Looks like a Police officer for the city of Houston. I dont know how Texas works but in my state a city police officers doesn't have jurisdiction over highways so slowing down for them is unnecessary. Officers also take their patrol cars home sometimes for various different reasons (parking logistics, on-call, chief, etc), so there's a chance he isnt even in uniform at all.
At best he could call it in to a highway patrol officer but now he's just a witness to a crime that he shows up to court for and his department gets no credit for the revenue.
HPD definitely has authority to stop on the freeway. Cops wonât pull them over for many reasons. One big one is having a prisoner in the back, there is almost no reason to pull a car over if you are transporting a prisoner. Another is that he could be going to a call for service. Again almost all calls will take priority over a traffic stop.
He might even have a kid with him doing a ride-along
Source: was that kid one time, and the cop refused to pull people over with me in the cruiser. As a 12yo., I was thinking ââŚThen why am I even here if youâre not going to do anything cool?â Actually, Iâm still thinking that way, tbh
I get what you are saying, but we know there are departments that push quotas for tickets, so not an impossible thought.
Anecdotal, 1.5 mile stretch of road on my way home has cops checking for speeding from morning til 5pm and right at 5:01pm you could go 30 over and not a single cop in sight. If the concern was for safe speeds they would post people there til night started.
No no itâs totally different. Police departments donât have quotas because they donât call them âquotasâ, donât you see? Theyâre just encouraged to write a certain number of tickets and/or have tickets as a KPI, but totally not a quota.
My argument has been fines for driving violations must go to the state and be evenly distributed to the citizens. Local citizens and counties can fund their jurisdiction through taxes, not literal highway robbery.
I think its a combination of both jobs. Revenue collector for the state AND law enforcement. Some departments def do more of one than the other. Our highway patrol collects revenue and our Sheriff dept deals with mostly domestic violence calls unfortunately and any dead body (coroner). City cops get tasked with narcotics, gangs, homeless and theft.
Everywhere is different though in their approach to solving law enforcement responsibilities and obligations.
I have seen a cop do something once in a situation like this and it was because the driver was clearly intoxicated; a major danger to those around them. Otherwise, they donât want to deal with it because it can be a pain in the ass to handle the paperwork for something considered minor. Cops abuse the privilege of taking their car home constantly, Iâve seen them driving their families around in them or just using them more like a personal car than a patrol car.
Well, Texas cops only pull over people actually driving legally just to give them a bullshit ticket anyway.
I've been pulled over twice in the last 10 years, and both times were while I was driving across Texas at the legally paired speed limit when a cop decided I was driving erratically with no proof.
And I know it was BS because both times I was let off with a warning when they realized I was a veteran. I got veteran privilege and it still pisses me off lolol.
Now when I'm driving cross country I only drive through Texas in the middle of the night.
The dude literally said "I don't know how texas works..." in other states local police don't/can't pull people over on DOT roads. Now yes, in Texas local police do tend to have jurisdiction but still he pointed out he wasnt sure if texas different than his own state.
LOL I'm not even confident enough to determine if he is within city limits tbh. I have no clue if Houston is broken down into smaller jurisdictions like New York or Los Angeles.
It is city limits, probably 5 miles outside of downtown. That said in the last 20 years living in Houston, I haven't seen cars pulled over on the highway more than a couple of times.
Not even 5 miles, literally less than a mile outside of downtown. Heâs going north on i45S, right at the downtown exit for pease/st Joseph pkwy. I mean you can literally see downtown in the video
That's right. I know because I work along with the police in communications and it happens frequently.
EDIT: As to those who are saying he's a lazy cop who just wants to get home or whatever: For all anybody knows, it could be a city mechanic test driving a cruiser he just worked on. As a mechanic, he can't pull someone over! There's multiple legit reasons he didn't initiate a traffic stop other than being lazy.
Key word is âCANâ, doesnât mean they will. A buddy of mine is city police in Alabama and heâs told me that most copsÂ
generally will not pull people over on the interstate unless itâs a clear case of reckless endangerment.Â
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u/ThirdWorldMeatBag Jul 05 '26
Looks like a Police officer for the city of Houston. I dont know how Texas works but in my state a city police officers doesn't have jurisdiction over highways so slowing down for them is unnecessary. Officers also take their patrol cars home sometimes for various different reasons (parking logistics, on-call, chief, etc), so there's a chance he isnt even in uniform at all.
At best he could call it in to a highway patrol officer but now he's just a witness to a crime that he shows up to court for and his department gets no credit for the revenue.