Anyone who’s ever worn a badge and a uniform while serving in law enforcement says the same thing.
There’s no such thing as a “routine traffic stop.”
Gregg “Nigel” Benner is just the latest symbol of that fundamental truth.
http://krqe.com/2015/05/26/rio-rancho-officer-killed-police-search-for-suspect/
Benner pulled someone over during a traffic stop in Rio Rancho, N.M., just outside Albuquerque. The driver of the car then shot Benner to death.
He is the first officer in the history of the Rio Ranch Police Department to die in the line of duty.
Police later arrested Andrew Romero and charged him with the officer’s murder.
I’ve made this point before, but I believe one cannot make if often enough. Police officers risk their lives with every call they answer, every time they go to work, every time they approach someone — anyone — they don’t know while carrying out their duties to protect the community they serve.
And yet … I keep hearing local media — whether it’s here or wherever I happen to be at the time — refer to these traffic stops as “routine.”
“State police pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of drugs out of a car during a ‘routine traffic stop,'” the news report might state, either on the air or in print.
Gregg Benner didn’t expect to die when he pulled that car over in Rio Rancho, but he did.
He wasn’t performing a routine act in the line of duty — becauseĀ there’s nothingĀ routine about police field work.