Operation of Police Vehicles

Operation of Police Vehicles

RC Phillips, DDA (Ret.)
October, 2021

Under former statutes governing operation of motor vehicles, where it was provided that exception respecting emergency vehicles should not include primary regulation requiring “due regard for the safety” of public, only reasonable interpretation of act as whole was that because of public necessity for operation of such vehicles in cases of emergency, operators were relieved from general rules of road applicable to other vehicles but that arbitrary exercise of those privileges was not excused. (Armas v. Oakland (Cal. App. Nov. 24, 1933), 135 Cal. App. 411.)

A police vehicle, even if within the exemption from speed limitations, must be operated with due regard for the safety of travelers and the driver is not absolved from the consequences of an arbitrary exercise of privileges pertaining to such a vehicle (Vehicle Act of 1923, § 132). (Spencer v. Schiffman (Cal. App. Jan. 19, 1932), 119 Cal. App. ....