Why do police disregard traffic laws?

Sparky

Violating any of the traffic laws that everyone else has to obey is only allowed if in actual pursuit of a violator or when responding to a call where it is justified. Otherwise all laws have to be obeyed so as to be a good example for the motoring public.
Yes, some States do exempt officers from wearing seat belts. I am aghast at officers that don't wear one during routine patrol, however. Unless they are driving slowly it is advisable to wear one all the time. I can't imagine trying to perform a high speed pursuit without having one on.
I am a little surprised that an officer would willfully not be using his or her turn signals. It is an effortless function as far as I can tell. I think it would be rather hippocratic to give someone a ticket for not signaling if you don't do it yourself.
When I train new officers, I require that they obey all traffic laws to the letter during routine patrols. I do this to make sure they know what the laws are and that they know they aren't supposed to be violating them. Later if they get a complaint about their driving, they won't be able to say "I didn't know".
I think that most of the violations you are seeing are when an officer is hurrying to something that doesn't require the emergency equipment to be activated. Do violations occur, well, yeah I bet they do. But you are free to report an officer's actions to the department if you think they are doing something wrong. If you don't report it, it will just continue so you'll have nobody but yourself to blame after that.

lone butcher Spartan remembers

They often don't activate their sirens or lights since it could give them away more easily. They are allowed to do that if there's a call or something and you and I have no way of knowing.
Also, many cities or states don't require a police officer to wear a seat belt while in his cruiser because
a) he may need to get out fast and
b) because he's wearing 20+ pounds of equipment plus body armor that can easily snag on a seat belt.

Jason B

from personal experience i can tell you i don't ware a seat belt in a squad for 2 reasons. 1 if someone starts shooting at me i want to get out of the car ASAP. 2 seat belts get stuck on duty belts and gear making them a pain in the ***. Now with the traffic laws. most of the time when you see a cop we are on a way to a call. Most calls require us to get there quickly but do not require lights and sirens. so yes we do flip on the lights to get though a red light, we do speed, and don't use turn signals...we are trying to get somewhere quickly, and not everything requires us to run lights and sirens

D squared

I will try to answer all your questions and concerns from personal experience.

1. No lights & sirens, may be answering a call where they are not to be activated such as a robbery in progress,burglary etc.
2. Speeding, I may see something up ahead that warrants my looking in to further. I speed up to get there before I lose a visual.
3. Seat belts, you can not exit a squad car quickly or effectively while belted in. I wore my seat belt once and in the process of getting out to chase a guy forgot I was belted in. Did not make that blunder again. Plus with all the extra gear on it is uncomfortable.
4. Turn signals, I am too busy looking around while on patrol to continuously keep signaling. I can't tell you how many turns I make while on mobile patrol.
Hope this helps.

Novarobin

Police here are not subject to the Motor Vehicle Act while in the execution of the duty. It also specifically stated Police do not have to wear seatbelts for the exact reason as stated above. .
How would you catch up to the impaired driver swerving all over the road up ahead if you can't speed up. Turning on your lights defeats the purpose because you want to get closer to observe their driving to formulate your grounds, and they are supposed to pull over for your lights.
any yes, there are times when it is more effective to speed up and not turn on your lights.
While Police should obey the traffic laws while just driving, you can't always assume that when they aren't, they are just disrepecting the traffic laws.
ETA- in surveillence courses the use of signals lights are not encouraged. If you are tailing a vehicle, and it puts on the right signal light, and you do too, then they turn left, they are going to know you are following them for sure. Some times you just form habits.

Wayne Woj

Because they can get away with it..

Crazy Dave

The police disregard a lot of laws. Even murder. They can shoot unarmed citizens. Some of them lose their jobs but never face murder charges. It does not make any sense at all! Killing an unarmed person=murder! If they lose their job because they did not follow protocol then why do they not face criminal charges?

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