Every year I get a call from a telemarketer wanting a donation to a police organization. It is typically to support some organization such as the state police’s charity which will go to some charitable fund the police run to help widows or kids or something. If you agree to support the charity and send in your money, they send yo a thank you note and a sticker that identifies you as a Friend of the State Police Charity. The unspoken reason for this is that if you attach this sticker to the back window of your car and you get pulled over the cop will see this sticker and since you are a nice guy who gives to their charity he will let you off with a warning.
Does this acutally work, if you have this sticker will you be treated differently?
You might be treated differently, but probably not. It depends on why the cop is stopping you. If you went a little above the speed limit and you seem apologetich and you have a sticker, you may get off. If there are drugs in the car, the sticker isn’t likely to help. Of course, if you’re carrying drugs, you probably give your bribes in a more direct fashion. 
BTW, these telemarketers usually pocket nearly all the money they get. The police usually get less than 25% (which looks like a lot to them). If you want to donate, write a check directly.
My story from a related thread:
That is not an answer, and I doubt we’ll get a satisfactory one unless one of our resident donut-eating, rush-hour-lane-with-impunity-parking, fraudulent-ticket-just-to-meet-his-quota-writing, sit-on-your-butt-even-though-you-just-saw-a-motorist-almost-run-me-over-in-the-crosswalk-and-do-nothing flatfoot shows up to enlighten us.
I started a thread with some similar questions last year. A couple of cops responded to the thread, saying that they’d be just as likely to ticket the sticker-wielding driver as they would any other.
I think it all comes down to knowing how to get “in” with your local police departments. Most people who use stickers to try to sway a traffic cop’s decision don’t have the right ones. Note how many “Support your local police!” bumper stickers there are. Everyone and their grandmother has one, at least around here. My guess is, these don’t do much; all it tells the officer is “This guy thinks that by getting a cheap sticker, he can trick me into not giving him a ticket.”. I would guess people in this category, the “I’m not friendly with the police, but I’m trying to make it look that way”-types, actually get treated worse than John Q. Public who is stopped and responds courteously to the officer. However, in most areas, there are ways to prove you are “in” with the police. One common way is by being a volunteer fireman; they run in the same social circles as the local police, frequent the same hangouts, and are generally friendly with each other. The question is, how do you make it known that you are a volunteer fireman without simply telling the cop? Usually through a sticker, or a special license plate or frame.
Secondly, there is the charity route. Most people know of the Policemen’s Benevolent Association; a donation (and accompanying sticker on your car) might help to sway the officer’s attitude. The best way, though, is to find out what charities people who are really “in” with the local police donate to; I’d suggest asking a cop you know, without seeming too upfront. Oftentimes there is a lesser-known (read: mainly donated to by actual friends of the police) charity that you can donate to, and receive corresponding proof. I had a discussion with a person-in-the-know who described such a charity for my area. The donations were not cheap, but those that donated could honestly claim to be interested in helping the police, not merely buying a sticker with a menial donation.
Again, this is partly speculation and partly hearsay. I don’t mean to seem like I’m accusing law enforcement of acting inappropriately, but police officers are human and subject to all that that entails. I’m interested in hearing from anyone who’s had experiences in this.
I have supported the local police through a donation and every year receive a sticker to put un the window of my car. This isn’t a charity that police also support but the police themselves. I believe it is mainly used to help provide scholarships for police kids or something (it was a few years ago so I forget).
Anyway, I have been pulled over twice and given a ticket twice. The last time it was for speeding 6 mph over a 45 mph speed limit. It pissed me off so much I stopped donating (after donating for over 10 years) and voted against a tax initiative supporting the police last year.
Does anyone know about the related practice of hanging a police hatband from the rearview mirror? (Chicago police hatbands are relatively distinct and this may be a Chicago thing only.) Do cops give someone with the checkered band a break, or do they get pissed off when they realize the driver has no actual connection to the police?
Wierd related story. Here in Chicago, less than a mile from my house, there was a “road rage” stabbing last month arising from a late-night fender-bender. When the television news showed the car of the victim, a police hatband was CLEARLY visible on the rearview mirror – a yellow one, too, which usually means a sergeant or higher! (It turned out the victim was an officer’s son.) When I saw that, my first thought was “Didn’t the attacker SEE a bright yellow checkered hatband on the other guy’s car?! Or is he a complete idiot that he didn’t BACK OFF at that point?” Because Chicago cops don’t tolerate sh*t from anyone!
There’s also the Fraternal Order of Police cards, but they’re rather more difficult to obtain. As I understand it from my uncle the suburban police chief, a police officer can give one of these cards to someone he knows, and upon being pulled over, the driver can present the card. The ticketing officer may choose to take the card (but is not obligated to!), instead of issuing a ticket. The card then works its way back to the policeman who issued it, and he can give it back to the person at his discression, but if that same card gets taken again, that officer is going to have a LOT of explaining to do.
So far as I know, these cards are not typically bought or sold, and are only given to folks an officer knows personally. Of course, all this information is second-hand, and any mistakes are to be assumed to be mine, not my uncle’s.
Well this thread seems to be winding down so I guess I don’t feel to guilty about this little hijack, but hate me if you want.
Anyway,
A friend of mine (sounds like the beginning of an urban legend, I know)got a parking ticket and paid with a check written out for 10 dollars more than the ticket was issued for. The police or whoever gets the fine sent him a 10 dollar “rebate” check, this friend of mine then never cashed the “rebate” check and since it never cleared the police never cashed his check for 10 dollars more than the fine. I expect if this actually works and word gets around some trainee clerk in the fines office is gonna open a filing cabinet some day and say
“hey, why’s there 15 million dollars in uncashed checks in here?”
Well I was just wondering if anyone has heard of this before
A friend of mine has those cop stickers on his front and rear windows, and he recently got two tickets - one for not using his turn signal and one for blocking an intersection. Pretty minor offenses, so I figure the stickers did not help whatsoever. Although, my friend does drive a nice SUV, has a cell phone, and is under the age of 30, so maybe the cops were happy to ticket him.
showing support for the Indiana state police. Shortly after that they were getting calls from a number of other states asking for money to support the police there (Maryland and Connecticut I think). The telemarketers went so far as to tell her that her husband had told them that he would pay and to get the credit card number from her (he didn’t). That was the last time she supported them.
I went to college in a large city that my grandparents also live in. Being new to the state, I used their address for the address on my driver’s licence.
In this city, many communities hire off-duty city police officers for extra duty as “constables.” My grandfather was in charge of the 40 or so part-time constables in his community.
Anyway, I got pulled over by a regular city cop for speeding. I gave him my licence, and he said, “Isn’t that [my grandfather’s] address?” I said, “yes, I’m his grandson”. Turns out this cop was one of the part-time constables.
He let me off with a warning…
(Being a military brat with no roots, it felt nice to belong…)
As perhaps the only current cop to answer the post, lemme input my 2 cents. First, there are different stickers. In New York State, there are organizations like the Police Support Group. I don’t know what they do. They’ve never really supported me, and so therefore I’m rather indifferent about that kind of sticker.
Now like Chronos said, there are courtesy cards that the union gives out which you give to family and close friends. They present these to the officer with their other info, and he will weigh that, with it almost being assured that you’ll get off, as long as you’re in your jurisdiction. For example, cops in Florida would laugh at my brother’s PBA card and give him a ticket anyway.
Down south, the Fraternal Order of Police acts like a union for many small town departments and therefore if you had an FOP sticker, this might be effective. However, if you have a card or a hatband on your mirror, you better know a cop. Cops don’t like people who pretend they know cops, but just put things like patches in their window to get out of tickets.
As far as I can tell being a white male is the best defense. I’m sorry, but of the umpteen times I have been pulled over I have never gotten a ticket from a white male cop and the only time I have is when the cop is not. I’m not saying it is good or bad. I’m just laying it out there for y’all to digest. Maybe most cops are white/male, maybe they are not. But would the black/female Maryland trooper have me given the “no seat belt” ticket if my name was Twanda? Bottom line, most tickets (vs warnings) are discetionary. Right or wrong that’s the way it is and no sticker will erase it.
Sorry to be such a stick in the mud.
It’s all chance, unless you have a badge or know the cop. If you treat them with respect they’ll be more likely to let you go. However, you could get off because there’s a more important call in the area…because it’s time for the cop to go to meal…all sorts of reasons.
I gave a lady 2 tickets today because she nearly hit my patrol car. Had I been another car, nothing would have happened. It’s just all the luck of the draw.
The stickers are a scam. Let me tell you a story from the LAPD. A few years back when I lived in LA, I got a telemarketing call from some police-affiliated program, asking me to donate money and get some stickers. I hung up on them. A few weeks later, I read in the newspaper that this charity was bogus, it was run by off-duty LAPD officers, and the money which supposedly went to charitable works with children, instead was spent to build a luxury gym for exclusive use of LAPD officers.
As for the FOP “get out of jail free” cards, they better NOT be still issuing them, as this goes against every Equal Protection concept in american jurisprudence. If I ever heard of something like that happening in MY city, I’d be calling the police commissioner in about 2 seconds flat.
But that doesn’t stop people from trying anyway. Like for example, the LAPD officers used to have little license plate frames for their personal cars, it had “KMA-365” written at the top. Every cop knows this is the call sign of the dispatcher, so it was a signal that this was a cop. But then everyone started using them and the signal was useless.
But I do know what signs will get you arrested. In about 92 (?) I was working on computer enhancements of the Rodney King video for federal prosecutors in the 2nd trial. I had a huge printout of the King video hung on my wall, and in a fit of pique one day, I made a huge poster about 4x6 feet with a quote from a Phil Dick novel, “Support your local Police, for a more efficient Police State” and hung it on my wall. One day, I was stressed out from working on the tape, seeing it over and over (about 45000 loops by my estimate), and I got into a shouting match with my girlfriend. It got rather loud (although nonviolent physically) and the neighbors called the cops. They came in, took one look at the posters, and guess who ended up spending the night in the pokey?
As a rule, cops won’t ticket other cops except in Monterey, Calif, when one did for a DUI. Have no idea what happened to them.
For $5.00 I bought my city police dept shoulder patch at ebay.com I haven’t put it on the window yet to see if it has any effect.
When I see a local cop, I ask them if I can buy tickets to their local policeman’s Ball, but they usually say ‘we don’t have Balls’
I have to tell ya I used to get tickets all the time I got a sticker and got let go with a warning 12 times in a row, I sold the car and didnt have a sticker and started getting tickets again. I got another sticker and havent gotten a ticket since! 1 cop came up to my window (he was posted doing a speed trap) Red in the face mad, I had sticker in back window on drivers side he came to my window and yelled at me 75 in a 55 is not gonna cut it next time you will get a ticket! Turned and walked back to his car and left. didnt even ask for my license. These only work for the state patrol because thats who the money goes to its to keep them safe on the highways and they appreciate that you donate to that, if nothing else just to show your aware that theres a problem and you support them. I will never not donate again! Give me my sticker! 