Question about police authority

[David1]

I have been having some disputes with a neighbor about some issues on Monday. A policeman came to my door today to discuss the issue between us and the neighbor. Anyways, my sister had to get to work but his cruiser on the road blocking the exit from the drive way. He said he did not have to move his cruiser because he was on a public street so he is allowed to block my drive way if he wanted to. My question: Are cops allowed to block our driveway if their cruiser happens to be on a public road??? He said he would only move the car if my sister said please. Otherwise he did not have to unblock the exit. Is this correct??? Do cops have this authority???

[latrans]

Speak to the chief.

[chainsaw]

Call his supervisor, and give his badge number.

[Alberta's Child]

Speak to the chief, but tell him that your sister had to leave for an important doctor's appointment.

[widowithfoursons]

You need Prepaid Legal Services. Then you could call a lawyer to answer this question without paying his hourly rate.

[Hodar]

Unless I am mistaken, a car that blocks a driveway can and will be towed at the owner's expense. Thus, it must be a traffic infraction. I can see no reason why a policeman would be exempt to block driveways, whereas a civilian would have his vehicle towed. Sounds like the policeman wanted to show you what a BIG MAN he was. .... oooooh, I for one am impressed. < /sarcasm>

[DoughtyOne]

Years ago I managed a fast food concern. One Friday evening a California Highway Patrol officer decided to pull someone over around five p.m. The individual parked in our lot and the officer parked his cruiser in front of our driveway. After about half an hour I asked one of the officers politely if they would move the car forward or back so we could conduct business, both available options at the time. They would not move the car. The car remained in that location around an hour and a half.

Even though other cruisers came on scene and the original officers had plenty opportunity to do so, they kept that car there until it was the last one to leave the scene.

I believe officers can do whatever they want. You want to support them, but there are always a few of these idiots around that think they are God and you are their doormat. Sadly, they ruin it for the decent officers.

None of the officers on scene that day thought to lessen the impact that cruiser had on our business.

[Old Professer]

Cops don't need authority, they have attitude.

[don-o]

It's a no brainer. You asked nice. He went ugly. Phone call to headquarters and the duty officer (whoever is running the show that shift.

If I get more BS, then I call the Chief. Then I call my elected representatives.

I document all conversations with times of the call, who said what, etc.

Not to "win" but to help our public servants do a better job.

[HairOfTheDog]

If it happened as you say, then speak to the chief..... If you were being reasonable and the cops is on a "say please" power trip, the chief will likely want to know.

Important to sound like you are on the side of good law enforcement.... if you start acting anti-cop, they aren't going to find you worth dealing with.

If you were in a tiff with the cop anyway and this was only part of the exchange, then disregard... Cops have the fault of being human when people are giving them crap about legitimate business... if he was answering a complaint against you, that is legitimate business.

[1tin_soldier]

Is this correct??? Do cops have this authority???

Well he was wearing a gun wasn't he?

[David1]

yes he was.

[Consort]

What didn't you tell us?

[David1]

Basically what happened was that this neighbor of ours wants the speed limit in front of her house to be 10MPH when the actual limit is 30MPH. We were coming back from the beach on Memorial Day and this lady stood in the middle of the street yelling at us to slow down. We got into the driveway and she came after us yelling to slowdown. She started yelling at us aggressively in our driveway. We ordered her off our property. She almost wouldn't do that because she took a while to back off. We told her we were coming around 25 to 28 MPH. She said that is not slow enough because she wants us to go past her house doing 10. She says she has kids and they have, are, and will use the street to play on. We told her not even school zones are 10. And that a public road is not a playground anyways. So a whole shouting match erupted between Mom, sister and that lady. Then my step dad stepped in and calmed the whole situation down and talked to them. My mom even called the cops to sort the situation out. But my step dad told her to call back and cancel the call asking for the cops to come because my step dad said he talked it out with them and thought the situation was resolved. But then this a-hole cop shows up at my doorstep on Wednesday morning with this huge attitude saying that if he ever catches us going 15 over the speed limit he would arrest us for reckless driving to set an example. He meant US. Not anyone else driving 15 over, but US. This is wrong because he is targeting specifically us. Nevertheless, we have never gone down that road doing 45 anyways. The lady is lying to hammer us somehow. Then my sister said she had to go to work and you know the rest. We think this cop was a pal of that lady. That is why he came here with that huge attitude and did not even want to hear our side of the story. We called the Police Department and they said that cop was not even scheduled to be at my house at that time but at training. The superior we talked to also said he was a detective and should not have been assigned to a case of dispute between neighbors. We have scheduled an appointment with his superiors to let them know what happened with that a-hole cop and to let us know about laws in our streets about kids playing and obstructing traffic. We and other neighbors have also had problems with these kids in the middle of the road playing and obstructing traffic. But we were always tolerant about that and know how kids are. However, that this lady came attacking and yelling at us we now want to know the law on our street. We just want to find out if what that a-hole cop told us: That kids playing in the street have as much rights as cars do. We just want to know the law so that it may be followed. Also we want to report that a-hole cop so it may be on his record. Look, Me and my sister's records are clean. I have never gotten one ticket for anything. My rap sheet is squeaky clean. Never have been in trouble with any law enforcement and have always supported the cops. All of this so that I have to have a crooked cop come on to my property to abuse his power. This at first shook my view of the police. But then I realized there are good and bad people in any organization. Why? Because organizations are made up of people. And there are good and bad people. This cop just happened to be a bad one. So that is basically it.

[Consort]

My question was rhetorical, but I hope it all works out for you.

[chicagolady]

I work at a police Station. Call the Chief and Write a letter do both!

[KrisKrinkle]

On the other hand:

I was recently stopped for speeding. I noted that the location we (the officer and I) were stopped at wasn't safe (couldn't pull over very far because of a guard rail )and asked if she wanted me to pull off further up the road. She said "No."

She asked me why I was doing 16 MPH over the speed limit, and I told her I did not know that I was (which was true.)

She went back to the cruiser and did her thing there.

When she came back, she gave me a warning ticket.

For 16 MPH over the limit.

I'm still just about speechless (but I can still type).