Oppenhagen Column: Consider the needs of police

A funny thing happened on the way home this week. I was tired and just anxious to get home, so instead of waiting in an outside turn lane to make a quick right turn, I switched to the inside lane. This
meant that I then had to cross two lanes of traffic to make my right turn.

That isn’t the funny part, though. In fact, what I did was a dangerous maneuver. Even though I see people doing something similar everyday — or worse — it doesn’t mean that it’s the right thing to do. Not
five minutes before I pulled my move, I had been two cars behind someone who went from the far right lane on Smoketown Road at the Home Depot intersection to the left turn lane to go onto Minnieville
Road. That was dangerous. 

There are a lot of dangerous drivers on the roads. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but now that my son is a newbie behind the wheel of the car, I really pay attention to what is going on.  So far, I haven’t let
him get off the parking lot. But I know that has to come. I know that I would be calmer than my husband, but I just don’t know if my heart can take driving with him on the roads while he’s learning. I’m not
worried about him; it’s the other drivers I’m concerned about. 

OK, I am worried about him, too. He’s already showing a propensity for the sharp turn without braking. But he has also learned about turn signals and defensive driving; it just seems that there are enough
people on the road who either don’t know or don’t care.

And here is where irony comes in. When the light I was sitting at changed, I made my left turn. I then watched and carefully but quickly got into the right lane, and then into the right turn lane. Almost as
soon as I had turned, there were flashing blue and red lights behind me. I knew the police officer had been sitting at the light, but in my desire to get home, I made moves that, while legal, weren’t the
smartest in the world. I was having a Murphy’s Law moment. The officer approached my car and when he asked if I knew what I was being stopped for, I honestly did not know. I didn’t think my lane
maneuver was illegal. As it turned out, that was one of two reasons he stopped me. The maneuver wasn’t illegal but it was dangerous, and he merely wanted to reinforce that. But my tags were expired. 

When he asked me if I knew they were expired, I had to say no. I vaguely remembered that I needed to deal with DMV in September for something; I just couldn’t remember what. He took my license and
went back to his car to see if I had renewed the tags. When he returned a few minutes later, he told me that he wasn’t able to check the tags because the computer link-up wasn’t working. He jokingly
said that I could be Osama bin Laden for all he knew and could verify. We both laughed (I look nothing like bin Laden), I promised to check to see if my tags were current, and then I drove off.

As I drove away, I chuckled to myself about the joke the officer had made. I also have to say, I was surprised to find him in such a relaxed mood. In this day and age, the job of a police officer is so
dangerous. Even a routine traffic stop such as mine has the potential to turn deadly.  And police officers have to be on their guard and ready for anything. I had a very nice encounter, which is probably
rare these days.

But as I shared the story with family and a couple of friends, I really thought about what happened. In a county like ours, even with the budget troubles, our police officers shouldn’t be abandoned. Maybe
abandoned is too strong a word, but I can’t really think of another one. The radio link-up wasn’t working.  We were both lucky I was an average, boring citizen and not somebody running from the law. For
all the officer knew on that day, I could have been in a stolen vehicle, running from a warrant in another state. That is not a good thing.

I appreciate the professionalism of the police officer I met.  And yes, I would still appreciate it if he had given me a ticket. I hope the loss of his technology connection is a rare event. If not, we need to
keep this in mind when we talk about priorities during the budget process. 

Have a great fall weekend.

Denise Oppenhagen is a longtime resident of Prince William County and can be reached at .