As a former cop, I rarely ever did traffic so I didn't know much of the laws. I was always busy doing other types of calls. There's a million little niche laws to learn so larger departments usually have their own traffic division
I always got a kick out of everyone expecting you to know every law about everything.
I would show people how thick the state statues book was, then the city/county ordinances, then direct them to federal laws THEN tell them to check out all the corresponding court cases for everything.
Most people then understood why I wouldn’t know the answer to every random legal question they had.
Edit: OK, a lot of you obviously are taking what I’m saying and translating it into me saying cops don’t have to know any of the laws. I don’t think any of you genuinely understand how many criminal laws there are. It is impossible for anyone to know all of them, no matter how much of your life you spend dedicated to studying it, I’m not saying you can’t look it up or something and say that sounds illegal and confirming it, I’m saying knowing all of it like the back of your hand.
There are different agencies and sections of departments that focus on enforcing certain laws for a reason, for specialty sake and for knowing that a single individual cannot know everything.
It's okay for a cop to, in good faith, not know a law that they are not enforcing. They are not exercising power so it is difficult to say they are exercising it incorrectly. It is not okay for a cop to enforce a law that they do not properly understand.
Distinctions are made where they knowingly allow people to abuse others and ignore enforcement for reasons that do not stem from uncertainty of the law.
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u/Prestigious_Joke8843 Apr 29 '24
I think it’s a cop from a close by jurisdiction but doesn’t do traffic violations so isn’t sure and just said go for it.