Breakin' the law

Though Houston police officers often write tickets for motorists with expired registrations, inspection stickers and missing license plates, some officers are breaking those laws themselves, a KPRC investigation found.

The station found several places where officers' private cars had violations, including the northwest police station off Hempstead Road, the Westside Command Center on Dairy Ashford and the old police headquarters at 61 Riesner downtown. An officer who worked at the northwest station had an expired inspection sticker and a registration that expired a year and a half ago. Downtown, the reporters found cars with no front license plates. At the Westside Command Center, more than two dozen officers' private cars had outdated inspection stickers. On the east side, one officer's car had no stickers at all.

As you might expect, the officers confronted about the situation didn't have much to say, but what was surprising was the things HPD personnel reportedly did to try to protect themselves — threatening to arrest the reporters, covering their inspection stickers (which is illegal) and going on a ticket-writing binge just outside the KPRC studios. Houstonist doesn't recommend bringing this investigation up the next time you get pulled over.