Can the cops give you a ride?

[RemingtonBPD]

This is my general response to people who request a ride just because they don't have one:

"Does it say Taxi on the side of the car or Police?"

As illustrated above...most Dept's, including mine discourage "courtesy" rides for obvious safety issues, and taking time away from possibly more important calls. There are of course certain circumstances that allow rides.

 

[Pydpiper]

This is my general response to people who request a ride just because they don't have one:

"Does it say Taxi on the side of the car or Police?"

None of my vehicles say "Taxi" either, but rest assured that if you ever find yourself in need of a ride and I happen to pass by, working or not, you won't have to walk.

 

[Arkayne]

When I was 13, I was in the car with my best friend with his sister driving on a busy freeway. The car broke down and my friend and I had to walk 3/4 of a mile ahead to the call box. While at the callbox, a CHP officer shows up and we explain what happened. I got to sit in front and and he gave us a ride in REVERSE back to the car. That was pretty cool.

 

[xochi]

I've received rides a few times and I think that some big factors on wether or not I got one were the distance, wether or not I was clean (not stinky), wether I asked politely (didn't do the "hey you're a public servent, I'm the public give me a ride" thing), the area and time of day (likelihood of an emergency call) and of course, the degree of animosity from the public the local department deals with. Some areas have a large gulf between 'us' and 'them'.

Usually, when I managed to get a ride I was at a convinience store and only needed to go 3-4 miles. I was in an area where police get respect from most folks and it was during the day and I'd already been chatting with the officer for a few minutes. Unless there are explicit instructions against it, I got rides from cops who like being able to help folks out.

But, I've done alot of hitchhiking in my time and I still pick up hitchhikers if I'm the only one in the car or if I'm with another adult male. It's probabally BS but I think some kind of mystical rule of "what goes around comes around" governs how lucky you are getting rides.

 

[raggie33]

i like to walk police always look at me when i walk gues cause i dont dress nice maybe they think im a bum

 

[Lightraven]

Here are a few circumstances that I have given someone a ride that was not under arrest.

The day before yesterday, a guy walked up to me and wanted to report someone committing a crime. I wasn't really the person he needed to talk to and my Spanish is a bit rusty, so I gave him a ride to a station. Because I didn't know him, I searched him for weapons, but let him ride up front.

I passed an older guy walking along the road in a desert, north of town, where it was about 109 degrees. He told me his car broke down and he was walking back to town. I thought he might not make it alive, so I gave him a ride.

I passed an older woman whose car was broken down on the Interstate. She had no phone and was miles from anywhere, so I gave her a ride to a gas station.

A guy was walking around my operational area, lost, which is a bit dangerous and a distraction for us. He didn't break any laws, but he needed to be somewhere else. I searched him and gave him a ride to 7-11.

 

[Sub_Umbra]

I can't say much about today but in the past it was a departmental policy issue.


In the 1967 I was 16 and hitchhiking home from my first job as a sailor so I could start high school again in the fall. It was over 800 miles to get home. At 2 or 3 AM I started hitching across Wisconsin. I got a ride from a pretty normal looking guy in a normal looking car. He asked me a lot of questions but there was nothing odd in that. Many folks would pick up hitchhikers at night to try to stay awake on the road.

After a while he reaches under the dash, pulls out a mic and starts talking in official LEOspeak. I asked him what was up and he told me he was a LEO and he was on duty. He said that they always picked up hitchhikers to evaluate them and get them out of the county. The radio call was to notify the LEOs in the next county that they had me and that they would be dropping me off at their county line shortly.

It was really a cool deal for everyone concerned. The LEOs got the me out of their jurisdiction and I got a continuous series of rides across county after county all the way across the state. They took me right to the Minnesota state line. I don't know if they also did it in the daytime.

 

[xochi]

Damn, Sub, you lucked out! Course, you missed out on seeing all the naked polaroids it seems like every truckdriver carries with him.

That happened to me when hitching in kansas, course, he wasn't conscientious enough to alert the next county that I was now there problem.

 

[cratz2]

Yup. That is what we all call them when we don't agree. Truth is thats justice. Win, or loose. Like it, or not. Once you go through the court system you have received justice. It is not only justice when you win.

12 reasonable people disagree with an attorney, that has unlimited resources for his prosecution, (or an attorney for a government entity), and we throw around terms like "Dang lawyers and stupid juries."

I work in a building where there are a lot of "alplhabet soup companies", and the attitudes between them, and the local LEO are like night, and day. So I believe a lot of it is discression. Whether it occurs on the street, or the administrative offices.

The police are there to serve the public, not just contain them, and rule over them. This of course is just my discressionary opinion.

My mother worked in law for a long time... mostly business law where large sums of money often hang on the smallest detail and even more often, hang on who has more money to drag a trial out even longer.

Very often, attorneys get fixated on a tiny detail and seek to collect lots of money because of these small details. When the spirit of the law is set aside to comply with a mundane detail, often unforseen at the time of writing, justice is NOT served.

VERY overly simplified example: A temp company sends workers to a warehouse. Two guys show up on Monday, the first day for both of them. Througout the day, they both get 'hurt'. One guy steps on an upside down pallet that's pretty banged up and gets a tail through the foot so off he goes to the hospital where he racks up medical bills and will no doubt, suffer future earnings. The other guy lifts the pallet out of the way and 'hurts his back' even though he actually hurt it the last day of his previous job where there was no coverage. Again, medical bills ensue as does compensation for lost wages.

They seem prety similar on the surface, but the latter scenario - and more specifically, the lawyers that seek to represent this type of client - are eating away profits that should be directed elsewhere. When the spirit of the law is thrown out the window because of blatant and intended dishonesty, one of two things usually happen. First, nothing. The loss is minor enough that profits far outweigh the loss. Second, lawmakers are forced to clarify and ammend policies and courts are forced to make decisions to prevent future such abuses of policy. If it's the latter, then we have pitted an acting body against dishonest, and often unlawful, citizens and attorneys. This only helps the self-serving folks looking for a handout or easy money and penalizes hard working folks who keep the country running.

Only my opinion though... hopefully it's shared by others.

 

[Ras_Thavas]

I've given a few people rides back when I worked patrol. It is generally discouraged for all the reasons listed above, however, you can get away with it if you can articulate a good reason for what you are doing. For instance, a person walking down a road with no sidewalk at night in the rain. I might give them a ride just so I won't have to work an auto pedestrian accident involving them later on.

There are a lot of variables involved though, that often can't be explained in the few moments you will have the attention of the officer.

 

[offroadcmpr]

I almost got a ride from a police man. I was riding my bike at dusk with out a light on it. I was on the sidewalk and stuff, but he stopped any way and asked how far away my house was. Luckly it was only a mile away, so he let me continue on my way. I was 12 or 13 at the time I think.

 

[Blindspot]

I've gotten a few rides, and I think one of them may have been without handcuffs on, but I'm not positive.... :naughty:

 

[rugbymatt]

Years ago when I was in college, 25 years give or take. The State Troopers used to give us rides back to Campus if they saw us walking on the side of the road. Now this was a long time ago, in a very small upstate town, and there were no sidewalks, so maybe they figured it would be easier then cleaning up the mess if we got hit by a car or worse one of the many logging trucks. This was also before everyone and their brother was sue crazy and sued people at the drop of a hat. Things were a lot simplier back then. Damn I'm starting to sound like my father.