change but ever situation is different and that is why we give CHP officers descretion.

3. CHP officers are only allowed to eat donuts while they are on duty and they are not allowed to bring them to work with them. The donuts must be dispensed by an official donut dolly. Old timers used to live on fast food. With some exception, I think the new generation is more health conscious.

4. I have been retired since 1994 and I still reach for the red light when I am driving my personal car and I see some idiot do something stupid. Once a cop always a cop.....................

5. School zone is 25 when school is in session and children are present in the school not just when they are trying to get across the street or lolly gagging around the school.

6. Yes, the CHP likes to ticket people in the regular lanes as much as the carpool lanes. The frustration is kind of like fishing. Try as hard as you want but you will never catch all the fish. Same with tickets but there is hope as long as people think it is okay to go 80. In the business we call that job security...................

7. I see nothing wrong with you running around as a civilian with a radar gun and pointing it at people. I have two suggestions though. First take your mothers hairdryer and try it out first and note the reaction of drivers. Second, if you decide to really do it, get a real good pair of Nikes and a wear a ballistic vest since road rage is a reality in S.Cal.
:cool:

[SB 405]

I always see Officers from the Culver City office filling up patrol cars at a local Mobile station.

[Mac]

Chippysgt gave excellent answers to all of the above. I'll just tack on to his where necessary without repeating what he said:

1. - There are pumps at the office, and gas can be bought offsite if needed. Officers don't pay for their own gas if it's bought at a retail outlet.

2. and 6. - Turn signal and carpool speed are both valid violations, and can be cited. Whether you WILL be cited is hard to say. Take tinted windows as an example - there are a lot of them running around out there, it's a citable violation, and you can never catch them all (see Chippysgt's "fishing" analogy, which I've often used myself). Sometimes you'll get tagged for it, sometimes the officer has something else of higher priority to do and doesn't have the time to deal with it. There's no such thing as a "free pass" for ANY violation - you throw the dice and take your chances.

3. Donuts notwithstanding, you sometimes have the time to actually sit down in a restaurant and eat a real meal (or go home for lunch/dinner if you live near your beat and are so inclined)....but there are also days when you'll barely have time to stop to take care of urgent bodily functions. Some bring a lunch, some throw caution to the wind and pray that the gods of war will allow them time to stop and grab something.

4. Big difference. People are (for the most part) unbelievably courteous and law-abiding when a black and white is in the vicinity. It's not frustrating to me when I'm off-duty because I don't LET it be frustrating....stupidity doesn't work shifts or take vacations, and I can't (and don't want to be!) in a marked unit 24 hours a day. Usually I just shake my head and marvel at the wonder of being able to watch Darwin's theory of "natural selection" being played out in real life right before my eyes. If it's something PARTICULARLY egregious, I'll get on the cell phone and call for a marked unit to come take care of business.

7. Nothing illegal about it, but I'd be EXTREMELY careful about running around pointing things at people in cars. Not only is road rage alive and well (as alluded to by Chippysgt), but somebody may also call in and report that you're pointing guns at people. This could very well result in you being stopped, taken out of your car at gunpoint and handcuffed until everything is sorted out - not exactly my idea of a fun time.

['86 Samurai]

Regarding turn signal violations, have any of you cited someone for not signaling?

I mean, with something as widespread as not using signals (probably more than half don't), do you guys bother to pull people over for it? Using the fishing analogy, it's like going after the small minnows opposed to the large tuna. There are plenty of big fish out there and not all that many fishermen.

[Mac]

Using the same logic, why would PDs or SOs bother with petty shoplifters, thieves, drug users and wife/husband beaters when there are rapists, murderers and terrorists running around out there?

On a semi-related topic, I always love it when somebody I'm giving a ticket to asks me "Don't you have anything better to do?". I'd like to answer "Yeah, and if I wasn't constantly interrupted by people like you who can't obey the law like you're supposed to, maybe I could go do it!". :badgrin:

['86 Samurai]

No, no, no. That wasn't my intention. I was just wondering if any officers here had actually cited somebody for not using a turn signal.

I think they should; I am curious as to whether anyone here has.

[Mac]

....to answer your question - yes, I've cited people for it. Have you ever sat somewhere for 5 minutes or so waiting for a break in traffic to make a turn out of a driveway, then had that ONE CAR spanning the gap between groups of traffic where you could have made your turn suddenly whip a right turn into the driveway you're waiting in? If you hadn't had to wait for him, you could've gone, but now you have to sit through a whole 'nother group of traffic. Kinda pisses you off, don't it?

....or how about when you're driving along behind a guy in the fast lane at the speed limit and he allofasudden jams on his brakes and comes to a stop in front of you because he wants to make a turn, but didn't bother to let anybody know his intentions?

I'm not talking about lane changes on the freeway in the middle of the night when there's no car within a half-mile, or making a right turn at an intersection with no other cars in the vicinity.....I'm talking about violations that show a complete lack of courtesy or regard for anybody else around them, and are hazardous.

[retchp]

I liked to cite people for not signalling their intent to make a right turn as they approached a T intersection which was controlled by a stop sign for their cross traffic only, with no stop sign for them on the through road. In other words here sits a motorist at the stop sign waiting for Joe Stupid to come through the intersection. Traffic on the through road is busy. Traffic on the stop sign controlled cross street is backing up behind the first motorist in line. Joe Stupid is approaching and knows he is going to turn right. He doesn't signal of course and just makes a right turn. The motorist at the stop sign could not proceed to pull out and make a left or a right turn because Joe had the right of way. Now the motorist has to wait to see what the next car will do before he can pull out. Again, he can't pull into traffic because through traffic has the right of way and he might cause a collision if he pulls out. Sometimes two or three vehicles in a row will make a right without signalling and you can cite them in groups.
It is just rudeness that causes them to do it too. If you are first in line in a patrol car they ALWAYS signal their intent to make that right turn.
Believe me the people backed up at the intersection behind the first poor guy in line waiting to enter a through highway during commute traffic appreciate anything that can be done to encourage drivers to signal their intent.

['86 Samurai]

Gotcha; that makes sense.

[Mac]

...It is just rudeness that causes them to do it too...
Exactly. Since there's no VC section that covers being a rude, selfish, pigheaded pr**k and/or driving with a recto-cranial inversion, sometimes you just have to make do with the tools you have.