Police officer question RE: Reckless Driving

[SEraider]

Hi,

Yesterday I saw a car recklessly drive.  He swerved in and out of lanes.  I took down his plate number but I don't know if anything can be done.  He did not speed as he was confined in a limited flow of speed of all 3 lanes. 

However he was tailgating and his lane changes were reckless and provocative.  I am in California. 

Any thoughts from our peace officers or others that may know? 

[Rob52240]

For the driver to get a citation there needs to be recorded evidence or his behavior must be witnessed by law enforcement.

[100Coogn]

For the driver to get a citation there needs to be recorded evidence or his behavior must be witnessed by law enforcement.

Film or it didn't happen.   

Coogan

[CAP1]

i hate to sound mean, but from videos i see, that sounds like nearly every driver in california.
 
 that said, i personally wouldn't send it in.

[Rob52240]

As bad as this driver? 

http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/49299791#49299791

[kilo2]

I maybe would have done something at the time but I would not bother with it now.

[danny76]

We used to get people coming in to the station all the time to complain about the driving of others. Usually they were blue rinse grandma's that had been overtaken quite legitimately whilst doing 25 mph in a 60 limit. They made a report and were happy, we threw the report in the shredder and were also happy. These people usually had no description of the driver, make, model, colour or direction of travel of the "offending" vehicle. Quite what the Police were expected to do is anyones guess

[shotgunneeley]

We used to get people coming in to the station all the time to complain about the driving of others. Usually they were blue rinse grandma's that had been overtaken quite legitimately whilst doing 25 mph in a 60 limit. They made a report and were happy, we threw the report in the shredder and were also happy. These people usually had no description of the driver, make, model, colour or direction of travel of the "offending" vehicle. Quite what the Police were expected to do is anyones guess

You mean that machine from "Minority Report" hasn't been invented yet? Help us Tom Cruise!

[Slash27]

When I do my patrol stuff I hear dozens of reckless driver calls per shift on some days. The closer to rush hours the worse it gets. You pretty much have to have an officer close and not tied up. The percentage of stopping them is low but I would recommend always calling them in. You never know, they may get caught and more than likely they do it a lot. You may end up preventing something. That's the best we have till the PreCogs get up to speed.

[Motherland]

i hate to sound mean, but from videos i see, that sounds like nearly every driver in california.
 
 that said, i personally wouldn't send it in.

Aren't you from New Jersey?

[Shuffler]

Aren't you from New Jersey?

Oh man... so underhanded....   

[CAP1]

Aren't you from New Jersey?

 yep. but our worst problem here is philly drivers. 

[Rich46yo]

Hi,

Yesterday I saw a car recklessly drive.  He swerved in and out of lanes.  I took down his plate number but I don't know if anything can be done.  He did not speed as he was confined in a limited flow of speed of all 3 lanes. 

However he was tailgating and his lane changes were reckless and provocative.  I am in California. 

Any thoughts from our peace officers or others that may know? 

The most that could be done is for you to have called 911 and have a squad pull the guy over. Yes its possible to write a ticket with a citizen as the witness but it hardly ever happens. Right now theres nothing that would be done. Even if you had video the Police would probably not take action so long after the offense because its only a traffic offense. Odds are the guy was also drunk so had you called and had a squad dispatched you could have had a dangerous driver arrested.

[Maverick]

Reckless driving depends on how the statute is written and more importantly how the courts accept it. By that I mean that the statute said one thing being that a single egregious act could be reckless yet the local courts (my particular jurisdiction quite a while ago) refused to accept it as a valid charge unless you could clearly show there were at least 3 moving violations that were then combined to create a reckless driving situation. Then they specified that all violations would be cited with another charge, the reckless driving charge added on. In this case reckless remained a criminal charge whereas the others were all "civil" violations. Simply put that meant only the reckless driving charge had jail as a possible sentence the others could only be fines. The civil citations would be placed into evidence after the driver was arrested on the reckless violation. If the reckless charge were to be dropped (by the prosecutors office) the civil citations would then be served on the violator. If it went to trial as a reckless driving charge the civil violations would be noted in testimony. The judge and or jury if there was a jury, could then determine to find the defendant guilty of the reckless driving and disregard the others or do the opposite and find for the civil violations.

In the case of the original post it is unlikely the Police could or would be able to do anything based on the statement provided. They could dispatch a unit to see if the driver could be found and the Officer observe the driving of the suspect. Then a stop and citation for a violation could be issued. In the case of a civil traffic violation the only time it would be issued on the basis of statements and not on observation of the act by the Officer would be in the case of a collision where physical evidence supported the status of the violation.

All of the above is based on the experience I have with the jurisdiction I was working in. It does not mean that all others would or do work in the same manner.

[Condor11]

In California they would not likely do anything since it was a misdemeanor not committed in our presence and theyd be reacting after the fact (very hard to even write a ticket in these cases) See these calls a lot and like someone said earlier, police have to he 1)right nearby by, 2) not on a call/writing paper/eating/or waiting for a higher priority call and 3) observe the person still driving recklessly. Anything unsafe like that feel free to call in just be careful while using your cell phone and driving, as well as make sure you dont focus solely on the suspect and forget your still moving at 65(ish ) mph surrounded by speeding metal.

Hope this helps