Cops that turn on their cherries just to get through a red light

I live in northern Ontario. I have seen cops on more than one occasion turn on their cherries (flashing lights on top, for anyone not familiar with slang terms) just to get through a red light. This has always perturbed me, it's abusing the right to do it. I can understand when they must do it to get to the scene of a crime, but Tim Hortons isn't going to get up and run away. Seriously, they go through the red light flashing, sometimes even with the siren too. Then as soon as they get through they turn the siren and flashing lights off and continue on there way. So not cool.

I feel ya. You know what erks me about cops, and tell me btw if they do this in your area.

You drive by, maybe not even speeding, they rip out into traffic behind you and then run up on your ass at like 60 MPH and then sit 18 inches off your bumper. Trying to read the tags, I guess, but doesn't it feel like they are trying to goad you into going faster so that they can give you a legitamit ticket? Putting pressure on you by looming off your bumper like that.

I would love to just pump my breaks or something just like people do when others tail gate them a foot off their bumper, and have them rear end me. I'd probably get arrested for assult with a deadly weapon or something. Even though it was their abuse of their driving privilages and their unsafe driving that caused the accident. Pisses me off.

Oh boy the cops around here are terrible for things like this. It always peeves me no end because they're supposed to be upholding the law and setting a good example, and they're actually flaunting their power.

I saw one cop at the end of three cars signaling left. When the light turned yellow, he went around them on the left and went through the red light.

I always tell myself that donuts must be coming out of the fryer somewhere and they're in a hurry to get 'em fresh.

Yes, the cops in my area do all these things. But not all the cops are bad, and I just recently founmd out the officers that are caught doing this get in trouble because it is hard on the transmissions.

Originally posted by Feral Rage
Seriously, they go through the red light flashing, sometimes even with the siren too. Then as soon as they get through they turn the siren and flashing lights off and continue on there way.

It may seems like the cop is cheating to the untrained eyes, and maybe some of them do cheat, I don't know. But speaking as someone who listen to the police frequencies on a radio scanner. I noticed that often times a police officer dealing with an aggressive subject is going to call for 'coop', meaning he needs an additional cop car ready to respond in case the situation turn bad. So the second cop car preemptively cross the traffic lights and such obstacles on his way to get near the scene, but he does not need to actually go park there unecessarily. The coop car either continue patroling in the mean time, or completely abandon the call once the primary car annonced through the radio that the intervention has been resolved. Many things can initiate a coop call, from a driver loudly contesting his speeding ticket, to a dangerous criminal with a search warrant on his head. So don't be too surprised when you see a police car turning his strobes on to cross the red light and then slowing down right away.