Have you ever called the police on a reckless driver?

I have called 911 from the freeway to report dangerous and also drivers that are obviously drunk.

It doesn’t take too long, they want to know description of the car, license if you can see it, where they are and in what direction they are travelling.

@zenvelo – This brings up a good point. When I called the police, I called the non-emergency number. After listening to a directory for 2 minutes, I hung up. Is 911 the best route to go here?

@DoNotKnow If someone is out driving recklessly right this minute, 911 is appropriate.

I have, several times. Some for people driving recklessly, some for groups of motorcycles going over 100 mph. I’m not sure if the cops go running out from wherever they are to look for the person/car, as it is a cat and mouse chase. I tell them anyway.

I’ll also tell them if I see someone do something stupid, like pedestrians on the parkway or something like that. That stuff I know the cops will pursue, as it’s easier than trying to catch cars when they’re not quite sure where the car is located.

No, but I called my mommy one time when a bad man cut me up, it fwightened me.

Seems like Rick and I end up doing that on a regular basis. Gosh, one time this lady was driving, swerving all over the freaking place. We first noticed her when she backed out of a parking spot on Main, almost hitting several cars in the process.
We passed her. Rick was watching in his rearview mirror when he yelled, “She hit the curb!! Call 911!” She turned left, onto a residential street, went up over the curb, into the grass, and almost hit a building.
Since we had been ahead of her, we charged around the block to come around up behind her.
She got back on the street, swerving everywhere. Most of the time her right wheels were riding up on the curb.
I was on the phone to 911 giving a blow by blow.
There was a truck parked in the street a couple of blocks up. Rick said, “She’s gonna hit that truck…” sure as hell. Like a magnet she slammed into the truck and knocked it about 10 feet into someone’s driveway.
“She hit a parked truck!” I yelled.
Rick stopped and got out of the car to go take her keys. He said she was trying to take her seat belt off, and restart the car at the same time.
Within seconds about 8 different people pulled up around us, blocking the street completely. They were all people she’d affected some way or another on her trip.
One guy had a big truck with a push grill (what ever it’s called) on the front. He said he had seriously considered pushing her to the curb on Main, and pinning her there.
Pizza delivery driver delivered a pizza in the middle of all this!

It took the cops about 5 minutes to get there.

I’ve called the police before about reckless drivers, but my bar is fairly high. Your case would depend on how sure I was they were messed up, versus just looking for an address and/or doing something momentarily klutzy.

I called when someone hit another car they were frustrated with. The police said thanks but we’ll have to see if the other person files a complaint.

I called when someone was going really slow on the freeway, they suddenly exited at the last minute, then did a wild turn at the off-ramp and zoomed back onto the freeway. Something was clearly wrong with them and their weird driving could cause an accident. They said thanks they’d go take a look.

In other words, they are interested and sometimes may alert officers in the area, but the chance of an actual result may be pretty low because they’d need to find the person.

Also I learned the police and state patrol don’t communicate terribly closely, and the patrol is for the highway and the police the non-highway. So if it’s on the freeway, it may be more likely to be effective if you call the state patrol rather than the police. Having the right numbers in phone memory in advance helps too.

I had one of the first cell phones to come out. I worked for CellOne then. I was on the highway, passing another car when this guy flew up my tail. I mean, he was moving and I could tell he was going to go around me on the shoulder if I didn’t get out of the way. I floored it, got around the car I was passing. pulled back into the right lane, and that guy screamed passed us took the first exit, going back the way he had come.
A few seconds later a hypo came screaming up. I called 911 and told them where to find the perp. The cop had passed the exit by that time, and I saw the him turn around. I don’t know if he caught them, but I thought that was pretty cool, to be able to call 911 like that, at the moment and to know that the cop turned around because of my phone call.

“a few seconds later a hypo came screaming up”

Huh?? Translation please.

@Buttonstc I wondered too, then read it again as hypo = highway patrol (car).

Yeah. Highway Patrol. Only cool people use the words hypo! See.

Thanks, everyone. I won’t hesitate to call next time.

Except if I am driving in NH. I wouldn’t want to explain how I initiated the call while driving.

Pull over to make the call @DoNotKnow.

In California calls to 911 are specifically exempted from the calling while driving laws.

Well, like I said, then pull over before you call. If you have a passenger, have them call. It’s what I would do anyway. I don’t drive and talk on my cell phone.