I wouldn't consider it smartassing, we don't know if OP was polite or not. It seemed (at least to me) like OP was trying to be courteous.

It's not about smartassing. It's about being hypocritical.

I got a policeman fired for misusing his powers. I know this is kinda off-topic since in OP's case the policeman only did his job, but I just wanted to share - don't go easy on the bad guys.

im intrigued, how?

All I have to say is **** the police!

Me too, sounds like an interesting story.

Me too, what happened?

Here in Maryland an arrested person was quite able to get a cop get ticket for speeding ..this came in local news ..this happened while that cop taking the arrested guy to police station...

#1, Up this way, if a cop has a broken light, that can be used against him in court as he shouldn't of been on the road either, thus getting out of the ticket.

most cops are hypocrites

it's not the cop's car, it belongs to the police department. So do you expect him to fix it using his own money? Plus, did you really expect not to get a ticket because his car was broken too?

48, I got out of a ticket that way. I had a busted tail light, as did the officer. I politely pointed it out to him, and he gave me a ticket. I then called his supervisor since he got smart with me when I was only trying to give him notice of the fact -after all, you can't very well see your tail light. The supervisor completely wiped the ticket off my record as though it never happened.

I bet you know most cops

Hypocrite Cop strikes again!

#48 it's still the cop's responsibility to make sure he isn't driving a car with a busted light, that police car should never have been on the road, and the officer should know better. The act of driving a car with a busted light is what is illegal, not owning a car with a busted light- if you were driving someone else's car that you happened to be insured on with a broken tail light it's still you breaking the law, not the owner of the car. To hand out a ticket for an illegal act that you are also committing is incredibly hypocritical, neither of them are right in this situation, but #52 had the right idea, I would call the supervisor, if only to make it clear what one of his officers is doing...

#86 I completely agree that, cop or civilian, diving a car with busted tail lights is illegal. But we can never know whether if the Police department knew about it and did nothing or no. The idea is, all the officer can actually do is to report it back to his supervisors, but he can't really refuse to drive the car because they didn't fix the lights. OP could've made a complaint about it, but that won't make him get away from a ticket.

Of course he can refuse to drive the car! That's exactly what he should have done! Do you think all police vehicles are in use all the time? If the light is busted then it would not be deemed 'road worthy' so either drive a different car or don't go on patrol, you can't just choose to break the law because you think you're above it, and no superior officer would force him to drive a car illegally.

I feel like the cop did the right thing. Just because he's doing something wrong doesn't negate the fact that you were doing something wrong and it's not like he can write himself a ticket. Besides at least where I'm from tickets for broken lights are wiped if you show that you had it fixed by a certain date.

No there not, the cops light is out because his department hasn't fixed it, it's not his job to fix it

But it's not the cops car. It's the departments car. The cop is NOT responsible for vehicle maintenance. The car was in the fleet for use which means it was road worthy. So the cop can't be to blame, it's the mechanics.

The police are not allowed (by principle) to enforce any law they do not follow. (The police are NOT above the law in civilised countries.) Officers are responsible for maintenance of their vehicles even though they don't perform the work themselves. If his light it out, he may not write a ticket for someone else's light being out. OP, take the citation to his supervisor. If that fails, take it to court. It will be thrown out.

Exactly #75, it was in the *fleet* Had the cop been doing his job he would have alerted the proper authorities as to the (legally speaking) dysfunctional state of the car, and they would have given him a fully maintained alternate to use while they performed the needed work on the cruiser in question. He did not do that. He was in the wrong.

This is why I hate cops. Situations like these make me sick.

its not the cops car. hes not responsible for it. if a light goes out, its up to the county to fix it, not the cop. the cop did nothing wrong, nor is it a double standard.

so then its the departments fault, doesnt change the fact hes driving around like that telling others not to..

He should check his lights as we all do. He doesn't have to pay to fix it, but he should be responsible for checking that his car works.

Exactly. Even though the police officer was hypocritical, did OP really expect NOT to get a ticket simply because the officer's light was busted, too? Just because a police officer breaks the law, it doesn't absolve you for breaking the same law.

He wasn't really being hypocritical. Is he supposed to give himeself a ticket or something?

But he is being put above the law in some way if there is no penalty for him, right? No matter what, if there is no penalty on him, this situation is just unethical. You can't enforce a law you don't abide by and you can't not enforce the law. The underlying problem becomes how do we hold police officers accountable?

Who said there won't be any penalties for the officer? And who knows, he might have been on the way to get the light fixed. Either way, my point is that even if other people break laws, it does not make it all right for you to break laws as well.

#85 Idk about you but id rather have the police officer out helping people and keeping the roads safe than worrying about his own tail light. Chances are they have plenty of extra bulbs at the station and he will grab one when he is there next.

He wasn't acting smart; he was stating the truth.

A little self restraint would've possibly avoided him a ticket. Yea it's unfair but the fact of the matter is OP was pointing it out to be a smartass, and that couldn't do anything but encourage a ticket.

I'd say op was going to get a ticket regardless

I agree with #41. He was probably going to get a ticket even without saying anything. OP could've wanted to show that the cop had the same problem as him, therefore he might not get a ticket. It didn't work, but at least he tried.

He could've just pointed it out as a heads up. You can't automatically assume that he was being a smart ass. If I'm pulled over and notice something, I'm going to point it out not to be a smart ass or get out of a ticket, but out of courtesy. and if I notice it driving, I'll call the non emergency line and give them the car number so THEY can give him/her a heads up. wouldn't you want someone to let you know if you had a light out and you didn't know?

who would give that cop a ticket for that ..

#53 That's an excellent point. I could see OP doing it for a generous reason, too.

I feel like on fml people are way to nice

its not the cops car. hes not responsible for it. if a light goes out, its up to the county to fix it, not the cop. the cop did nothing wrong, not is it a double standard. and since most cops share cars, the cop may not have noticed. telling thr cop his light is out doesnt changr the fact that OPs is out, but the now knows he need his fixed too.

#64 we already got this lecture on another reply so just stop

Uhh, "Broken lights"?

It's a ticket for a broken light. Just speculating here but the reason for the ticket might be the broken light.

its not the cops car. hes not responsible for it. if a light goes out, its up to the county to fix it, not the cop. the cop did nothing wrong, not is i hypocritical. telling the cop his light was out didnt fix OPs, so OP still gets a ticket.

Yes, but the officer shouldn't have been driving the vehicle. It would take some work, but you could get the ticket thrown out if you argued that he wasn't supposed to be out driving. That's what I've heard from someone, don't trust this. But I do know that it's somewhat easier than most people think to get out of a ticket, as long as you ask the right questions, occasionally you get lucky and find something small, but just enough to work. Like the calibration on a radar gun.