(Un)professional Courtesy - TRF KOP 1

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
March 8, 2008

Just before 1:00PM today I was driving east on Algonquin Road in a 35MPH zone, when I noticed a car coming up behind me at a good clip. There was a police car about three car lengths behind me in the inside lane, and I figured he’d grab the speeder after he passed the police car on the right and then changed lanes to the left and passed me. Did the speeder get stopped? No way. Why not?

Could his license plate have had something to do with it? TRF KOP 1, on a black GMC (an Envoy, I think).

The police car was from Fox River Grove, but the officer still had the authority to make the traffic stop. But did he? Of course not.

Why waste the time and embarrass yourself? Few cops will write tickets to other cops. The guy in the GMC knew he wouldn’t get stopped, so he could speed, pass a police car on the right, come up close behind me, change lanes without safe distance between vehicles, and continue speeding right in front of the police car.

Police should be the first to obey traffic (and other) laws, rather than being the last. Departmental policies should be, if you stop a cop for a traffic violation, you write him a ticket. Or else you don’t write anyone tickets for speeding.

Do you know the guy driving the GMC with the plate TRF KOP 1? You might want to let him that he is expected to obey traffic laws, since apparently his job is writing tickets to others.