Is it illegal for the police to run a red light without their sirens on?

I’ve never seen a cop run a read light without sirens blaring, where are you seeing this happen?

a LOT in new york city and long island.

they do it regardless of whether there are cars going or not and i just find it annoying that no one can stop them from doing that

Ah, NYC cops are psycho there’s your answer. I think it is illegal, but who is gonna pull them over?

You know how if you work at a restaurant, one of the employee benefits is usually free (or cheap) food, and how retail employees often get discounts when buying from their store? Running lights is probably one of the perks of being a cop.

Cops have a tough job that I wouldn’t want – busting crackhouses and chasing down criminals and when they pull a car over, they don’t know if they’re going to get the license-registration-proof-of-insurance, or if they’re going to get shot in the face. There’s not too many perks, but as far as I’m concerned, as long as no one is killed or hurt, they can run as many lights (and have as many free doughnuts) as they want.

Yeah, normally I would have agreed, but considering I almost nailed a guy who was running a red light at 5am this morning….I’m less sympathetic.

When police are responding to a call, they have something called ‘responding code two’ and ‘responding code 3’. Code two is running emergency lights with no siren and Code 3 is running with lights AND siren.

Much of it depends on the urgency of the call and what type of situation they are responding to. If they are going with lights only, they should sound their sirens and horn upon approaching the intersection to make sure it is clear before they proceed onward.

Sometimes police officers will be responding to a call that requires no lights but if they need to expedite to the location of the call and they have to transition through red lights, they can activate their overhead lights upon reaching and transitioning through the intersection and then proceeding onward. The only time that I have seen this is when the intersection has had very little traffic in it.

I’m a military policeman and this is what we’re taught to do if we have to ‘run code’ as it is called. I also have several friends in the city police departments in and around Phoenix, Arizona and these are the techniques that they use also when responding to calls.

it’s only illegal if they get a ticket. Pull them over next time and write them up.

Any time I hear “police”, “sirens”, and “red light” in the same sentence, I think of the cops from Superbad. =D

(Sorry, couldn’t find the right clip)

are you going to pull them over for doing it?

Call the fire department!

I bet it is just as illegal as a cop pulling a U-turn in an intersection without lights and sirens. I see that a lot.