Monday, December 05, 2022

Rolling the Gold

 That's what we always called it.  Rolling the Gold to identify ourselves as police officers. There was nothing nefarious about it.  In the presence of an officer you did not know, you identified yourself to put him or her at ease.

Evidently, the rules have changed.  It seems that the Chief of Police of Tampa was recently pulled over by a Pinellas County Deputy for a minor infraction.  She identified herself as a police officer and was allowed to proceed. When I say minor, she didn't have a license tag on her golf cart.  That is minor.

I never liked giving traffic tickets, so when I rolled out the citation pad, the time for talk was over.  In my time as a road cop, I probably never wrote more that two dozen tickets.  I made a bunch of traffic stops, but I didn't write many tickets.  If everything seemed reasonable, I'd let the violator go.

But, in this case, it seems like something that broke the camel's back. This violation seems so minor that it should not even have elicited conversation at the station coffee pot.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rules for thee and not for mee.
That bugs the little people.

Anonymous said...

That is a garbage take for special privileges for cops. She straight out asked for a favor. She was hired despite having tried to kick out a patrol car window during a stop back in the day. She should never have been hired in the first place, and the deputy should also be fired for failing to uphold the law equally.

Old NFO said...

Times have changed.

Termite said...

Simple solution.

Identify yourself as a police officer. Then say nothing else. Let the uniformed officer make the call.