Ask a Cop: If Distracted Driving is Dangerous, Why are Cops Exempt?

Is there anything you have ever wanted to know about the Mountain View Police Department? Well, this is your chance to ask.

Whether you have a question about certain laws and how they might affect you, your family or friends, or how to stay safe in certain situations, we want you to ask them. We will run the question(s) and give some answer(s). To submit a question, leave a comment below or email mountainview@patch.com.

Answer provided by Lt. Greg Oselinsky.

Question: If distracted driving is so dangerous, why are cops exempt?

Answer: Emergency workers (Police, Fire, and Ambulance) are exempt from the law limiting the use of cell phones while operating an emergency vehicle during the course of their duties. This is explained and defined here: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d11/vc23123.htm

Why has the legislature done this? There are many reasons, including: Officers in the field don’t have offices and handle some calls for service via the phone while they are still responding to another location for a different reason. Sometimes there are confidentiality issues with information necessary on a call an officer is responding to and they cannot receive the information via the radio, but they still need to drive to the call. Some information officers provide or receive is too lengthy to use the radio and they must use a phone. All of this is based on the need to continue moving to a location that requires their attention or presence. The purpose is to keep things moving fluidly and minimize response times. If officers are not responding to a call, we tell them to stop to use the phone. We also tell them they are not allowed to make personal calls just because they are exempt.

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