You might think road rage only happens with regular drivers, but even police officers in Texas aren’t immune, at least not this Austin cop who decided to hassle a citizen. Redditor Immediate-Paint-3371 shared a frustrating encounter with an Austin Police Department officer while driving, and even though they caught the whole thing on dash cam, they chose to describe it in words on Reddit instead.
They were driving in the right lane of a four-lane road in south Austin, with the APD cruiser in the inside left lane, followed by a few cars. Everyone, including Immediate-Paint-3371, was keeping close to the 40 MPH speed limit and nobody tried to pass the officer. Then, in what seemed like a clear act of road rage, the officer suddenly sped up, swerved into the Redditor’s lane, and slammed on the brakes, coming to a complete stop in the middle of the road. The officer then pulled a bit to the side, like they wanted Immediate-Paint-3371 to pass, but the Redditor stayed put, unsure what was going on.
The officer then pulled into a gas station, and Immediate-Paint-3371 followed. They asked why the officer brake-checked them, only to get accused of speeding and trying to pass. The officer, seemingly caught up in a fit of road rage, claimed his cruise control was set at 41 MPH and that he had to speed up to 50 MPH to get around them. Immediate-Paint-3371 disagreed, pointing to their dash cam footage showing they were driving at the same speed.
After a tense back and forth, the Redditor left and parked at the gas station, feeling uneasy about the whole situation. The encounter already felt charged with road rage, and things escalated further when they later noticed the officer speeding to catch up again. To avoid any trouble, Immediate-Paint-3371 turned into some nearby medical offices. The officer sped past, looking their way, and then disappeared. The Redditor never saw the officer again after that.
Immediate-Paint-3371 didn’t hold back, calling the Austin officer an idiot in their post. They said they had dash cam footage but were hesitant to share it online. “In my view, not only did he try to cause an accident by brake checking me and stopping in the middle of the road, but I also felt threatened by the fact that he tried to follow me,” the Redditor said. They described the entire event as a road rage incident and asked the community for advice on what to do next.
One commenter recommended reporting the road rage incident directly to the Office of Police Oversight in Austin, Texas. Others suggested sending the video to the media, saying they didn’t believe reporting it to the police would lead to anything productive.
