For those who believe police think there is one rule for them and another for the rest of us comes this video from India of a police motorcycle officer on a mobile phone.
When the officer is confronted by the rider videoing the incident, the police officer slaps him.
The rider then rides off, concerned he might cop a bogus fine. He later uploaded the video to Facebook where it has gone viral.
While the incident took place in India, there is concern that police in other countries believe they are above the law and can do things that other motorists cannot.
Can police break road rules?
That is true, up to a point.
In many jurisdictions, police are given certain leeway in breaking some road rules such as using a mobile phone while driving or even speeding, so long as they are “taking reasonable care” or in an emergency situation.
In the case of an emergency, the police vehicle should have the sirens and lights operating at the time if they are fitted to the vehicle.
Just ordering a pizza or phoning their friends is not allowed.
In the Indian case, the policeman, Surinder Singh, doesn’t even have his helmet on properly.
This raises the point about police who wear helmet cameras fining riders for doing the same thing.
One rule for them and another for us?
It also doesn’t appear that the Indian officer is an emergency situation as he is calmly chatting on the phone.
Justice prevails
Thankfully, Chandigarh rider, Sumit Kumar Tiwari, posted the video on Friday (September 8, 2017).
He also supplied the video to police who promptly took a witness statement. Singh has since been fined and his licence suspended for three months.
That was a very quick and commendable response from Indian police.
If you witness a police officer disobeying road rules when not responding to an emergency call, you should report the incident to police for an internal investigation.
It should be noted that police are often fined for breaches of road rules. For example, there were 600 Queensland police fined in 2011, alone.