I'm not so sure that people with pending criminal cases giving police their cell number is such a great idea. It's basically saying 'please track me'.
They can have my phone number. They've likely already got it.
If we're worried about tracking that's a whole other topic. Here we're just talking about communication.
I've had a ticket for something minor thrown out of court because the constable made a typo on my address when writing the ticket and even after I notified the city of the typo they still sent multiple court notices to the wrong address (which led to me never showing up to court).
If not, then your speeding ticket encounter will probably just end in 'have a nice day'. There are obvious notable exceptions, but for the thousands of these interactions that occur every day, it is more likely the officer will die, than you [1].
1 - https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/leo/default.html#:~:text=In....
People are also missing the point: cops are not well trained, they panic just like everyone does. Hence my position it’s best to avoid interactions with them which involve firearms, legal or otherwise.
>> In the last 10 years, on average, an officer per week has been killed on our nation’s roads (2010-2019 = 53 deaths per year).1
The claim you made isn't directly supported by the citation. The cited article includes all police deaths on the road, not just ones arising from traffic stops.
Edit: and more to the point... wouldn't reducing the frequency of these interactions also improve the safety and wellbeing of police officers?
I’d really like to see any story about a cop killed by someone legally carrying a weapon after they’ve announced they have such a weapon.
My point is that the known presence of a legal gun is at least as safe as not knowing whether a gun or other weapon is present. A knife or blunt instrument can kill or critically injure within 2 seconds. Even the vehicle itself can be used as a weapon.
Saying the police should be more cautious when there is an acknowledged legal weapon present is equivalent to saying the police should be less cautious when no such weapon is claimed, even though a gun could still be present. That's obviously false even without bringing out any data.
My guess is that if you did bring out some data, you'd find that the presence of an acknowledged legal weapon is correlated with far fewer attempted murders of police than even the average stop, but certainly than stops in which there are illegal weapons.
Can you even provide a single incident where a legal holder of firearms told police during a traffic stop about his weapon and then attempted to shoot at the police?
I only mentioned it as a factor which presumably increases the risk of death, since there are notable cases of CCW holders being shot during traffic stops.
But that doesn't justify excusing the instances when it does happen. The entire point of having a justice system is to discourage criminal behavior, and provide a sense of fairness so that feuds do not escalate. When we see a violent criminal murder someone on camera but then not even get charged because they happen to be wearing a uniform, it's clear that system is in need of fixing. If you truly support law and order, then making sure that law is applied evenly should be your priority.