Anyone else notice the insane amount of cops on the streets of Reno and Sparks today? Did they just feel the need to give people a reason to fear Friday the 13th? By noon today, I’d learned of 3 people who had been pulled over, just in my office building alone. My husband, who works at the opposite end of town out near the North 395 entrance, saw 5 people pulled over on his short commute to work. When I left on my lunch break, I saw 4 more people pulled over in the area near Longley and McCarran. This is truly ridiculous. It feels like the city is out to attack us today – pulling people over for random, minor infractions.
The 3 people at my office were pulled over for the following reasons: 1) Holding a cellphone – she was changing the Pandora station, which is linked to her car stereo 2) a broken windshield and 3) changing lanes “too quickly” after turning – he was even using his blinker!! I don’t know the reason for all the other poor saps on the side of the road, having their day ruined by NHP, but my guess is they were also pulled over for idiotic reasons. They have been lurking on the side streets around Longley Lane all day today – it’s like they are out just looking for people to mess with.
On an average week, we see maybe 1 cop patrolling the area near my work; and the car is never marked “NHP”. Today, the NHP is crawling around town like hungry ants looking for a picnic. It’s rather disturbing. Police should not make you so paranoid that you feel every move you make is wrong. Personally, I am a much more distracted driver when I’m near a cop, simply because I know most will pull you over for any asinine reason. I’ve had good and bad experiences with Reno police – for the most part they are nice and will generally let me go with a warning. However, they seem to be dolling out tickets for any old reason today.
People already have a low enough opinion of police, we don’t need any more reasons to turn against them! If only they would pull people over for real traffic violations, and not just to fill their quotas, people would respect their authority, and we wouldn’t have to fear the people intended to protect us. Today, I am very thankful for my radar detector! Anyone else have horrible experiences with Reno / Sparks police on Friday April 13th? Share your heinous story in the comments below!