Should I report this bad DC cop?
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Grrrrrrr….I’m still seething with anger as I write this. Please tell me if I’m being overly sensitive or if I should report this cop to his superiors. I think his actions were highly disrespectful and unprofessional.
This evening at 6:00 pm I was riding down the Pennsylvania Ave bike lanes heading west. There was a young guy about 12 ft in front of me (helmet on, riding responsibly/legally, no more than 9-10 mph). We passed thru the intersection at Penn and 14th with no problem. While we were on the straightaway, a westbound car suddenly decides to do a U turn on Penn Ave in order to get a parking space on the other side of the road. She didn’t even look or slow down before performing this manuever and aimed straight at the guy in front of me who miraculously managed to avert catastophe by doing a sharp defensive manuever. I still can’t believe he pulled it off. She missed him by inches and she was moving fast, very fast.
He stopped, I stopped, another driver who saw the incident slowed down and said “wow, that was insane. You should report it to the cop back there.” I looked and saw that there was indeed a cop just a few car lengths away talking with someone (the cop had his back to the street so didn’t witness the incident). Unfortunately this witness drove away (don’t even get me started on how irresponsible that was).
The other biker appeared to be shell shocked so I took command of the situation. I said let’s go tell the cop what happened before the crazy person drives away (she had parked near the intersection). Turns out she wanted the space so she could help some folks empty out one of those little sidewalk carts selling pizza, ice cream. She seemed completely oblivious to what had just happened and had also parked illegally next to a fire hydrant halfway in a tow zone. She didn’t even to seem to notice that the biker was still in roughly the same spot where she almost squished him. Did she see him at all?
The cop was dealing with a fender bender car accident (this was not immediately obvious to me). All I see is a cop standing by the road talking to someone. The cop looks up at me and says “yes?” I say that I just witnessed “that driver over there nearly ran over this biker by doing a U-turn and I want to report it.” I also mention that all of the other people sitting on a bench nearby must have seen the incident as well. I was breathless and upset at the crazy driver but that was about all at this point. I just wanted the cop to know that a very bad thing had just happened and the “perp” was standing right over there (did I mention parked illegally?).
This is when the trouble starts. 😡
The cop immediately puts the biker and me “in our place” since “can’t we tell that he is already busy with another accident, that he will get to us later, and to get the heck out of the road (even though we were both on the correct side of the white line).” The tone and attitude was *extremely* confrontational, disrespectful, and unprofessional. The biker and I were both shocked and were like, “what the h*ll”? The cop was clearly pissed off that we had interrupted what he was doing and that we had little right to do so.
We waited, and waited….the fender bender was minor, people were already on the phone with their loved ones/insurance company when we got there, no injuries, it was not a big deal. The cop was only taking statements. We waited patiently for 30 minutes while the admin work continued all the while becoming increasingly anxious that the crazy lady would drive away (they were packing up the cart at that point). All of the other witnesses on the bench had left by then which I was quite disheartened to see.
Finally when the crazy driver got out her keys and looked like she was getting ready to leave I called out to the cop that she was getting ready to drive off. At that point he sort of lost his temper and and with a very ticked off voice said “can’t you see I’m taking care of someone else right now?!”, “I didn’t see anything so I can’t do anything about it.” “I’ll get to you when I get to you.” The entire message/tone was: “get lost, this fender bender is more important” (he’d just called a tow truck).
Finally I started complaining loudly to the biker (by now he was really shell shocked) about how ridiculous this whole situation is; that we simply want him to go talk to the driver and put the fear of god into her before she escaped. How could the paperwork of this fender bender be more important than letting a dangerous driver get away? Why didn’t he call for backup?
I think he overheard us because he finally gave us a look of disgust and said “fine, I’ll go talk to her.” He crossed the street and had a one minute chat with her; they seemed to be discussing how to drive around the block, she didn’t look upset or remorseful at all, and kind of shrugged at the end so I don’t think he said much of anything of consequence.
He then comes over to the biker and me and says “well, I talked to her and I must repeat, I cannot issue a warning or ticket since I didn’t see anything.” At which point I ask point blank, “isn’t it illegal to do a U-turn here (pointing)?” “Yes,” he replies, “it is illegal to do a U-turn in the bike lanes.” Well, “didn’t she admit to doing a U-turn here?” I ask. I then pointed out that he would have had plenty of witnesses if he had simply asked the people across the street. He looks even more pissed off and indignant and continues to repeat that unless he sees something happen, he can’t do anything about it. I then replied, “fine, so that means cars can do whatever the hell they want so long as a cop doesn’t see it irrespective of the number of witnesses or who gets hurt. Unbelievable.” He then goes on a tirade about how I was wrong for interrupting the accident he was attending to, that I should have seen that he was already busy, and for the last time, he couldn’t/wasn’t going to deal with a bike/car incident if he didn’t witness it. Case closed.
At this point, he walked away. I tried to find an identifier on him but only caught his car number (1041). I realized afterwards that I should have asked for his badge number.
The other biker looked at me and said “Good god, would he have done anything if I’d actually been hit?” This cop surely would have found a way to blame the cyclist if such a tragedy had occured I’m sure. Please note that the cop never asked if anyone was hurt so he had no way of knowing whether the cyclist had actually fallen or been pushed over (he clearly didn’t care either way).
I fully admit that I don’t know what the law states about issuing warnings in these situations in DC; however, that wasn’t really the point. I don’t care about some piece of paper a cop might write. What I did expected was the following:
1) Ask if anyone was hurt or hit the ground.
2) If the law really ties his hands: He could have said in a nice, compassionate voice: “Unless I actually see the incident the law doesn’t allow me take action against the accused BUT I still want to take a statement from you so we can have it on record. Are there any other witnesses? Please wait here while I finish up this accident and I’ll get to you as quickly as I can. I’m really sorry about the delay and that this happened to you.”
3) If the law does allow him to do something about the matter: “OK, I need to take care of this accident first but I’ll tell the driver and witnesses not to move until I talk to them so I can take a statement/issue a warning/talk with the driver, etc.” (Personally I don’t think calling a tow truck is that high a priority given that the disabled vehicle was out of the way in a parking lane but what the heck).
Even if he couldn’t issue a warning/ticket, get the facts from the biker and witnesses then have a firm talk with the driver about how she put someone else’s life at risk (this is very important because it seems reasonable to assume she parks there every night to clear out the food cart). Getting her to apologize to the biker would have been a nice move too.
3) At a minimum, issue the driver a ticket for parking next to a fire hydrant (I’m sure he didn’t notice since that fender bender was so darn important!).
4) Don’t treat victims (and witnesses who are trying to do the right thing) like they are both in the wrong for bothering you nor expect them to know the details of DC law. I think it is a rather normal for an ordinary citizen to expect a cop to take a commonsensical and immediate action when you point out that a crime has just occured and that the accused is standing right over there.
5) Write up the incident so at least there will be a record somewhere. Call polie backup if necessary for the paperwork or take name/phone numbers.
6) Don’t treat cyclists like second class citizens. I definitely got the impression that the SUV with the banged up door was far more important than cyclists getting run over. He seemed rather surprised/annoyed that we hung around for 45 minutes trying to get this issue resolved.
In retrospect, the biker and I should have just gone straight to the crazy driver and chewed her out royally. It would have been faster and far more effective and probably would have made us feel much better about the whole situation. Turns out “going thru appropriate channels” is a waste of time. Next time I’ll know better.
Sorry for the rant; I needed to get it out of my system. Helps keep me from focusing on how close I was to getting squished like a bug today. I used to think the Penn Ave bike lanes were really safe; now I think they should install heavy barriers along them to prevent cars from trying to cross over the lanes. This would also prevent cyclists from doing crazy stuff too.
Beware of cop cars with 1041 on the side and avoid Penn/14th at 6:00 pm.
Kathy
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@jrenaut 8670 wrote:
the intersections without left turn arrows saying “No Left/U turns”
These signs frustrate me, since I think some drivers can’t really see that it is ‘No Left’ AND ‘No U-Turn’
Either that or they choose to ignore it completely.
@americancyclo 8683 wrote:
DC traffic codes and fines listed below:
Note that a vehicle making a u-turn mid-block is also driving thru median strip or safety zone, depend on what you want to call it. Catch all is Improper turn. BUT OFFICER have to wittnessed it.BARRICADE OR CLOSED STREET
Driving through [DCMR 18 § 2217.2] $500.00BICYCLE LANE
Stopping, standing or parking in [DCMR 18 § 2405.1] $65.00MEDIAN STRIP
T217 Driving through [DCMR 18 § 2405.1(e)] $35.00
T749 Driving over raised strip, island or safety zone
[DCMR 18 § 2201.10] $100.00SAFETY ZONE
T108 Drive through [DCMR 18 § 2405.1(e)] $75.00T751 Improper [DCMR 18 § 2203, 2204] $100.00
T185 From wrong lane [DCMR 18 § 2203, 2204] $100.00
T559 Violation of ”No turn” sign [DCMR 18 § 4012, 4018] $25.00
T183 No left turn [DCMR 18 § 2204] $25.00
T184 No “U” turn [DCMR 18 § 2204] $25.00
T202 No right turn [DCMR 18 § 2204.6] $25.00
T181 Improper turn at intersection [DCMR 18 § 2204.7] $25.00
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