Once got pulled over for doing 25 in a…25. when I raised my eyebrows he said it was “foggy” out. Could see clear as day all the way down the road. I’m white too so it wasn’t even a race thing. I get it was a retirement area but ppl really got nothing better to do.
you should have probably put american small town cops as title. Cops have actual training in europe and other places and speed limits or road safety can’t be compared either. In the small town I live in cops are very down to earth and are generally fair unless you are being an asshole. Our laws are made so the fine is comparable to the % of speed over the limit and cops don’t care much unless you are 5-10% above the limit. This means they go after you if you drive with your head under the arm in cities, but you can go a little above on the highway. We also have car regulation so you don’t drive deathtraps that are a safety hazards to OTHER people. Which is why the shit cybertruck is not legal in EU and never will be.
Anyone familiar with cops in europe knows experiences vary widely. British police have gone on a campaign to arrest people for preaching on sidewalks. German and other european police physically beat people with clubs without much provocation. They were arresting people for talking walks by themselves in the woods in 2020-2022. In Switzerland, they use water cannons to spray protesters when it’s below freezing. Small towns in America are pretty laid back for the most part, because there’s not much happening to begin with. All of the murder is in the larger cities or a few regions where they have a history of high crime like northern alaska and native american reservations and the areas marijuana is farmed illegally by organized criminals. These are easily avoided.
A small town near me got in deep shit for being small town assholes recently. That and embezzlement. This town is on a major highway to Myrtle Beach. They also prided themselves on the “safety” and “smallness” of their town, while also preying on vacationers.
Their municipal police police would aggressively enforce the speed limits. Every time I had to go through there you’d see someone running speed at nearly every speed zone change. As little as one to two mph over would get you an interaction with them. They also would issue tickets for far more than was normal. Up to 10 over was easily a $400 ticket, when most places would only do $150. They were also kind and polite about it. They’d offer to take payment right then and eliminate the speeding points. Which was the issue.
If you paid there they wouldn’t report the ticket. Or the cash. The town kept the money; the town was making about a million a year. You were fined under a safety ordinance and not traffic law. They were also supposed to share portions with the county and state, but didn’t. They argued that it was not a traffic violation. This town of barely 700 people had fifteen police just running speed traps.
They eventually were found out, and the municipal police department was heavily curtailed. The county manages speed through there and is nowhere as aggressive about it.
It’s never very clear in the US if the speed limit is locally a thing, a suggestion, or completely ignored. As a visitor, it’s always problematic. I wish they got that sorted out.
When I first went to the US, the unrealistically low speed limits were one of the first things I noticed when driving.
I kinda assumed that this is by design so that police can pull over anyone they feel like since virtually everyone drives over the speed limit in some areas as it is so ridiculously low.
Yeah, I live in small-town US where many residents have complained about speeding in areas with heavy pedestrian use. In response, the local PD was quoted on the front page of the paper saying they don’t have time to enforce speed limits. A few years later and they were again on the front page saying that they don’t have time or equipment to enforce parking regulations. So here they’re somewhere between suggestion and completely ignored, but the next town over is filled with speed cameras and highway patrol sitting in wait to meet their quota…both towns on the same road.
don’t have time
TF are they doing, then?!
Figuring out ways to look understaffed so they can get more officers…around that time their call volume “doubled” over a year because they changed how they tracked calls. (Accounting for that, it was roughly the same.) But they used that to ask for another officer…and I assume they probably even need another one if we want them to do speed enforcement.
Figuring out ways to look understaffed so they can get more officers…around that time their call volume “doubled” over a year because they changed how they tracked calls. (Accounting for that, it was roughly the same.) But they used that to ask for another officer…and I assume they probably even need another one if we want them to do speed enforcement.
Sucking up overtime while asleep at home.
always been the opposite for me. Cops in my small towns legit let teens drive without their licences and shit lol
Those are prolly local kids they know. You only ding out of towners.
Small town cops looking for 1% less white skinned people and even a hint of a foreign accent.
Oh no! The police aren’t busy with more serious laws so they focus on the only laws people are breaking at the moment!
Why does this mean they suck, exactly? If you want to drive fast, drive on roads designed for fast driving.
My small town had two cops. had the “chief” was transferred to a bigger town with more minorities. So now my town only has one cop. I bet things are going to actually calm down a lot
There will be a brief moment of satisfaction when these types all lose their jobs to drones before things get even more dystopian
