11-30-2007, 12:21 PM
Let me cite a few experiences for you. I was on I-495 and a lady merged into me crushing in my door. We pulled over, she was apologetic, officer arrived and asked if we exchanged our info. We acknowledged and said "have a nice day." I asked for a police report for the insurance company, and he told me that the damage didn't meet the threshold. I mentioned to him that the damage was over $3K, and replied with "discretionary reasoning" and walked off. Thankfully the lady who hit me was honest to her insurance company.
Fast forward to this year, I get t-boned in the Lotus. Officer arrives at scene and says "Yep, she was at fault. Even if you were going 100mph through that intersection, she was at fault." I asked for the police report to file to the insurance company citing his assessment, and low and behold, they aren't required to write a report if nobody is injured. Sadly enough, if I had lied and complained about neck pain, the liability process would have been 100x easier than the hell I had to go through over the next 3 weeks.
Not trying to turn this into a cop-bashing thread, but it really saddens me to see how the police spend more time harassing the average joe on the road rather than serving the public. Virginia is probably the worst at it - take for instance my visits to Norfolk. Area is pretty run down with some serious crime problems. Instead, the police are all over the interstate (on average I saw 12-20 people pulled over every commute on 6 miles of interstate I drove, which caused awful traffic - please note that people already drive pretty slow there as is). I would much rather see my taxpayer dollars go towards the police spending more time in the community, serving the people, assisting as necessary - end result would be narrowing the rift between "us" and "them."
Fast forward to this year, I get t-boned in the Lotus. Officer arrives at scene and says "Yep, she was at fault. Even if you were going 100mph through that intersection, she was at fault." I asked for the police report to file to the insurance company citing his assessment, and low and behold, they aren't required to write a report if nobody is injured. Sadly enough, if I had lied and complained about neck pain, the liability process would have been 100x easier than the hell I had to go through over the next 3 weeks.
Not trying to turn this into a cop-bashing thread, but it really saddens me to see how the police spend more time harassing the average joe on the road rather than serving the public. Virginia is probably the worst at it - take for instance my visits to Norfolk. Area is pretty run down with some serious crime problems. Instead, the police are all over the interstate (on average I saw 12-20 people pulled over every commute on 6 miles of interstate I drove, which caused awful traffic - please note that people already drive pretty slow there as is). I would much rather see my taxpayer dollars go towards the police spending more time in the community, serving the people, assisting as necessary - end result would be narrowing the rift between "us" and "them."
05 S/C "Elixige"
07 Mazda 3S - commuter car
99 YZF-600R - commuter bike
07 Mazda 3S - commuter car
99 YZF-600R - commuter bike