Today, I spoke with a friend who went on a ride along last night with an OKC Police officer, during the 3rd shift (graveyard). He said that it was a busy night, however, some of the things he told me about the ride along made me rather upset.

This officer, who has been on the force for many years, told my friend that he very seldom writes tickets to speeders. As a matter of fact, he doesn't want to "waste" his time making traffic stops. Last night he did make some traffice stops, only because he had the ride along with him. He said that he is not required to write tickets, so he usually just looks the other way when he encounters a speeder.

My friend told me that last night, this officr was travelling down the Broadway Extension doing around 90 MPH, when he came up on a vehicle doing about 85. As he drove behind that vehicle, the driver slowed down. Instead of doing his job and citing this driver for speeding, he simply got off the Broadway Extension and let the guy drive on.

I was told that this officer speeds all the time because he CAN get by with it. On the interstate, and the Broadway Extension, this officers average speed was 90 MPH. Going west on Britton Rd, he was travelling at 70 MPH. When it was time for this officer and a few of his fellow officers to eat, they decided where they were going to meet. This officer got on the Kilpatrick Turnpike and was doing 115 MPH, just because he wanted to beat the other officers to the restaurant. Let me remind you that he drives these speeds WITHOUT emergency lights or siren. One of these days he is going to cause a fatality accident because of his speed, and they will fry his butt.

This officer is a disgrace to the police department, and is taking advantage of his badge by purposely breaking the law...because he can. Plus, he is not doing the job we are paying him to do because he refuses to write traffic citations.

I have seen this all the time, I have even seen one hit his lights just to go through a red light, maybe cause he didn't want to wait or maybe he did have a call and was in a hurry to get there but only to slow down after he made it through the red light and turned his lights off. It all boils down the ole question, what can be done about it? answer nothing, can it be proven, nope. How could it be proven that this one cop speeds around town doesn't do his job cause its a waste of time. Could this so ride along person go to headquarters and say listen to what I witnessed by one of your guys. More than likey they wouldn't do anything but give the guy a repermand and send back out on the beat. Some cops do there job and do it good with respect to us drivers if we give them the respect, and other just don't care as long as they get the authority to do whatever cause they have the badge that says so. Off my soapbox for now, there are some cops if not all I hate because of stuff like this.

Keith..most cops I know also drink and drive and show their badge when pulled over. I was out one night with one of them and I was in no shape to drive home..this guy and I almost got in a fight because he was mad I would not drive home.

Hefner station came down on their officers pretty hard for exceeding the speed limit on the Lake Hefner Parkway. It is actually a common lineup topic. Most of the bravado of flaunting the law "because of the badge" is usually the actions of younger officers. After you've been on the force awhile it is seen as immature, you've seen things that hammer home the seriousness of the job, showing off becomes old hat and a good cop settles down. With that said, there are a few rogue cops on the street (mostly higher ranking officers believe it or not) and some are well known for their BS toward citizens as well as other officers, but they are not liked by their peers and are few and far between, in this city at least. The actions of the officer during the ride-along was unacceptable and should have been reported to his supervisor. As for writing tickets, he is full of it and was obviously wanting to come across as "cool" to the ride-along. There is no way he could get away with not writing tickets. No way. There are no quotas, but there are quotas, or I should say "expectations for traffic enforcement."

Have any of you been harrassed by a police officer? Ugh..I just cringe when I have to come across an officer now.

hey I have a funny story..not really. A long time ago I was invovled in an accident where an officers asked me to explain what had happened. Another officer just showed up out of nowhere screaming at me to shut up and told me it was their job to figure out what had happened. I pointed at the first officer and was about to tell him that he asked me to explain but I had a feeling he would take me for an ass. I just looked at the first officer very confused and then looked back at the officer who was yelling at me and the first officer didn't even say anything. The first officer went to speak to another party. The 2nd officer had asked me if I had any weapons, and then had me keep my jacket off in the cold winter night.
As left the scene the husband of the woman who caused the problems just glared at me with I assume his buddies.

I just got rear ended by somebody else who got hit during road rage. I was just sitting at the light. I don't even know where all the hostility came from and I never got a full explanation. I did, however, receive a quick apology from the lady a few days later over the phone. She had kids in her car and the traffic made her frustrated. Big deal.

Her license should have been taken away. Perhaps, I should have tried to press charges. I didn't even think about it at the time especially since the officer kept me distracted enough. Lawsuit would have been too much of a headache anyway.

If something like that would have happened to me I would have went to the police chief and filed a complaint. Here is a story that still erks me, the tag on my truck had gone out, we didn't have the money for it, but had tag from anothe rvehicle we didn't have so to get by we used it, would have gotten away with it if the tag placve woudl have registared the sticker that it was bought but they didn't so wife got caught driving it adn of course had the kids with her. The officer was not going to let her get teh car seats out, and was going to make her stay out side in the cold with it raining with two kids. And he treated her like crap. She stood her ground and said she was getting the car seats out and was getting her personal stuff out whether he liked it or not. He didn't say anything after that comment. They then impounded the truck, now what kind of police officer does that to a woman with two kids on a cold rainy day? The tow truck driver had more kindness then the police did.

Rag on the cops. I will admit there are some bad officers. Just remember who is out there while you are sleeping and think about what all is being put up with. An officer can't so much as look at a black man the wrong way or they scream racism, an officer can't look at a woman the wrong way or they'll say he was hitting on them, an officer can't do a damn thing about illegal aliens, an officer can't look at a white male without the guy having a chip on his shoulder waiting for the big bad cop to knock it off. Sometimes it seems as if there's no winning. Picking up a suspect running away from a convenience store with $400 that belongs to a hard working Asian family (who asks only to be left alone) makes it worth it all. It's not an easy job. It's hard to maintain composure all of the time and every single day. Everyone fails at times. Cops are human too.

If I might, here is a speech Jack Webb gave in an episode of Dragnet in 1968. A copy of this speech hangs in the foyer of the Jack Webb Memorial Auditorium at the Los Angeles Police Department.

"It's awkward having a policeman around the house. Friends drop in, a man with a badge answers the door, the temperature drops 20 degrees.

You throw a party and that badge gets in the way. All of a sudden there isn't a straight man in the crowd. Everybody's a comedian. "Don't drink too much," somebody says, "or the man with a badge'll run you in." Or "How's it going, Dick Tracy? How many jaywalkers did you pinch today?" And then there's always the one who wants to know how many apples you stole.

All at once you lost your first name. You're a cop, a flatfoot, a bull, a dick, John Law. You're the fuzz, the heat; you're poison, you're trouble, you're bad news. They call you everything, but never a policeman.

It's not much of a life, unless you don't mind missing a Dodger game because the hotshot phone rings. Unless you like working Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, at a job that doesn't pay overtime. Oh, the pay's adequate-- if you count pennies you can put your kid through college, but you better plan on seeing Europe on your television set.

And then there's your first night on the beat. When you try to arrest a drunken prostitute in a Main St. bar and she rips your new uniform to shreds. You'll buy another one-- out of your own pocket.

And you're going to rub elbows with the elite-- pimps, addicts, thieves, bums, winos, girls who can't keep an address and men who don't care. Liars, cheats, con men-- the class of Skid Row.

And the heartbreak-- underfed kids, beaten kids, molested kids, lost kids, crying kids, homeless kids, hit-and-run kids, broken-arm kids, broken-leg kids, broken-head kids, sick kids, dying kids, dead kids. The old people nobody wants-- the reliefers, the pensioners, the ones who walk the street cold, and those who tried to keep warm and died in a $3 room with an unventilated gas heater. You'll walk your beat and try to pick up the pieces.

Do you have real adventure in your soul? You better have, because you're gonna do time in a prowl car. Oh, it's going to be a thrill a minute when you get an unknown-trouble call and hit a backyard at two in the morning, never knowing who you'll meet-- a kid with a knife, a pill-head with a gun, or two ex-cons with nothing to lose.

And you're going to have plenty of time to think. You'll draw duty in a lonely car, with nobody to talk to but your radio.

Four years in uniform and you'll have the ability, the experience and maybe the desire to be a detective. If you like to fly by the seat of your pants, this is where you belong. For every crime that's committed, you've got three million suspects to choose from. And most of the time, you'll have few facts and a lot of hunches. You'll run down leads that dead-end on you. You'll work all-night stakeouts that could last a week. You'll do leg work until you're sure you've talked to everybody in the state of California.

People who saw it happen - but really didn't. People who insist they did it - but really didn't. People who don't remember - those who try to forget. Those who tell the truth - those who lie. You'll run the files until your eyes ache.

And paperwork? Oh, you'll fill out a report when you're right, you'll fill out a report when you're wrong, you'll fill one out when you're not sure, you'll fill one out listing your leads, you'll fill one out when you have no leads, you'll fill out a report on the reports you've made! You'll write enough words in your lifetime to stock a library. You'll learn to live with doubt, anxiety, frustration. Court decisions that tend to hinder rather than help you. Dorado, Morse, Escobedo, Cahan. You'll learn to live with the District Attorney, testifying in court, defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, judges, juries, witnesses. And sometimes you're not going to be happy with the outcome.

But there's also this: there are over 5,000 men in this city, who know that being a policeman is an endless, glamourless, thankless job that's gotta be done.

I know it, too, and I'm damn glad to be one of them."

Amen.