I would like to know how many miles a copper drives, or all the cops combined in a given month or year. Now lets see the crash to miles ratio compared to the rest of the motoring public. Just a thought. Multi-tasking is important for the police.

Just last week a BPD car coming around the narrow part of Warm Springs Ave past Warm Springs Mesa crossed the yellow line while the officer was clearing using the built in computer on the dash board. He swerved to miss me.

No law will be passed because 1) It infringes on our rights 2) It is being introduced by a Democart 3) It’s part of the government conspiracy to control out lives 4) We is dumb.

I’d appreciate if coppers would set the example by not texting and driving. Using turn signals would be appropriate as well. I see them signal for turns about half the time.

Virtually EVERY Boise City police officer I see each day is looking at their computer – and typing, or on their cell phone. I even saw a guy run a red light on Friday and there was an officer across the street driving and on the computer and he did not even see the crime.

The officers need to set a better example. Even my kids notice this when they see the officers in their cars.

I fully support the idea of banning texting while driving. Additionally, rules should go beyond that to ban cell phone use without a hands free device. Coppers and other emergency units should not be exempt. Has anyone looked inside a patrol car lately? There are enough wizbang doodads and gizmos to keep the geekiest geek entertained for days. Add to that, check out all the “bling” that coppers wear: guns, nightsticks, pepper spray, flashlights, portable radios, cell phones, recording devices, handcuffs, breath mints, and don’t forget those proctological taser units! OUCH! Seriously though, I think too much is being asked from the average patrol officer. There should be two officers in every cruiser that has a computer or other texting device. I’m not suggesting doubling the police force. I think that two person patrols would not only be safer for everyone, it would probably be a lot more efficent overall. Same amount of cops on the street, but half the vehicles.

I agree it should apply to everyone. I’ve been at a stop light and watched people break the law while driving, on cell phones while the cop next to me was busy on his cell phone or computer.

In agreement with Paul.
Life worked well before texting, before cell phones, before faxes – and will work just fine if a law is passed enforcing safe, sane driving. Driving in traffic is multi-tasking in itself without adding more into the mix.

There is a law, its called Inattentive Driving. It would be just as easy to inforce as any no texting laws. How many traffic deaths occur due to adjusting the air conditioning, changing radio stations, yelling at the unruly kids in the back seat? Each case is different but, in all of them it involves a driver not paying attention to the road, thus inattentive driving. Creating new laws at the drop of every technological advance is not always necessary.

Well, Now that I am back in la-la land in DC, trust me, Boise’s drivers are great! I ride the rail here, but the drivers all sit texting and not paying attention. I don’t really think that Idaho needs the law, just judicial clarification of the inattentive driving code. Having driven police vehicles, I fully support the use of voice technology in police vehicles. This would increase the safety of the officers and the public. I know that BPD has started using more 2 officer “Tac” vehicles, which free’s up a passenger to use the MDT. Good conversation starter though.

I would like to see the penalties increased as Utah has done.

One further thought on texting drivers: I think anyone texting while driving, whether cop, trucker, teen-ager or just John Doe driver, should not be cited or jailed; he or she should be taken in for mental evaluation. Taking one’s eyes and concentration off the road to send and read messages while driving certainly seems to indicate a serious lack of mental capacity.

Isn’t the point here that Idaho doesn’t have safety laws that are worth more than a few ounces of warm spit. Helmet laws for motor-cycle and non-motorized bikes, stringent fines for lack of seat-belt use, lack of jay-walking enforcement. These ALL would “do society good” if present and enforced. Texting while driving is not safe, Idaho law says that a driver should keep both hands on the steering wheel, but this law is widely disregarded by drivers and law enforcement personnel. Pass the law, but make the penalty stiff and enforce compliance. Otherwise we just encourage all of the scoff laws.

Remember pagers? For those folks that do not remember them, they showed a phone number and people with a pager would stop and use a pay phone or go home or to the office to return the phone call. Now lets speed forward into our times today. All cells have a GPS chip in them, as federal laws demand. The cell phone companies can track any phone and know its speed of movement between two towers. All that needs to be done is turn the cell into a pager when its moving over 10 mph. If people want to see their text message they need to pull over. If they want to make a phone call, they need to pull over. Of course all 911 calls will go through no matter the speed.
For all the selfish crybabies that say, I’m a passenger in a car so why should my cell be unable to be used? My answer is the same as, why should I pay more in property taxes because I work harder to provide my family with a nicer home and I get no more or faster services for paying a lot more in property taxes. Live with it!
Keep in mind that pagers kept everyone in the loop so there is no reason whatsoever that blocking the cell from being anything but a pager in speeds over 10 mph will cause any real hardships.
Frankly, I could very well live without a cell phone and go back to a pager and I do business world wide. In fact doctors did very well with pagers in being able to save lives when seconds mattered.
We all know someone who has been killed on the roads by a drunk driver. I believe in ten years we will all know someone that was murdered on the roads by some selfish creep on a cell phone.

“I know that BPD has started using more 2 officer “Tac” vehicles, which free’s up a passenger to use the MDT. ”
Mr. Wills is referring to the “co-pilot” model that ambulance drivers use, which is ideal. We should judge based on results (like whether Police have worse driving stats since the start of computer use).

“Cops exceed the speed limit too. Is that wrong?”

Yes.

No one needs to text and drive. Not even Brain Surgeons and Rocket Scientists.

Period.

Moreover, I’ve always wondered how much “Community Policing” (as opposed to what?) is being done when the patrol car is speeding (not in response to an emergency) down a residential street, windows rolled-up, A/C cranked, and the cop is chatting on a cell phone.

I’m thinking… None!

Mr Watcher,

You speak as a man of obviously no real practical knowledge of law enforcement and as a man who is firmly entrenched in the belief your government is out to get you. All police are corrupt in your view and are all bad people.

Did it ever cross your mind that in this business if any officer who demonstrates any kind of corrupt behavior around myself or other good cops that we would not stand for it and that these bad apples know that? What do you think the odds are they will flagrantly do these things in front of us knowing their actions would hurt the rest of us and we won’t tolerate them either and would bury them faster than you can say “Call the Rat Squad !”

Just because one dentist took advantage of an unconscious patient doesn’t make them all perverts does it? Should all the other dentists have have been clairvoyant enough to have seen this one coming and done something about it? How about all them school teachers having sexual relations with kids. Using your logic all teachers are perverts and use their job as an excuse to get close to kids. If someone in your profession turned out to have got a DUI or violated some other law should we hold everyone in your profession responsible? You hold me to a higher standard and rightly so, however your standards are obviously way above and beyond reasonable as you apply them to police officers. You have a very jaded outlook on life sir. I suggest you get to know some police officers before bashing them.

As far as the computers go, great tool, but you have to be careful. Just because you can run a guys plate and drivers license from your terminal doesn’t always make it the best idea while driving. Usually its better to take the longer method and call it over the radio through dispatch. Trying to type and drive is a distraction. Your next question will obviously be “well why do all of you coppers do it then”. My response is not all of us do, and you are labeling and trying to lump all police into one group which fits your jaded outlook on law enforcement.

Don’t ask me what is going on in another mans head. Why do people speed? Why do people kill? Who really knows? I love the computers they are a great tool, but they have their disadvantages too.