You’re a cop in Southern California right now, at the height of “Firestorm 2007.” Half a million people have been evacuated and hundreds of homes have been destroyed — and many more are threatened — by the still-mostly-out-of-control wildfires, fanned by winds up to 100 kph. One dead, many injured so far.
You’re about 30 km from the nearest fire, just patrolling on the outskirts of your quiet and relatively small town (which is not in any immediate danger from the fires), trying to live life and do your job as normally as possible when, all of a sudden, you notice the driver of the car in front of you toss a still-smoldering cigarette butt out of his car window.
After somehow ensuring that the hazard has been eliminated (tinder-dry bushes and trees line both sides of the street…and there are high winds), what do you do? After all, you’ve heard that cigarettes are the suspected/known cause of some of the fires but…
Do you ignore it (wouldn’t want to be accused of over-reacting, making a mountain out of a mole hill, etc.)… pretend you didn’t see it and just carry on, like nothing happened? Who would ever know?