Friday OT #1 - Your Blue Line

[Angie]

Given the events of the week, and the fact that we've had a "bad brushes with the law" style thread before, I thought it might be appropriate to share stories of your positive transactions with law enforcement officials.

Does anyone have some good ones?

 

[stormchaser2014]

I sat in the back of a police car to keep warm waiting for a tow truck when the transmission line fell out of the radiator on my car a few years ago. That's pretty much all the interaction I've ever had with LE.

 

[Angie]

I sat in the back of a police car to keep warm waiting for a tow truck when the transmission line fell out of the radiator on my car a few years ago. That's pretty much all the interaction I've ever had with LE.

I've had very limited interaction, too. One time in high school, a group of four of us were on a sort-of double date to an away football game. We were dead lost, and had pulled over to the side of the road to try and pull out a map. (I know, I'm super old.)

An officer pulled up behind us and turned on his lights - I'm sure he thought that we were making out or something, as it wasn't a very heavily traveled road. We knew nothing about protocol, so one of the guys got out of the car and started walking back to tell him we were lost. The officer got over his speaker and told him to get back in the car.

He came and asked for all of our IDs - he wasn't incredibly amused when I asked him if my lunch ticket would work, as I wasn't old enough for a driver's license yet. I think he could tell that we were just young, dumb, and lost, because he was super-nice and got us back on the road to where we needed to go. The nosy mom of one of our friends heard about it all on the police scanner and spread it around town before we even returned home.

 

[cytor]

A few years ago, I took my son's cub scout den to the local police station for a guided tour. The officer was awesome answering all the questions these kids had. The officer also showed the kids the weapons they use, other services the police provide, proper procedures all of us should use, and (the most fun) he put all the kids in a jail cell so they could feel what it was like. It was a very good experience for the kids and adult leaders that were in attendance.

 

[cyrocksmypants]

I can't think of a single thing good or bad, of interactions. Which, honestly, is probably a good thing in itself. Kind of like a ref in football or basketball, you know they're doing a good job when you don't really notice that they're there.

 

[Cyclonepride]

Teenager- I was speeding (passing some girls I knew) and narrowly ran a red light, right in front of a cop. Gave me a warning for running the red light, and advised me that the beer cans on the floor in the back seat gave him probable cause to search the vehicle (but he didn't, luckily, as we had just picked up a case of beer that was in the trunk). We also discussed my speed, and I posited that my speedometer was off (lol), so he waited for me to drive down, turn around, and checked it for me on the way back through. Cool guy, could have been a jerk about the whole thing.

 

[urb1]

In 40 years of driving, I have been pulled over four times for speeding and once for a license sticker that came off with just warnings. Not proud of this, but I was pulled over for my friend hanging out the window yelling at others in our caravan of cars, going bar to bar after a wedding. I was told to keep him in the car, drive straight home, and lay off the drinking. (This was in the early 80s before MADD, when this was more the norm for cops.)

In high school, a friend and I used to walk home from work late at night, and several times, a cop would offer us a ride home.

Only one ticket for turning left during rush hour, right after a new sign was posted for no left turn between 4:00 and 6:00.

 

[wxman1]

Nothing bad but I have known my best friend since pre-school and we have had two little "run in" with the law.

In high school I had paper route and would regularly sub for others and when we had a lot him and others would help me for some extra cash. Well one morning I went to pick him up and he lived just outside of town so technically in the county. For those that know the area he lived out by Lowe Park north of Marion on 10th Street. I go out to pick him up at like 2 AM but he doesn't answer his phone. Well I can see his bedroom light on along with other lights in his house so I go up and knock on the door. Little did I know his parents were out of town, he had forgotten about helping me and had food poisoning. Thus he was in the bathroom not in his bedroom but I didn't know that. I also saw basement lights on so I thought he would may be playing XBox so I go around and knock on those windows.

No answer again and now I am pissed and leave. I get about 1.5 miles back into town right in front of Linn-Mar HS and a county deputy is heading out. No big deal...until he pulls a quick U turn and gets behind me. Just south of 29th ave he pulls me over. Get's my ID and starts asking all of the questions so I just fill him in and say I have a paper route and just tried picking up my buddy to help but he won't answer. Then the deputy starts laughing.

Another time in HS again it was spring break and well we had nothing to do and our GFs said they were hanging out one of their driveways. So we drive over and park up the street to sneak down and scare them. Well they had apparently already gone in when we got there so we went walking back to the car. Again without me knowing he apparently had a fire cracker so naturally he pulled it out lit it and took off running. It wasn't until the running part that I realized what was happening. It goes off and I am standing about 10 feet from it with him 15-20 feet away. One thing he didn't notice. The cop sitting on the corner 100 feet away. She takes our info and in typical Marion cop fashion criticized us for having to call off a shots fired call. Whatever.

 

[Dandy]

I got a flat tire on my way to work one day a couple years ago. The road that it happened on doesn't have a shoulder. Not even two minutes after I pulled over to switch to the spare a police officer showed up and blocked the oncoming traffic away from my lane. He helped me change it so I was only there for about ten minutes.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Every run-in I've had with the police was self-inflicted (speeding, MIP, brief stint in the drunk tank for being a knucklehead) so I have nothing negative to say. They were just doing their job.

Honestly, there has been more than one occasion where I was let off easier than I probably should have been. Hindsight: even though it sucked at the time, being told to dump out our beer and carry on wasn't near as bad as what should have happened to high school me.

 

[CtownCyclone]

My family's got a long (positive) connection with law enforcement in my hometown - my dad's an obstetrician and so has delivered a baby for just about every officer and deputy in town and the county. He was particularly good friends with the chief deputy in the sheriff's department.

One day when I was probably about 8, he took me to the sheriff's office to "register my bike" in case it got stolen. We "happened" to run into said chief deputy, who took me back and showed me some of the cells in the jail. Then he locked me in one and they both walked out the door. After letting me sit there for a while (probably like 10 seconds, but seemed like an eternity), they came back in and let me back out.

 

[EnhancedFujita]

A lot of communities do a fire-police-ems event called National Night Out to increase awareness of what these organizations do. Its a great event for kids if you have them and have never gone. Kids get to meet officers and fire fighters, check out the vehicles, they usually kids games too. Overall a very good event.

I work with LEO occasionally and I know they all work very hard at developing positive relationships with citizens, unfortunately a lot of peoples exposure to law enforcement is when something negative has happened, so it can skew public perception of people that are just trying to make their communities a better place.

 

[Angie]

A lot of communities do a fire-police-ems event called National Night Out to increase awareness of what these organizations do. Its a great event for kids if you have them and have never gone. Kids get to meet officers and fire fighters, check out the vehicles, they usually kids games too. Overall a very good event.

I work with LEO occasionally and I know they all work very hard at developing positive relationships with citizens, unfortunately a lot of peoples exposure to law enforcement is when something negative has happened, so it can skew public perception of people that are just trying to make their communities a better place.

Ames does that! I remember they gave each kid a bike helmet a couple of years ago, usually have a bouncy house and squad cars. It's such a great idea.

 

[Angie]

I just realized that, on a board more dominated by females, "your blue line" would result in a bunch of stories about getting a positive pregnancy test.

 

[55dB]

A little over a year ago, I was riding with my best friend home from a game watch. The stoplight had changed, and the car in front of us had stalled out, and in that time, the car behind her rear ended her. We pulled over, and the cop that came to help was super helpful. The people that hit her, were super shady about giving out their insurance information, and insisted that they have one of the friends fix it for her instead. When she declined, they got super upset. Once the report was done at the scene, the cop followed us, and as she was dropping me off at my apartment, he insisted that she call the insurance company to report it right then. He had worked at an insurance company prior to becoming a police officer, and didn't want to see her get screwed over.

Nice guy.

 

[mdk2isu]

I just realized that, on a board more dominated by females, "your blue line" would result in a bunch of stories about getting a positive pregnancy test.

But according to Eric Church the lines are pink.

 

[Clonefan32]

I can remember one instance when I was at a Halloween Party in Ankeny during my freshman year of college. The cops knocked on the door and all 70 people decided we'd turn the lights off and hide, like they wouldn't notice. Eventually, they were let and asked where the kegs were. Someone from the peanut gallery yelled "too late, drank 'em all." Right after that, the chick standing next to me, who thought she was whispering, said "God, I wish I wasn't so high right now," but unfortunately she wasn't even close to whispering and within earshot of both the cops.

They wound up just dumping the alcohol and told us they'd be circling by all night to make sure none of us drove home. No tickets, no arrests, and by the end of the encounter they were laughing with us.

 

[stormchaser2014]

My cousin was telling me when he got a flat tire in the middle of the night and a cop showed up to help him, the cop was surprised that he knew what he was doing when changing a tire. Cop told him that he wouldn't believe how many people don't know how to change a tire these days. Should be part of getting a license.

 

[WhatchaGonnaDo]

In high school, we were out TP'ing teachers houses for homecoming week. We knew cops were watching the school really closely after hearing from other friends. Other people had already hit the school, but cops weren't there then. But now, they were watching the roads into and out of the school now.

We decided it'd be fun to swing by quick and add one roll to the big tree out front, just to say we contributed to the carnage.

Cop stopped me before I got out of the parking lot. My buddy who jumped out to throw the one roll bolted. I explained what happened, what we were doing (it was just one!), and he let me off with a warning. But, he had already run my plates, so he had to report something. He said he would give me a turn signal violation and a warning.

 

[Angie]

But according to Eric Church the lines are pink.

They are on most brands!