By Samantha Smith
Many drivers on Texas roadways have encountered reckless driving, but they usually don’t expect it from a person driving a marked police car.
It is uncommon, but there has been documentation as recent as January of this year of police officers abusing their authority to disregard the rules of the road.
According to a report from a CBS affiliate in Florida in January, a civilian recorded a video and followed an officer travelling at a high rate of speed toward I-95 for no apparent reason.
Buda Police Chief Bo Kidd said the Transportation Code of Texas outline police officer driving protocols and vehicles are in compliance with it.
Kidd said officers operating a marked police car are not required to activate their lights and/or sirens when responding to a call.
In certain instances, officers refrain from using their lights and/or sirens in order to not alert a suspect of their presence.
Kyle Police Chief Jeff Barnett agreed with Kidd about situations in which officers’ lights and sirens would be detrimental to use.
“A hostage situation would constitute not using lights and sirens especially if the suspect was unaware that an alarm had been triggered,” Barnett said.
Kidd added many officers are deterred from using their lights and sirens due to the sluggish reactions of drivers around them.
“Officers tend to not want to use lights and sirens because people tend to move slower,” Kidd said.
Barnett added some people hear sirens and see lights flashing and will “slam on their brakes and stop.”
These exceptions, however, do not give an officer license to ignore safe driving habits.
Many new officers tend to have an issue with safe driving habits when responding to calls because they “tend to think that every call is a break neck call,” Kidd said.
But nobody is above the law and Kidd believes these new officers need to be reminded of that.
Although officers are not required to use their lights or sirens when responding to calls, Kidd recommends that they use them when going through intersections, at the very least.
“Just because they (police officers driving marked vehicles) have the authorization to break traffic laws doesn’t mean they are released from their duty to protect the public,” Kidd said.
According to both Kidd and Barnett, both departments have exemplary officer driving records and every public inquiry into an officer’s driving conduct is investigated to determine any wrong doing on the officer’s part.
Kidd said there could be issues if officers’ mentalities go above obeying traffic laws.
“If that is a belief of officers in a department, then there is a problem in the department,” Kidd said.
