Are cops allowed to...?

Question

I live in New York state, where talking on your cell phone is banned. But I saw a cop doing that today. Are they allowed to, or is it just because no one can do anything about it? I would think they would want to be examples to the rest of us. The cops in my area have plenty of funding so its not like they can't afford bluetooth headsets for them.

Yes I mean talking while driving

Answer 1

Unfortunately another person has provided you with erroneous information and failed to do their research before posting their comment!

The following is an exerpt from the New York laws concerning the use of cellphones by emergency personnel:

Article 33 Miscellaneous Rules
Section 1225-c. Use of mobile telephones.

§1225-c. Use of mobile telephones.

"3. Subdivision two of this section shall not apply to (a) the use of a mobile telephone for the sole purpose of communicating with any of the following regarding an emergency situation: an emergency response operator; a hospital, physician's office or health clinic; an ambulance company or corps; a fire department, district or company; or a police department, (b) any of the following persons while in the performance of their official duties: a police officer or peace officer; a member of a fire department, district or company; or the operator of an authorized emergency vehicle as defined in section one hundred one of this chapter, or (c) the use of a hands-free mobile telephone."

In short...ALL emergency personnel in performance of their duties are expempt. Two-way radios are NOT the only means of communication when conducting business!

The entire law concerning this issue is posted below.

Answer 2

I use my cellphone for work all the time. I'm a supervisor and my officers, dispatcher, and other department employees are always calling me. It gets so bad sometimes that I want to throw the damn thing out the window. Mine is issued by my agency also.

Unless someone is psychic then they really don't know who the officer was talking to.

Answer 3

Your first mistake, CZ, is assuming that law-enforcement officers would want to be examples for the rest of us. The number-one priority for every police officer, unsurprisingly enough, is learning what is necessary to become noticed enough to recieve their next promotion.

Being an example to the rest of the populace is at best very way down on the list of their priorities, until they've reached the level of income that they feel comfortable receiving.

YIKES.. the more I read responses by this guy calling himself KC blah blah blah, the more scary he is. Note his erroneous interpretation of the code he himself provides "In short...ALL emergency personnel in performance of their duties are expempt." The missing phrase that would have made it a true and valid statement is if he were to have added the words "during an emergency" between "duties" and "are".

Police officers are indeed an example of emergency personnel, but, not twenty-four-hours-a-day, nor seven-days-a-week. They are only emergency personnel during an actual emergency when they, like any other citizen, are allowed to exercise pertinent emergency powers. Once the emergency is over, anybody involved with that emergency loses any emergency powers they were exercising, and become, once again, their everyday selves, which, in the case of a law-enforcement officer, is to become PUBLIC SAFETY personnel, not 'emergency' personnel.

How exactly can you tell if a law-enforcement officer is entitled to exercise emergency powers in performing his duties? He'll be speeding and have his red and/or blue lights a blazing, and quite often, will have his siren a blaring, as well, but not if the 'emergency' is to arrive on time to the location of someone they want to arrest and/or kill, then they'll just speed and use their lights.

When the ambulance drives away with the victims of a collision, and it's time for KC blah blah blah's shift to be over and he wants to fill out as much paperwork as he can while enroute to his office or wherever he can claim his shift to be over, he is no more authorized to use his cell phone than anybody else in his jurisdiction.

Lacking an actual in-the-moment emergency, all enforcement officers are every bit as capable of being charged with the same traffic offenses as any other citizen.. but, like Peet said, who would be the one to arrest them for it?

Me, a citizen, in my state where citizens are allowed to effect arrests.

It certainly won't be a fellow law-enforcement officer, becasue all law-enforcement officers know that it is pure bunk that cell-phone conversations are any more distracting than a passenger conversation, or a CB conversation, or a radio show. They just like the additional excuses to pull otherwise law-abiding and perfectly safe citizens over, to extract from them as much revenue as they can, because THAT's what looks good in their performance reviews for promotion.

Answer 4

There is alot of information that cannot be said over the radio. These laws usually don't apply to first responders trying to get a job done.

Answer 5

Police officers are often issued cell phones to carry with them for various reasons. One being, that radios have dead spots, especially in the city.

Answer 6

I use mine all the time on the job. if there is something they can't put over the radio or it is a long winded answer we use our cellphones. if I stopped everytime, I would never get to the next call.

Answer 7

I take it you are talking about talking on cellphones while driving. There is no law against talking on cellphones when you are just standing there, even in New York.

As far as cellphone use while driving goes, the law applies to cops just as much as to ordinary people. But who is going to go arrest them?

Answer 8

Unfortunately most COPS think use the LAW to support them breaking the law. I highly doubt the cop was using their phone for emergency reasons and was talking to a wife/friend and just uses the law as most of them do to protect from doing so don't ever think that just because people are part of the court system, likes cops, they have some sort of ethical or moral superiority over the rest of us. Generally its just the opposite.