• @[email protected]
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    -503 months ago

    I don’t want to be the guy defending cops, but there is usually more than one officer in a squad car. There is no rule against a passenger being distracted.

    • @Postmortal_Pop
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      663 months ago

      Where I live it’s strictly one cop per car unless they’re training. That’s why they pull people over in packs.

      • @[email protected]
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        343 months ago

        That’s something I never got about cops in the US. Everywhere in Europe, there are always two cops per car, at least in the places I have been.

        • @[email protected]
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          313 months ago

          It’s to create the illusion that there’s more cops than there really are. Same reason behind take home cars.

          My city of about 300k people has about 30 cops patrolling at any given time.

          • @[email protected]
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            53 months ago

            San Jose, California has some wild numbers perhaps like that.

            Would you take more if you could? Assuming no reform, just more of the same.

            • @[email protected]
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              53 months ago

              I think higher numbers would lead to reform on its own. When you’re scraping by at the bare minimum, a lot of stuff gets overlooked just to maintain numbers.

              More cops would make it a lot easier to have better standards, and raise the average competency level.

        • @Lennny
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          263 months ago

          Easier to terrorize minorities if you spread out.

          • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝
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            23 months ago

            In Europe, it’s exactly because they want witnesses, cops’ words don’t carry more weight than yours by default, so if they ticket you, they want at least two testimonies on their side.

            • queermunist she/her
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              23 months ago

              Okay, but in the US they don’t want to risk two cops messing up their witness testimony. Better to just have one, because a cop’s word is law anyway.

      • @[email protected]
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        33 months ago

        I haven’t seen that before. I guess they really are just using a laptop and driving at the same time.

        • @[email protected]
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          83 months ago

          Or they sit at green lights because they are too into their laptop to notice the light change

    • @[email protected]
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      393 months ago

      In my area it’s always one cop, and they are driving and using their laptop that sits on the passenger side

    • @Viking_Hippie
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      343 months ago

      I don’t want to be the guy defending cops, but

      Has never been the start of a good and relevant point.

      • @ChickenLadyLovesLife
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        153 months ago

        I don’t want to be the guy defending Hitler or Jeffery Dahmer, but

        • @Viking_Hippie
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          13 months ago

          Say what you will about the tenets of national socialism, but at least it’s an ethos

          -Walther Sobchek

    • @ChickenLadyLovesLife
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      73 months ago

      You’re thinking of cop shows from the '70s and '80s, not reality.

      • @[email protected]
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        03 months ago

        No, I am thinking of what I have seen in real life. In my area there is almost always 2 cops per vehicle. I was unaware this was not standard.

        • @ChickenLadyLovesLife
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          113 months ago

          What is your area? I’ve lived in about 20 US states, in cities and rural areas, and it’s always been 1 cop per vehicle.

          • @[email protected]
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            43 months ago

            I did more research and I found out it actually isn’t standard where I live now, I am misremembering probably because I haven’t had many interactions with police here. This is a somewhat standard practice in major cities though which would explain why I was familiar with it. I will admit copaganda probably reinforced that though, most media I’ve seen does depict 2 officers. But whatever, I’m always happy to learn a new reason to hate cops.