Comment by mitchellh | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mitchellh | Hacker News Reader

My grandfather is a retired police chief from a major metro. When I purchased my car (which has over 400 horsepower, so I like to... play), he told me to become part of the highway patrol or police charity organization. He told me when he was in law enforcement, any member of these organizations were treated "much more lightly" than others.

For only $25 or something like that, you can get a piece of paper you can put in your wallet to show you're a member. For around $2,000, you can get a license plate frame.

He said even with the piece of paper, if you're pulled over, you have a pretty good shot of being given a warning. You just need to make sure you show it to them when they pull you over.

With the license plate, he said he would never pull over someone with the license plate, because law enforcement doesn't have enough money as it is and they'd rather not piss off those who have money to donate.

I didn't really believe him (grandfathers and all), but I donated anyways (for a piece of paper, not the license plate). Now I see this article, and I'm starting to think he was serious.

That doesn't sound entirely far-fetched. In the neighborhood I grew up in, there were about 4 or 5 different neighbors who worked for the police over the years and I distinctly remember three of them giving either my father or brother similar advice.

A friend of my older brother later went on to become a police officer and bought a house three houses down from my parents. He actually mentioned to my sister that if any of us needed out of a ticket, to give him a call. My father, being reckless as he is, would often get tickets that would be dismissed. Every time he would wind up mowing the lawns of the neighborhood police or otherwise doing some handiwork or helping fix a car or something similar. He flat out told me the cops would talk to their fellow officers and the tickets would be dropped per discretion of the officer.

Somewhat related, many of my friends I went to school with went on to join various branches of military. A while back he told me how a police officer noticed a military decal of the truck and flat out told him he wouldn't give him a ticket because of it.

It is all just anecdotal "evidence", but officers are humans just like you and I and will certainly do things to their benefit, like letting off someone who makes donations to a cause that benefits them. Is it really a stretch to extend the more or less "We protect our own" mentality to rich donors?

I guess I'm going to be the one who has to say this: this sort of "benign corruption" is really gross, and should be stigmatized.

My sister dated a cop for a while, and he offered to give her a PBA Card (Police Benevolence Association, what everyone calls the "Get out of jail free" card). She declined, not because she was particularly honorable or had an aversion to corruption, but because she said she would feel too awkward using it.

"What do I do? When they ask me for my license do I just...hold it out and say 'let me go please'?"

If stopped by an officer, do you pull out the paper and say "by the way, i'm a member"? Doesn't seem smooth.

Hand them that card along with the license, registration, and proof of insurance?

With a $20, too, right?

Have a wallet where there is a permanent window for your license opposite to a permanent window for your member card.

You hand the paper to the officer along with license and registration.

Varies per cop though. Some cops don't like the idea of being bought out, so you can really piss them off.

It certainly isn't nearly as bad as what I've seen in other countries however... where you simply pull out a few (hundred) pesos and the cop lets you go.

I'll admit that a NASA parking pass got me out of a ticket once.

Years ago in NY, an acquaintance showed me his "mini shield" which was just that, a small version of a NYC police shield (badge) that he clipped onto the inside of his wallet.

The story I was told was that police officers were given a number of these mini shields for their family members. The idea was that if the family member was asked for ID by another cop, presumably for doing something wrong, opening their wallet would reveal the mini shield and get the person a little (or a lot) of leeway. Wink, wink.

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