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State troopers caught ignoring speeding cops
By Mark Miller
Published: Oct 9, 2014 at 7:29 PM PDT



WENATCHEE, Wash. -- You can hear the frustration and bemusement in their voices. State troopers watching officers speed past them, well above the posted 60 mph limit, on Highway 2 near Wenatchee.

And the troopers did nothing.

"When the first patrol car went through and was not stopped I was frustrated. I thought that was annoying," said blogger Bill Gillam, who was riding in a car with a friend when he noticed what was happening in a speed enforcement area. "I thought I'd get it on video and record what the officers were saying on our scanner."

Gillam recorded two-way radio traffic of troopers on the ground talking with a trooper in an airplane who was the spotter for the speed trap. It became evident some of the alleged speeders spotted from the air were officers in marked and unmarked cars, and one on a motorcycle. Not a single officer was pulled over.

"They were stopping civilians and issuing tickets for people doing 10, 12 miles an hour over the speed limit, yet officers were doing double that and didn't even get talked to," said Gillam. "I was pretty upset. I thought that was a little out of line."

It turned out the law enforcement officers were traveling to a training conference in Chelan and seemed to be running late.

Gillam tweeted about the situation and posted an edited video of the troopers' radio transmissions. That got the attention of the Washington State Patrol.

"We learned about the video and we understand how it would make people feel," said State Patrol spokesman Bob Calkins. "If they're not going to an emergency they should obey that the rest of us obey."

Calkins says officers generally do not pull over other officers because they cannot know if the police vehicle is responding to an emergency. An officer can note the driving behavior of another and report that to superiors.

He said a State Patrol captain has spoken to attendees of the conference to emphasize their responsibility to set a good example to the driving public. The captain also showed officers the video.

Calkins points out that troopers focus on educating civilian offenders by issuing warnings rather than citations in about half of all traffic stops. State Patrol will use this as a teachable moment with the officers who were allegedly speeding, according to Calkins.

"In this case we're going the education route. We've called the behavior to the attention of those who are at the conference. And to those we can identify we're calling it to the attention of their chief," he said.

State troopers do not want to identify the agencies or officers accused of speeding. Those officers could face discipline if found to be in violation of their department's policies.

Calkins asks the public for their understanding in evaluating how troopers handled the alleged speeders. He says the only people who should feel embarrassed are the officers accused of speeding.

Gillam has an idea he'd like to float out there.

"To make things right, if they could just throw out all the tickets that were issued yesterday in that enforcement area," he said. "I think that'd probably the fair thing to do."

The State Patrol says only a prosecutor or judge has the authority to dismiss a citation. Any driver can, of course, plead their own case.

The edited video of the trooper radio transmissions can be found on Gillam's blog.