PINAC reporter Phillip Turner was already driving five miles above the speed limit when a Texas state trooper flew past him on the inside lane Tuesday evening.
As he has done in the past, Turner followed the cop to ask for his name and badge number.
But that did not go so well as the trooper refused to identify himself, even though most police departments have a policy that require officers to identify themselves to the public when asked.
Instead, the cop began demanding Turner’s name while trying to convince him that it was another trooper he had seen speeding.
But Turner recorded the cop speeding past him on his dash cam on Highway 183, which has a posted speed limit of 65 mph, but Turner was driving 70 mph to keep up with the pace of the traffic.
The cop then blew past him at a much faster rate, which is when Turner followed him for several miles before watching him pull into a 7-11 convenience store in downtown Austin. Turner parked his car out of view of the trooper then walked up to him with a camera recording.
Walking out of the store with a cup of coffee in his hand, the cop greeted him, even appearing to flash him a quick peace sign.
“Can I talk to you for a second,” asked Turner, who runs the very popular YouTube channel, The Battousai.
“I don’t have much time to be honest, ok,” the trooper responded. “I’m in little bit of a hurry.”
“I just need to get your name and badge number,” Turner replied.
“Why’s that?”
“I’m just asking for it.”
“For what reason?”
“Because I saw you speeding and I was just asking,” Turner explained.
“Oh, you did?” the trooper asked getting defensive. “You’re on foot here and I didn’t see you on the road anywhere where I was driving. Are you sure you got the right vehicle?”
“I’m sure.”
That when the trooper tried to turn the tables on Turner by demanding his name and the location of his car. Turner refused to provide his name and he was under no legal obligation to do so.
The cop was wearing a name tag but his name is not clearly visible from the YouTube video. Turner said he will later look at the original video to see if he can make it out.
Turner made national headlines last August after he pulled over another trooper for speeding. But that trooper apologized and provided Turner with his first and last name as you can see in the second video below.
A day after that incident, a man in Arizona named John Reynolds followed a trooper to confront him about driving 90 mph, but ended up arrested himself for “criminal speeding.”
“The hypocrisy is the issue,” said Turner about why he confronts cops for speeding. “The point is the cop committed acts on video that any citizen would get pulled over and ticketed for.”
Turner said that troopers have told him they do not have a policy requiring them to identify themselves. If they do, it should be listed on this page, but nothing came up through a few searches, although that does not mean anything, so maybe our readers can find it if it exists.
Although most departments have such policies, many departments make exceptions if the officer is in fear for his life as pointed out by Boing Boing in 2015.
The third video below is from September 2016 when Texas troopers dispatched a helicopter after Turner was seen video recording one of their stations from a public sidewalk.
