Storm Chaser arrested for impersonating a peace officer

[Ben Holcomb]

http://www.lamarledger.com/lamar-co...3/shores-arrested-impersonating-peace-officer

Darrick Shores was arrested yesterday in Colorado for impersonating a peace officer while running red and blue lights. This is going to break that whole lightbar thing wide open.

 

[Mike Marz]

Ugh, someone beat me to posting this... Anyways, in my humble opinion, I find chasing with light bars to be pointless, and annoying. Some of them are extremely bright and can actually make it HARDER to see the road for some people. I'm sure some of you that use light bars have good reason for doing so, and use them properly and without blinding people. I guess I'm ok with that. But, some of the stuff I see out there chasing is just rediculous and feels like it's all for the "look at me" factor... I personally got a good laugh from this story...

 

[Dan Robinson]

From what I understand, it wasn't just the lights - it as a fully decked-out white Crown Vic complete with brush guards and spotlights. Looks exactly like a State Trooper cruiser minus the markings. Not that running blues and reds alone wouldn't invite trouble.

 

[Jeff Duda]

But 'light bars' isn't in the title of the thread, so no one will care

I'm generally with Mike regarding light bars. They just don't accomplish anything worthwhile.

 

[Cody Christofferson]

What would prompt a chaser to do something like that? I also agree with much of what is posted above: I don't see any reason a chaser would need a lightbar other than as an attention grabber.

 

[Brad Dormer]

Same guy also assaulted another chaser earlier this year, (or maybe late last year, can't remember). Hopefully he stays in jail for a while and learns his lesson.

 

[Matt Hunt]

Personally, I try to NOT attract attention to myself. Unless you're close enough to see my laptop and hail dents all over the car, I look no different than any other car out on the road.

 

[ScottCurry]

Don't hate, but I'm taking the opposite view on lightbars (blue/red is idiotic and illegal btw... I'm talking about amber).

I live in Colorado. Last year, I was constantly getting stares from cops and getting lit up because my car had antennas on it and the police thought I might be impersonating an officer. So I threw an amber light bar on top of my car (the kind where the plastic is amber and not clear). I picked up a class I (dim lightbar) for $50 from an automotive shop. And guess what happened? The cops left me alone because now my car looked like a construction vehicle.

I only actually used it four times (I no longer have it as I no longer have that car):

1. To block a flooded road that was under 4' of water.
2. To block a flooded lane in a road that was under 2-3' of water. Another guy in a construction truck actually stopped and turned on his ambers on that one because he said my amber light was too dim to see (it was).
   
3. When a vehicle traveling the opposite direction was passing a car and we were about to get into a head on collision. I wanted to increase my visibility.
4. When I crashed my car into a guard rail and my car was blocking a lane of traffic.

So those are my good reasons to have a lightbar. Notice none of them involve driving down the road in the middle of a storm so other cars don't hit you. Because the fact is, I might hit you BECAUSE you are using class III ambers while driving down the road, and now I'm blind.

 

[Jeff Duda]

Don't hate, but I'm taking the opposite view on lightbars (blue/red is idiotic and illegal btw... I'm talking about amber).

I live in Colorado. Last year, I was constantly getting stares from cops and getting lit up because my car had antennas on it and the police thought I might be impersonating an officer. So I threw an amber light bar on top of my car (the kind where the plastic is amber and not clear). I picked up a class I (dim lightbar) for $50 from an automotive shop. And guess what happened? The cops left me alone because now my car looked like a construction vehicle.

I only actually used it four times (I no longer have it as I no longer have that car):

1. To block a flooded road that was under 4' of water.
2. To block a flooded lane in a road that was under 2-3' of water. Another guy in a construction truck actually stopped and turned on his ambers on that one because he said my amber light was too dim to see (it was).
   
3. When a vehicle traveling the opposite direction was passing a car and we were about to get into a head on collision. I wanted to increase my visibility.
4. When I crashed my car into a guard rail and my car was blocking a lane of traffic.

So those are my good reasons to have a lightbar. Notice none of them involve driving down the road in the middle of a storm so other cars don't hit you. Because the fact is, I might hit you BECAUSE you are using class III ambers while driving down the road, and now I'm blind.

Thank you for using them responsibly and humbly!

 

[Todd Lemery]

I hope this doesn't reflect poorly on all chasers. This was a case of some jackass who happened to chase storms. It shouldn't be tied to all chasers any more than it should be tied to all poker players if he happened to play poker...

 

[rdale]

I hope this doesn't reflect poorly on all chasers. This was a case of some jackass who happened to chase storms. It shouldn't be tied to all chasers any more than it should be tied to all poker players if he happened to play poker...

Every year we have at least one incident that people worry might reflect poorly on all chasers... #HasntHappenedYetAndNoReasonToThinkThisWillChange

 

[john.hale]

Don't hate, but I'm taking the opposite view on lightbars (blue/red is idiotic and illegal btw... I'm talking about amber).

I live in Colorado. Last year, I was constantly getting stares from cops and getting lit up because my car had antennas on it and the police thought I might be impersonating an officer. So I threw an amber light bar on top of my car (the kind where the plastic is amber and not clear). I picked up a class I (dim lightbar) for $50 from an automotive shop. And guess what happened? The cops left me alone because now my car looked like a construction vehicle.

I only actually used it four times (I no longer have it as I no longer have that car):

1. To block a flooded road that was under 4' of water.
2. To block a flooded lane in a road that was under 2-3' of water. Another guy in a construction truck actually stopped and turned on his ambers on that one because he said my amber light was too dim to see (it was).
   
3. When a vehicle traveling the opposite direction was passing a car and we were about to get into a head on collision. I wanted to increase my visibility.
4. When I crashed my car into a guard rail and my car was blocking a lane of traffic.

So those are my good reasons to have a lightbar. Notice none of them involve driving down the road in the middle of a storm so other cars don't hit you. Because the fact is, I might hit you BECAUSE you are using class III ambers while driving down the road, and now I'm blind.

Light bars used appropriately isn't an issue and shouldn't be if you use the right colors and follow state laws and not be stupid and go all overkill. The main issue was his car looked exactly like a cop car (retired crown vic) with red and blues while driving in a county where they had an incident of someone impersonating a peace officer just a day or so ago. This wasn't just about the lights.

Sent from my LGMS210 using Stormtrack mobile app

 

[Dan Robinson]

An old thread for reference RE the lightbar issue. Note - opinions can and do change.
https://stormtrack.org/community/threads/lightbars-whats-the-deal.19632/

My take from a few years ago:
http://stormhighway.com/blog2011/march711b.php

I started out with a lightbar and taillight strobes on my vehicle. After many years, I don't find many scenarios that justify their cost and installation. They're widely seen as ostentatious within the chase community and usually end up being the subject of ridicule and scorn. In some cases, there are legitimate safety and legal issues with using them (as in this case). Very bright lightbars can impair vision of other drivers. I was behind a slow-moving chaser running them in Texas in 2015, and I wasn't able to pass because I couldn't see past their vehicle due to the extreme glare.

If one is inclined to use them, rear-facing ambers are the safest bet to be legal and actually have some utility in the very rare case you might need to warn drivers of a downed tree, power line or flooded road. I still have ambers in my rear window and have used them maybe twice in the past 3 years. Anything front-facing or side-facing, colors other than amber and/or using them while in motion is inviting legal trouble and ridicule/scorn from the chase community.

Most chasers have followed a path of initially using them, then slowly abandoning/renouncing their use. I think some of the criticism goes overboard (nobody really cares, who looks at a flag car or construction vehicle and gets bent out of shape), but the reality is they are quite the pariah in the community.

 

[John Erwin]

Quite frankly this looks more like a case of "whackerism" than anything else, although in this case the "whacker" also appears to dabble in storm chasing somewhat. Although I'm not inclined to use any special lights when chasing, this case bears no real resemblance to most of the discussion in that regard.

Sent from my LG-H831 using Stormtrack mobile app

 

[Matt Tottle]

Last year, I was constantly getting stares from cops and getting lit up because my car had antennas on it and the police thought I might be impersonating an officer.

Sorry but I call BS on this. Antennas are absolutely not something that would lead police to believe that you are trying to impersonate. and if that truly was the situation you would have had an iron clad harassment complaint, along with every ham in the county.