I'm perfectly OK with this, assuming the officer would've left someone not affiliated with law enforcement alone for doing the same thing.

I try to take all my new ambulance drivers to snowy parking lots to train them on how to drive on snow and ice. Got to learn somehow. And the time to not learn is running a call.

I was raised in snow country and in High School, we had a students parking lot and a teachers parking lot. You could also park on the street.

When we got a good snowfall, the word would go out to park on the street, then we'd take turns driving into the student lot at around 40 MPH and then spinning donuts.

It was great training for us.

quote:

Originally posted by valkyrie1:
Used to practice donuts etc with my friends at night in empty parking lots, atleast you used to know how to handle a car in snow. I see no problems with that video

Yup...we did the same, as many have said doing it in practice makes for less of a pucker factor when it happens in real life.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
There is no better training for driving on slick surfaces than to actually get out and drive on a slick surface. Better to get a good understanding of how your vehicle reacts in the ice and snow in a parking lot than out in traffic.

Everybody should do this.

Truth. Absolute truth. Growing up and learning how to drive where I did, this is basically a requirement. Once I had my own beater, at the start of every winter, I went to an open parking lot and skidded and slipped that puppy all over the place to dial in the feel.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
My old department…they’ll probably get slapped.

Oh for the days before GPS and damned cameras in everyone’s pocket. It used to be a fun job.

My initial response was that it was sort of a "tongue in cheek" response from the WPD, but after reading chongosuerte's post, I don't know. It would surely be a shame if there was a disciplinary response. Cops doing donuts in the snow.....really, who gives a shit?

Taxpayers own that car, not him. If he breaks it, does he get to fix it?

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Taxpayers own that car, not him. If he breaks it, does he get to fix it?

If spinning wheels and sliding on snow on a flat lot is going to break something, it is already broken. Better to find out where there is no chance of collateral damage. And it puts almost a zero stress on components.

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Taxpayers own that car, not him. If he breaks it, does he get to fix it?

I guess the safest/smartest thing for the officer to do is go park behind a billboard and stay there his whole shift.

Everybody has a video camera
they are waiting for something to happen
Assume you are being video taped
and that it will be on the internet and reported
or/ reported and put on the internet

regardless of anyones thoughts on the matter
good or bad idea, great practice or dumb move
yer gonna be famous...

As an SP in the USAF I used to cruise out to the North 40 on midnight shifts in the winter and "practice" my ice driving skills. Several acres of wide open space - a blast. (in the summer months the North 40 was always used as overflow parking for pilots coming in from other bases to golf - not so much in the frigid winter )

^^^^ The Priority B ramp was a fine spot for sliding around!

quote:

Originally posted by the_sandman_454:
I'm perfectly OK with this, assuming the officer would've left someone not affiliated with law enforcement alone for doing the same thing.

This.

And let's not be coy about it being "training." I'd like to see the lesson plan and the performance objective checkoff sheet that went into the officer's training file. Supervisors are smarter than that. It's like trying claim that shooting rats at the county landfill counts as "training." If you wouldn't, with a straight face, ask a supervisor if you could do it, it isn't training, it's screwing around, not that that's necessarily bad, call volume and all other things considered.

Driving on an ice covered parking lot is a hoot, plain and simple. The guy or gal was most likely goofing around, and Lord knows I have no problem with that until metal gets bent or someone gets hurt. I've done it, but sure wouldn't do it in a day of ever-present video recorders. Every cop knows you go to the back parking lot behind the mall to do this, or see how fast and far you can push a grocery cart before it tips over, drag race your sector partner or any of the other questionable cruiser stunts we do, or did.

Maybe I'm just salty because one of our troops tore up a new Police Utility while "training" on a local motocross track.

quote:

Originally posted by kidcop:
Every cop knows you go to the back parking lot behind the mall to do this, or see how fast and far you can push a grocery cart before it tips over, drag race your sector partner or any of the other questionable cruiser stunts we do

"Allegedly"

Get a life people! I spent my teenage years doing this very thing. It vastly improved my ability to handle my car. I learned as a kid that some cops were cool and liked to do stuff like this.

More Karens, another busybody who can’t mind their own business, and probably got ticketed by a cop or schooled by a cop, or just don’t like cops. No problem you’ll see less and less police and when you need one in the dead cold of an icy night right away, remember you bitched about their driving. I

Just a few years ago I pulled into the snow covered elementary school lot near my home. A police officer was parked at the far end. I drove up next to him rolled down the window and asked he minded if I did a few donuts. He didn't so I did. No mess, no fuss.

quote:

Originally posted by ggile:

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Taxpayers own that car, not him. If he breaks it, does he get to fix it?

I guess the safest/smartest thing for the officer to do is go park behind a billboard and stay there his whole shift.

or maybe he should use the car to do his job.

kidcop, "training" does not always have to have a lesson plan and a checklist, with a monitor. Anything one does to improve his capabilities can be considered "training", and (even if also fun) I think this event qualifies.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:

quote:

Originally posted by ggile:

quote:

Originally posted by YellowJacket:
Taxpayers own that car, not him. If he breaks it, does he get to fix it?

I guess the safest/smartest thing for the officer to do is go park behind a billboard and stay there his whole shift.

or maybe he should use the car to do his job.

There's a thought. Do the work while he's on the clock and go play on his own time, kind of like what almost everyone else has to do.