Emergency Siren Abuse

I'm a reserve deputy with my local sheriff's office and have been one for about two years now. Around here there isn’t much if any abuse of the squad cars. It seems that most people get confused when they see a squad go through a stop sign or other traffic control device with their lights and sirens only to turn them off after they get through the intersection. I can clear some of this up for you and there are a few reasons why it can happen:

-They might have been en-route to an emergency but then got called off. (This usually happens if there are enough officers on the scene already.)

-They might be trying to catch up to a high-risk car they want to pull over. Generally when you do this you only have your siren on in crowded intersections to avoid a collision and then turn it off once your through so that the high risk car cant hear you coming.

-They might be trying to watch a vehicle to make sure it follows their instructions. For example, two people are involved in a dispute. The police are called and they tell one of the two people to leave. They will then follow this person at a distance to assure that they don't double back and start another confrontation.

-As for the emergency vehicles going through red light just to get to the donut store, that is plain old police corruption and it should be stopped.

Jam it back in, in the dark.