{"id":9518,"date":"2015-05-27T13:20:16","date_gmt":"2015-05-27T13:20:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9518"},"modified":"2015-05-27T13:20:16","modified_gmt":"2015-05-27T13:20:16","slug":"routine-traffic-stop-no-such-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=9518","title":{"rendered":"‘Routine’ traffic stop? No such thing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Anyone who’s ever worn a badge and a uniform while serving in law enforcement says the same thing.<\/p>\n

There’s no such thing as a “routine traffic stop.”<\/p>\n

Gregg “Nigel” Benner is just the latest symbol of that fundamental truth.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/krqe.com\/2015\/05\/26\/rio-rancho-officer-killed-police-search-for-suspect\/<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He is the first officer in the history of the Rio Ranch Police Department to die in the line of duty.<\/p>\n

Police later arrested Andrew Romero and charged him with the officer’s murder.<\/p>\n

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<\/em> — they don’t know while carrying out their duties to protect the community they serve.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

Gregg Benner didn’t expect to die when he pulled that car over in Rio Rancho, but he did.<\/p>\n

He wasn’t performing a routine act in the line of duty — because\u00a0there’s nothing\u00a0routine<\/em> about police field work.<\/p>\n\n

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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. … Continue reading ‘Routine’ traffic stop? No such thing<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,13],"tags":[21,241,2009,3632,3961,3962],"class_list":["post-9518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-news","category-national-news","tag-routine-traffic-stops","tag-albuquerque","tag-gregg-benner","tag-police-shooting","tag-rio-rancho-nm","tag-rio-rancho-police-department"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}