Is it legal for police to use their lights to go through a red light?
Many of us have seen this. A police car stops at a red light and after ten seconds with no cross-traffic, they put their lights on only (no siren) drive across the intersection against the red light, then turns off their lights on the other side and drives slowly away.I assume that flashing their police lights is to avoid a fine in case they are caught by a red-light camera. Is it legal for police who don't have an urgent police reason to do this?
Police can do this and often the reason is they don't want to warn whoever they are on their way to deal with that they are close as it would give them time to prepare or flee. Another possible reason is that police are cancelled or started on another call. There is constant radio traffic and officers are assigned and reassigned calls at a moments notice with various levels of response.
