'We want you to be more visible': Cop shares multiple stories of department malicious compliance

Author image for Brad Dickson
Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
Oct 20, 2023 12:00 PM EDT

Interacting with people constantly in any line of work opens you up to a number of strange experiences, and you'd better believe that police officers and other first responders have seen the wildest ones.

Similarly, every job has a process that needs to be followed, even if that process is nonsensical and enforced by a power-tripping boss who also adds their own directives to it and demands they are followed to the letter.

Take, for example, when this police officer was told that they needed to strictly enforce their town's speed limit in order to increase road safety after a tragic accident. The officer did their duty and ticketed everyone going even one mph over the speed limit. This, unsurprisingly, led to complaints from residents, which prompted a change in the directive that they must simply "be more visible" to encourage safer driving. 

See how they responded below in this story they shared with Reddit's popular r/MaliciousComplaince subreddit.

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  • 01
    Tire - "More visible? You got it." 1999// &
    via Daniel J. Schwarz

    FilterGrade

  • 02
    Font - "We want you to be more visible." More visible? You got it. MOC This story happened a few years ago while employed as a police officer in a small, rural, fifteen-man department. Since being a cop, I've never had a strong desire to write tickets. Typically my limit was 15mph over before I would even consider issuing a citation, and that might result in a 5 over ticket. 10 over and would get a warning. I tended to focus on impaired and/or uninsured drivers.
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 03
    Font - In the town was a lone stretch of roadway (couple of miles) leading straight to the nearest interstate. Using this road might take a few min off your commute to home/work, depending on the time of day. The road had a couple of very old homes which had a comfortable distance from the roadway. Speed limit was 55 but not uncommon to see drivers going 15 over. We rarely got complaints.
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 04
    Font - Unfortunately one summer we had an auto- pedestrian foal accident. A driver was on their way to work in the early hours and hit a small child who wasn't supervised by their shoy parent. Speeding wasn't a factor in the tragedy. Following the tragedy, an order was given that we needed seriously enforce speeding in the area.
    via u/Chase-a-bear
  • 05
    Font - The next following week's I stop anyone going over the speed limit, even 1 mph over. Now, I still keep to my normal method of issuing tickets. Meaning your speed needs to be excessive to get a ticket. Most of these stops consisted of me informing them of the tragedy and the importance of all of us driving more slowly. Most drivers are understanding and see what I'm trying to do.
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 06
    Font - Except a few, who file complaints for stopping cars for 1 mph and inconveniencing them. I get told to tone back on my proactive enforcement and just "be more visible." Great, instead of looking for bigger issues or interacting with the community they want me to just sit in my car.....
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 07
    Font - So for the next couple of nights I park directly in front of city hall, with my steady burns on (when your lights or on but don't flash) for hours at a time. I make zero attempt at being a productive officer. And, being a vigilant and dedicated employee, I even take photographs to send my supervisor to let me know I'm being "visible". Needless to say I get talked to about my attitude and told to go back to being the normal.
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 08
    Font - Side note My sergeant later resigned shortly after I did after some super shady shOhappened in the department. Before he left he gave me an award for "The most literal officer ever." I still have it. Super side note I have another short story about malicious compliance when I was told to ticket people for "long weeds" in people yards.
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 09
    Font - harrywwc +3. ... I have another short story about malicious compliance when I was told to ticket people for "long weeds" in people yards. oh, aye. do tell :) 391 Reply Share Chase-a-bear OP ... Same town, same department. We had an order from the Chief stating that the mayor was concerned with "long weeds" in people's yards that presented a fire hazard. So the order comes out that the small town will be divided into quadrants and each officer is responsible for ticketing people in their g
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 10
    Font - Now there were multiple issues there. Firstly, the city had very few sidewalks. This meant there was usually a stretch of ground from most people's fence to the road which was just gravel or, in most cases, weeds. Did that land belong to the homeowner? The city? Who knows? No one would ever answer the da question for me.
    via u/Chase-a-bear
  • 11
    Font - Secondly, our city had multiple pieces of land and property. Most of them suffered from the issues I just mentioned. Well 9 out of 10 properties weren't in compliance either. In fact, we had multiple brush fires started during the summer and all but one occurred on city land. The hypocrisy was not lost on me. So I refuse to enforce the "long weeds."
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 12
    Font - Well a couple weeks go by and we have an Echo (term for a deceased body). A middle-aged guy, down on life, ends it with a hunting rifle in a parking lot. My partner, a new officer with a few months on the job, is the primary for the investigation. As I try to help guide him, the mayor comes to our crime scene. He tells the Chief about a house with really long weeds he saw on the way over. Chief sees me (and must've been aware I was lacking in "weeds enforcement") ordered me to go with the
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 13
    Font - I ended up reviewing the city code enforcement. There was some clause about allowing time for a homeowner to be in compliance after notification. It also had a clause about the length that the homeowner had to be in non-compliance before being notified. Well I had no idea how long their "weeds" hadn't been in compliance. So I first had to document the length of their weeds. Then I would have to follow-up at a later point to ensure they had been non-compliant at which point I would then no
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 14
    Font - As you can imagine, this is really fing stupid. However, we had a rule that any case that couldn't be closed by the end of the shift needed to go to investigations. The lightbulb turns on I then spend DAYS driving through my grid, pulling cases for every single house. I take multiple photographs of each property which I upload into each case. I even measure the weeds. I vigorously attach all the license plates and/or homeowner info. I type a long report narrative and copy paste it to each
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 15
    Font - I also document any of the city's properties that are non-compliant in my report so that homeowners will see it if they decide to get a copy of the report. I then send dozens of cases to our "investigations division" for them to follow-up since I can't handle it in one shift. I never heard a single peep about "long weeds" after that. Side note I checked my wireless network in my cop car to "Weeds Enforcement Officer." Anyone who looked at wifi networks when I was around would see it.... I
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 16
    Font - raylverine The title alone made me think of the movie "Office Space". "How many pieces of flare do you have on you?" ↑ 40 Reply Share Chase-a-bear OP Never seen it but now I may have to. 425 Reply Share
    via Chase-a-bear
  • 17
    Font - Several-Operation879 I think folks don't understand the difference between stopping someone and citing them. In a poor town, it's an abuse to try to generate revenue with tickets. If you can't afford insurance, sorry, but now you're putting other folks' financial well being at risk, so your driving behavior should be held to a strict standard. Still, you are far from the only officer I've known who gets - with extreme irony- unnecessarily pod off when they're told what to do. 23 Reply Sha
    via u/Chase-a-bear

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