It had to happen sooner or later. In the early evening of December 20 at the corner of E. John and E. Broadway on Capitol Hill, I finally witnessed the kind of two-car automobile accident I'm surprised doesn't happen more often in Seattle.

As I was walking out of the Twice Told Tales bookstore on the southeast corner of the intersection, I heard a few brief blares from what was unmistakably an emergency vehicle siren. Then I heard the unmistakable screech of skidding tires, looked over my left shoulder, and watched a large, westbound SUV drove right into the passenger side of a Seattle Police car. I didn't see whether the officer or the citizen was running a red light, but the officer did not have his emergency lights full on, in addition to not having his siren full on. As I walked towards the intersection, one witness told me that the officer had run the red light. Fortunately, this officer didn't have a partner. If he had, this individual would have probably been seriously injured.

I've learned in nearly three years in Seattle that giving a citizen a Seattle Police uniform and a patrol car to drive around in turns them into the most reckless drivers in the city. The average Seattle Police officer on an emergency call is more dangerous than a lost tourist trying to find his/her way to the Pike Place Market during late afternoon rush hour. The lost tourist typically meanders around downtown streets at about ten miles per hour while trying to find his/her way around, and I can easily pass them on my speedy road-racing bike. Only an SUV driver talking on his/her cell phone could be more dangerous than a Seattle Police officer on an emergency call.

Unlike ambulances, Seattle Police officers on emergency calls almost always never have their emergency lights and sirens full on. Police always drive faster even though they occupy a vehicle that is smaller and painted over with a light blue paint that is not nearly as bright as the red and white coating of an ambulance vehicle. I would guess about 9 out of 10 Seattle Police officers make emergency calls without their emergency lights and sirens full on, whereas about 9 out of 10 ambulance vehicles on emergency calls make them with their emergency lights and sirens full on. When ambulance vehicles don't have their lights and sirens full on during an emergency call they always drive more slowly than a Seattle Police officer. And Seattle Police always speed through the highest density areas of the city while on emergency call.

One of the first observations I made while getting around the downtown core as a commuter and a bike messenger was how recklessly the average Seattle Police officer drives, whether they are or aren't on an emergency call. The average Seattle automobile driver and cyclist has to keep his/her eye out for a Seattle Police officer in a patrol car because they never know when the officer is going to roll through an intersection after briefly turning his/her lights on.

Occasionally I have been stunned by the sight of an officer on an emergency call with his/her lights and siren full on, like I did once in front of the Lower Queen Anne Larry's Market at the corner of Mercer and 1st Ave. N. But this is an exception to the rule, as I am more likely to observe an officer on an emergency call driving at a reckless speed down 2nd Avenue in downtown or down 12th Avenue on Capitol Hill. The officer will speed from intersection to intersection with no lights or siren on, put the lights and siren on for a few seconds at the intersection before speeding to the next intersection. I consider it a matter of luck that they don't cause more accidents.

It's all the expression of an attitude of contempt for the safety of the citizenry in a local law enforcement community that, like their brothers and sisters in the rest of the local law enforcement community nationwide, resembles an army of occupation more than a local civilian police department.

Should we be surprised that Seattle's Finest drive around town like a bunch of sailors on leave during Sea Fair? This is the inevitable result of allowing a class of people to kill citizens and never be held criminally responsible for their actions.