SHOULD LOCAL POLICE PATROL THE INTERSTATE?

On a recent trip from Harriman to Memphis, I noticed all along the way that city police either had vehicles stopped along I-40 or were just sitting, sometimes in groups up to 4 cars, in the median watching the traffic go by. My question is why?!

Why should local law enforcement, city police units, be patrolling the Interstate? Is this a new revenue source for the small towns?

It was a city police officer that pulled my friend Jeff over this last trip. He was following me, and did, because the cop was riding his bumper, move over out of the way, probably cutting in front of a semi just a little too close. However, it appeared to Jeff that the police vehicle wanted by quickly!

It seems to me that local police should only be patrolling and protecting the citizens that pay for their services. The Highway Patrol organizations are paid to patrol the state and national highways! Aren't they?

I know that the Interstate system is used to distribute illegal aliens and drugs, but our local police forces aren't paid to do the policing. Are they?

What do you think?

UNMARKED LAW ENFORCEMENT CAR IN HARRIMAN

My wife and I never saw the officer as we passed, so we weren’t sure if it was a City of Harriman Police car, or the Tennessee Highway Patrol, but a dark gray late model Chevrolet, with 2 flashing blue lights in the grill had a car stopped at the top of the hill coming out of Harriman, just across from Goldston’s Service Station on Monday. Whew…that was a long sentence! The vehicle had no identifying marks other than the grill lights; no blue lights on top, or even on the dash.

It was around noon, and the clean and shiny waxed vehicle, with very dark tented windows, sat just behind the stopped car, while the officer apparently wrote a ticket in the AC comfort of his/her vehicle.

My wife commented that she wasn’t sure if she would stop for a vehicle as unmarked as that one, especially at night. I thought about it as a man for a few minutes, and decided I agreed with her, which she would say was unusual!

I told her that the Harriman Police HQ was just over the hill and that if she was unsure, she should drive there before stopping.

I’m sure it means a lot to the coffers of the state and/or city, but for women this type of vehicle does create a conflict in their minds, and I don’t blame them. During the day, you could wait until you see the officer and his uniform before rolling down your window, but at night that’s impossible until he/she is standing just outside your window, just a reach away.

We’ve had such vehicles for years, both working for the state and cities across the country, but with more and more evil doers in the world these days, it’s hard to just pull to the side of a dark highway or street and wait and see what happens next. Maybe if we all just start driving “over the hill” to the police/THP/or sheriff’s office for proper identification of officers, they might start putting something on the vehicles to readily identify themselves as true officers of the law.

Maybe they could have gotten a strip across the upper windshield, stating their authority, while they were getting the illegally dark tint applied!

What do you think?