Nope. No bashing here. Being on the highways and byways of this great nation on a daily basis, I see a little of everything that can happen on the road. I've been wondering about this lately. In training, is there any mention of obstructing traffic? Causing traffic jams? About half of the "traffic jams" I see during rush hour are caused by an officer on the side of the road, usually writing a ticket. Is there any discussion about letting the small ones slide so as not to cause a backup? It would seem to me that this would be common sense. What is the recommended practice?

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Insert short witty words here

My training was sorta brief compard to todays, there was little to no practical or useful knowledge involved. Most of our scheduled instructors failed to show and were subsituted with attorneys that told us we weren't allowed to do anything.

I don't know about your area, buy around here, the small ones DO slide. There's enough ****** driving to keep busy anyway.

An officer can't help things like people slamming on brakes because he's on the side of the road writing a ticket or eating a hot dog or doing anything. Can't do anything about it any more than he can something about the morons on the 2 lane road who do 10 under the speed limit when he's behind them, for fear of getting pulled over.

2 cents from a cop in training, not an LEO yet.

When working with traffic citations or working accidents the focus is on incident safety and not traffic control.

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Hi:
It has to do with the Agency and "COMMON SENSE".
There are Agencies that measure the worth of an Officer by the number of Traffic Citations He/She issues.
Some types of Officers work a lot of traffic because that is Their "Thing".
Supposely there is not a "Quoto" for Citations, however there is a box on the Agency's "Officer Evaluation" for grading "Working at Expected Levels" that a low grade will have a effect on a Officer's pay raise or promotion.
Also during "Special Enforcement" a "Prize" is offered for the Officer issuing the most citations. I have always had the opinion that "Questionable Citations" are issued during this time. At times "Minor Infactions" are enforced as a "Fishing Expedation" foe drugs.

In Louisiana, the law states that you should move to the left lane on a 4 lane road or if not possible then slow down when passing a officer that has pulled over a vehicle. This is for the safety of the officer. Recently the State Police issued a warning about this and that they will be enforcing this. This will slow down traffic during busy traffic times.

Also, some people like to gawk at accidents or anything else on the side of the road.

Last year,we evacuated for hurricane Gustaf and there would be miles of slowdowns just because someone pulled to the side of the road.

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Corripe Cervisiam

Most officers would like to be eating breakfast or supper during rush hour, so it is a real good chance that the offense was NOT a "small one".

I probably only wrote one out of ten of the drivers that I stopped and they ALL had committed a traffic offense or I wouldn't have stopped them in the first place.

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John 3:16
WAR EAGLE!

Officers conducting traffic enforcement stops or other investigations aren't out there to put on a "show" for people passing by, it's just a natural reaction for some folks to be curious. The inconvenience caused by some slowing is offset by the increased awareness of potential violators (accident victims) who see the officers at work and respond by paying more attention to their own driving performance. For every violator stopped for a driving infraction, there's probably dozens more who drive by during peak traffic hours and say to themselves, "I better watch out or I'll get a ticket like that guy!"

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I'm not fluent in the language of violence, but I know enough to get around in places where it's spoken.

And a dozen more who think "Well that's one cop I don't have to worry about, full speed ahead"

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Formerly know as Lucky Derby

Officer discretion plays a huge role in what people are getting pulled over for and when. 5mph over, a tail light out, etc are generally overlooked, particularly at peak traffic times. The severity of the infraction and public safety, as well as officer safety, are all taken into consideration. You can bet that with the risks involved in stopping someone in heavy traffic that if someone gets pulled over in the middle of rush hour they needed to be.

One other thing, if I'm doing my job, the people I see that need to/deserve to be pulled over are going to be, regardless of the inconvenience to anyone else on the road. I don't care how it affects you or if it slows your ride to work or home or if you get the kids are late to soccer. The person I'm stopping may be the one that would have caused the accident that kills or maims someone, they might be driving drunk, they might have stolen the car or be wanted for some other violation that has nothing to do with traffic, they might be on the run from a robbery or a murder or have just left a drug deal or any number of other things that could cost someone their life. Consider that the next time an "officer induced" traffic jams slows your ride. Consider what might have happened had that officer not been there, doing his job. And slow down for him and try to give him a little extra room, so that he's a bit safer thanks to your efforts.

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Don't kiss smiling dogs!

Anybody know why they close down the entire freaking interstate when there's an accident? I'd think you would want to get the wreck out of the road quickly so that traffic could resume. After that, they could make photos, get interviews, and fill out reports...all at their leisure and safely out of the road.

We are usually so busy that unless on a traffic emphasis, the little stuff slides by definition. I use all the lights I have to warn on-coming traffic, but I can't help the fact that people freak out and do stupid stuff. I'm just happy if they do what they're supposed to do and move over (it's a law now, but I was taught back in the 70s that it's just good courteous practice to move over from all traffic hazards). Sadly, many agencies/academies forget/don't train that the first thing we are on the side of the road is a traffic hazard.
State police/Highway Patrol agencies tend to be the worst about tactics and safety during enforcement encounters. They get so wrapped up in writing tickets that they get into amazingly unsafe practices (complacency). Often their training is substandard, too. WSP is infamous for bad tactics and serious officer safety violations, resulting from a combination of bad policies, archaic training, and volume pressures. They have their own academy, which last I knew did not meet state standards - they are certified by statute because they can't earn it. They lose their best new people because of the abuse, but anyone who leaves WSP tends to have a hard time in field training with a real LE agency because their bad practices have to be undone before learning to do it right can occur. (They do well at some inane stuff, like pursuits, but their response to a real police call can be awful - most of the dedicated troopers get themselves retrained by local officers if they work in a more rural area and might go to police calls.) They also have one of the worst (if not yet the worst, they will be soon) records in civil litigation in the state, and will soon be paying what is almost certainly the biggest civil rights violation judgment in the state.
Blocking the road: Too many variables to answer with precision, but it will vary by the nature of the collision and resulting investigation. Those scenes can be very complex and require hours to adequately investigate and document. Sadly, there are also often problems with HUA drivers coming into scenes and hitting officers, medics, and the like. Fire trucks make good protection if you can get enough of them.

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NHI, 10-8.

Merge onto a limited access highway in a marked car . All you will see is a sea of brake lights reflexively applied. The cop could be doin' anytrhing, people slow down. John

It's more often than not caused by gawkers (also known as lookie-loos or neck craners, depending on where you live) and particularly those that can't wait to text or call someone on their cell and announce that they just witnessed an officer writing someone a ticket.

When you see an officer stopped along side the highway, just remember to "Please move along folks, there's nothing to see here."

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"In God We Trust"

Can only speak from observation, but usually on I-80, I-380, here in Iowa, closing the interstate completely for other than weather/flooding, involves death (lots of measuring!), accident crossed the median, maintaining access for emergency equipment, or even a tanker or fuel tank spill of some type.
Sometimes debris is scattered for quite a large area.

Also sometimes the other side of the median is the best place to land the evacuation helicoptor, and this requires some preparation for the event, even in daylight.

And there is also the possibility that the gawkers have caused another accident or even several on both sides of the road!

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Wherever my mind isn't
Jim

I used to work A LOT of traffic enforcement. If I had to write a ticket during rush hour, it was to someone who desperately needed to receive a citation, like 60 mph in a 15 mph school zone. Little things like equipment violations (unless they were really a danger) or expired plates were ignored. I always tried to plan my stops to be out of traffic or on a side street, but the offenders didn't always cooperate, sometimes they stopped as soon as you pulled out behind them, even if you didn't have the lights on.
For traffic collisions (there is no such thing as an accident), my first concern for was injuries, after that, I tried to clear traffic as soon as possible. I was known in the department for calling for a wrecker before I even reached the scene. Normally, we tried to assign two units to each collision scene, workload permitting; one to investigate and one to direct traffic. We also used a lot of highway flares to direct/channel traffic. I've noticed through my career that the use of flares has slowed down; the departments I worked for in Mississippi didn't even carry them.

What?? We were trained that when out on the roadways traffic control is a big part of incident safety. We always assigned at least one officer to traffic control at an accident.

Maybe we shouldn't do any traffic enforcement. Afterall why inconvenience the public with such a silly notion that if you break the law you'll be stopped. Especially when the most cars are on the roadway, like during rush hour. I'm sure all the drivers would never drive with any disregard for the safety of others. And all those "cop writing a ticket" induced accidents would stop immediately once people realize they can drive as fast as they want, without fear of being stopped.......... Yeah that'll work.

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Tom
"Panem et Circenses"

Several people responding to my post seem to think that's what I meant. It is not. I was just wondering if there was any discussion in training about creating a hazard or obstruction. I in no way meant that I thought tickets shouldn't be issued during rush hour.

It seems to me that there should be some kind of balance. Were I an officer, I would not likely pull someone over for having a tail light out if I knew it would cause a backup on the highway. Backups have a way of turning into rear-end accidents. That's not the fault of the officer, but something that I would consider in his place.

That's all I was asking. I would not ask that an officer not do his job.

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Never came up during my career as a state trooper. Let's face it, tickets mean revenue and at least on the east coast that monster was born in the early 70's with federally funded speed enforcement.