I made a rather startling discovery this evening: not all police officers in my neck of the woods are jerks. Really. I know! I was taken aback as well.
Before I go on it’s only fair to point out that, yes, I live in an area with a midrange crime rate and that houses a fair number of questionable characters. The police who may have been on the beat around here for a while have every reason to be hardened by the types of people they encounter. That said shouldn’t all citizens be treated with an “innocent until proven guilty” mentality even if the officer isn’t being genuine? I say yes, but have been proven wrong far too many times.
My story begins while on my way home from dropping my eldest daughter back at her mom’s house for the week. I was very close to my own home when the lights flashed as soon as I began to move from a stop sign. I pulled over and quickly readied my license and overall demeanor so as to set the best possible face when the officer came to my window.
“Can I please see your license and insurance card, please?” I handed him my license and informed him that I was unable to produce my insurance card at that time. He, of course, informed me that a $200 ticket would have to be written. He then went on to tell me that I had not stopped at the sign as I had thought but rather well in front of it. To add more fun to the situation I had a taillight out. I was surprised that I had stopped so far ahead of the line but knew full well about my taillight. I’ve been meaning to replace it but just haven’t gotten around it to.
While he was telling me that he would let me off with a warning on the stop and light my 21-month-old began to whine and cry. The officer excused himself to go back to his cruiser and write up the warning, telling me that I had a few minutes if I’d like to try to digitally pull up my insurance. I was unable to produce any info on my insurance and was going to tell him that when he came back. But when he did all he had in his hand was a warning for the “disobeying a stop sign”, a pen and my license. He nodded to my daughter and said, “Get her home. It’s probably past her bedtime.”
I shook my head yes and signed the warning.
“You can do whatever you want with this,” he said, nodding to the warning. “You can ball it up and kick it around if you want. It’s just a warning. Have a good night.” Then he got in his cruiser and flicked off his lights. I pulled out slowly and stopped fully at every sign on the rest of the way home.
I don’t know if he was being nice and didn’t want to ruin my record (not so much as a parking ticket in seven and a half years!) or he just forgot that he was waiting for my insurance but either way it was refreshing to see a cop who wasn’t being swelled with a false sense of authority. He was soft-spoken, calm and explained everything he was doing. Basically he was acting exactly as every officer should, regardless of their beat.
If more of the police force who interacts with the public were like this gentleman there would far less animosity toward law enforcement, at least in my neighborhood.
