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SOMD: SHERIFF EVANS: Speeding by Deputies is UNSAT

January 11th, 2010 |

Author: Doug

(SOMD.COM Prince Frederick 01210) SOMD published a response by Sheriff Evans to speeding police officers on January 11, 2009. I believe the Sheriff is sincere since I spoke to him about this myself after he received an email message from me regarding similar behavior that I observed.

My impression at the time was that the officers involved were taking a casual approach to vehicle safety. I didn’t want to call. In years past I served as a Reserve Police Officer at a California city police agency. The types of police behavior I have observed in Maryland are unlike any I ever saw in California. We were taught in our various schools and academies that as police officers were morally obligated to set an example. We were required by law to break the traffic regulations only with emergency lights and sirens engaged. Failure to do so could subject an officer to serious discipline or even termination.

Unfortunately I remember what I’ve seen on the road, and I am still too frequently unimpressed. Some years back I observed a sheriffs marked patrol car and state patrol running lights only, no sirens, up the hill Southbound on route 261 at the NRL well over sixty mph. A blind hill. One was in the proper lane the other was alongside the other in the lane for on-coming traffic. Both of these officers were damned lucky there was no one coming the other direction.

A couple of years ago I saw a deputy run a late yellow which turned red as the last half of his vehicle went East bound across highway on route 231. I also recall a county speed trap where a vehicle exceeding the speed limit was waved by as the car behind it going the same speed was stopped. The first car had FP plates.

There is obvious effort by the Sheriff to set standards and I believe he intends to do what is ncessary, but I told him on the phone that I believed there is a culture of reckless driving in maryland and police officers and their families are part of the problem. Just last week I saw an unmarked blue police vehicle on highway tailgating another car in the fast lane and the operator of the police car was leaned into his cellular telephone.

I regularly see drivers of FP and FOP plates disobeying traffic regulations. Excessive speed, tailgating, gliding through stop signs. It is not uncommon. It is all too common.

Vehicle safety is one of those moral standards that starts from the top down and the finest have to set the example and not be part of the problem.

To the Sheriff’s credit, I have seen more of the state police officers taking what I consider unsafe risks than I ever have the Sheriffs deputies.

I would ask the Sheriff to accept to reports of the behavior of persons driving vehicles with police personal tags. Like the one the one on Mother’s Day one year that passed me on north bound Highway four at well over seventy miles in a fifty-five mph zone in a driving rain.

Next I would ask him to consider that issuance of the FP or FOP plates be considered a privilege and that any vehicle operator in a vehicle with such plates be required to observe all traffic regulations. Soomeone has to set the examples.

In Maryland, the majority of drivers DO NOT stop at stop signs. If tailgating were an Olympic sport the gold medal winners win be from Maryland. Gliding through red lights for right turns is common place and speeding on our two lane highways must be considered a right by majority. A speed limit sign is meaningless. Drivers that do observe the speed limit are harassed by tailgaters. Stopping at a stop sign often elicits a confused look or waving arms by the driver behind the stopped vehicle. To that moron the stop sign is actually a yeild sign. Pick any uncontrolled intersection in the county and watch. The police do it too!

It doesn’t make much effort to make these observations and begin to wonder who is setting the examples in our state. Police managers need to get out on the road in unmarked vehicles and asses the situation because aggressive reckless driving is pandemic in this state and we have too few example setters setting the standard of behavior.

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One Response to “SOMD: SHERIFF EVANS: Speeding by Deputies is UNSAT”

Doug says:

February 5, 2010 at 11:21 am

In the last two weeks I have watched a state police car on Highway four travel at well over 55 MPH and tailgating the car in front of him. The car behind him was tailgating as well.

I saw a Sheriff's deputy glide through a stop sign on the road behind the Prince Frederick WaWa while chatting away on his cellular phone.

I have seen two unmarked vehicles that have red and blue lights in the back window traveling at well over 55MPH (I'm guessing at 70) while tailgating. One driver was also on his cell phone.

It does not take long on Maryland's highways to understand why the public drives like they can't be killed. The rest of us are all traveling and acting like the police. While I know the Sheriff believes what he says and demands that his officers meet the standard, my observations are frankly the opposite of what the Sheriff wants.

This applies to the school buses I see gliding through stop signs, the county and state employees exceeding the speed limit or gliding through stop signs.

We have a pandemic of motor vehicle lawlessness in Maryland and the number of examples to follow are few.

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