You’re argument is rendered invalid because the body cam footage has been proven to be unreliable at best in terms of always being on and recording.

Oh don’t worry, they’ll shoot them long before they try to run.

“... as a LEO is how fucking dumb it would be to initiate a traffic stop, and then get out and pop your hood, while exposing your back to the car...”

The Danville PD is totally full of shit. Chevy police vehicles are designed to idle for hours in the hottest parts of the country with the A/C on full blast with no overheating. They use heavy duty cooling parts just for this purpose, usually bigger and more coolers, fans, sturdier hoses and heavier duty alternators…

Absolutely. But even without that--turns out cops in Houston aren’t having hood-popping overheating problems, pretty sure VA should be ok.

Follow-up personal anecdote, just for fun: 

Mechanical engineering student about a month and a half from graduation...if I had more information I could do some quick calculations and call BS so hard it isnt even funny. Some basic heat transfer equations about heat exchangers are all you need.

BTW, the wattage of extra power “all those electronics” are consuming…

I’ve got to be honest, with all that’s happened in the last few years (and probably more importantly, the way that the police unions and rank-and-file cops have responded to criticism) I’m not even sure it’s “most cops.” I’ll grant “a lot” or even “many,” but the way that the police unions circle the wagons to…

This^. The additional load of electric equipment powered off the engine’s (police upgraded) alternator, at idle, does not tax the (police upgraded) cooling system.

right? its almost like they are going the extra mile to come across as seedy as possible...

Yeah, I worked for an auto company for a few years, and talking to the development folk about how they heat/cold test their cars makes me think this is bologna. Not to mention that if a cop has to return to their car to run a plate or search something on the computer, they’re basically blocking their own view of a…

I hope GM drops a press release right on their fuckin heads for this.

^^^ This. Most police models are designed to idle for hours without overheating precisely because they do this regularly.

I really want to believe the cops, I want to trust cops, I know that most cops are actually decent good people, and I want to believe this was an innocent isolated instance.

FWIW, Weather Underground says that temperatures in Danville, VA went up to 80°F on September 22nd, the date on the Facebook post. That should only get the radiator fan to spin a little bit more often.

This one pegs the bullshit meter to the max. I used to live in Texas and had an Impala. Sitting in traffic in 105 degree heat with dew points near 90 degrees had zero effect on how hot the engine ran. Police cars have upgraded cooling systems to help them deal with being used harder than civilian cars. They’re…

Oh my god do I want to be a fly on the wall when some Chevy engineer calls them to “help” and proceeds to mathematically quantify their bullshit for them.

So now if a perp wants to run all he has to do is wait for the cop to start fiddling with his hood latch.

As a lawyer who did some criminal law early in my career, I can say this sounds exactly like some “advice” that came down from the police union as a means of circumventing the dash cams in a way that avoids any real accountability.

Cars (even police cars/SUVs) in the hottest parts of the US (ie: not Virginia) stay cool in the middle of summer with the hood shut. I’m all for excuses...but they need to be believable.