Hands-Free Cell Phone Law, Only for Civilians
Courtesy of Seattle crime blog extraordinaire, Seattle 911, comes an infuriating answer to a reader question about cops and hand-held cell phones. While the rest of us face fines of $124 for driving while operating a hand-held cell phone, the officer writing that ticket and pulling you over just might be using theirs, completely legally. It turns out the recently enacted law does not apply to police officers or ambulance drivers when they are operating emergency vehicles.
The rather lame excuse from SPD spokesman Jeff Kappel, was that cops and emergency personnel are basically superior multi-taskers than the rest of us. Anyways, cops already have all kinds of distracting things in their car while driving, like in-car computers and hand-held radios, so what's a hand-held cell phone going to do. Says spokesman Kappel, "If you can't multi-task on things like that, you'll be washed out of the training course."
We have to say, this kinda reads as bullshit to us or at least highly hypocritical. If police want civilians to feel like they're not above the law, it's time they submitted to the same ones the rest of us follow.
"Fuzzy," another great photo from Seattlest Flickr contributor Slightly North
