I’ve never been pulled over for speeding, but I’ve been stopped twice. In both cases, I just sat calmly until the cop arrived. I didn’t reach for my license or insurance card until he asked. I answered his questions politely.
In one case, he pulled me over for going into the left turn lane too soon. I’m not even sure that was a violation, but evidently he wanted to pull into it and had to delay so I’d get by. I asked him, “How far before the intersection should I get into the left turn lane?” but he didn’t answer me. In any case, once he checked my license, he let me go with a warning.
The other time, he pulled me over for using headphones (not big ones, but more than earbugs) to listen to my iPod. I told him I hadn’t realized it was a violation; he gave me advice on what I could do (one earphone was fine), then let me go.
But there’s no reason to piss off a man with a gun.
There’s no reason to admit guilt. It’s well within your rights to not incriminate yourself. This actually goes amazingly hand-in-hand with being peaceable and compliant. Police are trained to ask questions that cause you to incriminate yourself. They don’t typically ask, “Did you know your were going 75?” Instead they’ll ask, “How fast do you think you were going?” To which most will fudge their estimate, but still keep it over the limit in hopes of getting off. Well, they just openly admitted they broke the law.
Instead, it’s perfectly fine to reply, “I couldn’t really say, I’m sorry. How can I help, officer?” This has no bearing on not being issued a ticket, but at least you’re not incriminating yourself! This will come in handy if you ever decide to fight a ticket.
If you say any number over the limit, truthful or not, you’ve admitted guilt.
If you say the speed limit or lower, you’re lying.
If you say you don’t know, then you damn well shouldn’t be driving if you’re that inattentive.
Or at least it lowers the intensity of the beating/tasering when they drag you from your car.
Being polite never got me out of anything. The two times I’ve been let off were the times I was pulled over before the lights even came on. Both were on rural highways with no other traffic, me going 10-15 over the limit, and getting busted by oncoming cops. As soon as I saw their taillights in my rearview I hit the brakes and pulled it on over. Guess they figured I was being attentive enough while speeding to observe their marks and candid enough to let my actions admit I knew I was wrong.
That third one is a stretch that’s neither here nor there when it comes to the law.
Alternatively, you can say “I’d rather not say” or simply not answer. You are not required to incriminate yourself. Of course if you’re just going to pay a ticket you feel you deserved, then whatever.
Thanks to Mr. Fuzzypickles for a thread about cops that turned out totally reasonable. That ‘MPSIMS as it gets’ disclaimer was entirely unnecessary (here friendly cops appear one/a million). I’ve never gotten pulled over, but I do have a story about a time I sort of ‘pulled’ a knife on a cop because he asked me if I had any weapons on me and I wanted to be as honest as I could :smack:. I was a young teen at the time, and the cop was kind enough not to shoot me!
Off the highway, I tend to go with the flow of traffic, and obey all traffic signals, laws, etc. My car is always kept in good working order, with registration and inspection current. So I don’t really get pulled over.
On the highway, though, I like to drive quite fast when conditions allow. Since I don’t drive recklessly, weave, or anything like that, the only way I’m going to get pulled over is if I’m clocked or if they nail me on radar or laser. I can’t even count how many times this has saved me from that fate. I’m quite ticked off at myself, since I had this exact idea 10 years ago when Selective Availability was first turned off, making consumer GPS accurate enough for this to be feasible, yet I didn’t act on it. That notwithstanding, I love the thing. Pricey, but it’s more than paid for itself.
More in line with the OP, the politeness thing never worked for me, though I always try it (or tried before my purchase of the above device :)). Once, though, when I was about 19, I was pulled over doing 130mph in a zone that was normally 55 but had been reduced to 45 for construction. It was the middle of the night, though, and few cars were on the road. I was driving a 1972 Dodge Charger at the time. The cop asked me to pop the hood, checked out the engine, asked me to rev it up, and talked about the car for 5 minutes or so. In the end, he said something along the lines of “I get it, you’re just a dumb kid driving a fast car. You want to keep driving, then keep the speed down, and I don’t want to ever see you again.” Then he got back in his car, and left, “lighting up” his tires in a cloud of burning rubber as he tore off.
Depends on the situation. If he’s got you dead to rights, with a radar gun readout and everything, it’s usually best to fess up and hope he lets you go with a warning. If you think the cop was wrong, then yes, tell him so, or tell it to the judge when you fight the ticket. And if you’re just trying to weasel out of something you know you did wrong, well…that’s up for you do decide how to act. (Just don’t be surprised when the court hits you with a much higher fine than if you just paid the ticket w/o fighting it, judges don’t like people who waste their time!)
Only time I was let off with a warning was while returning from a Whitesnake concert, circa '89 or so. When I mentioned that to the (female) cop, she said she was a fan, too! We chatted for a few moments, and then another person ran up and said she needed help, so the cop let me go. (She probably would have written me up regardless, though…guess I’ll never know for sure.)
That’s how I’ve been handling the very few traffic stops I’ve ever had since I was 16 years old. It’s an excellent write-up, and everyone should know and follow those directions.
I always smile and say “Somehow, I think you will be telling me just how fast I was going.”
I have gotten out of more tickets than I can count right now using this and being nice.
Funny story, when I worked for the car company we had distributor plates that could be moved from car to car. Anyway these plates expired on 1/31 every year and we need to put the new tags on (purchased from DMV) The tags were always late.
One Feb 15th I am driving to one of our dealers and I see a California Highway Patrol car following me. It did not take Steven Hawking to know why.
So when I get there I park in a place where he can pull in behind me, I get out (he had never turned on his lights) I walk back to his passenger door and say I know why you are stopping me. We discussed the situation for several minutes.
I told him that I was sure that my company’s accounts payable department did not drop everything and cut a check the day the bill came in from the DMV, on the other hand, I was just as certain that the DMV didn’t drop everything and get the new tags out the day our check came in.
So I finally look at the officer and say, “Why don’t you go ahead and give me a cite for no registration?”
He says “No I don’t want to do that.”
I say, “No go ahead, I want to drop it on my admin’s desk so I can bitch at her.”
“Naw I don’t want to write you, you are a nice guy.”
I said “Thanks, but this one is a freebie, I won’t bitch and I won’t fight it”
He says “go on and get out of here, I’m going to go find a speeder”
Me:
I’ve gotten one moving violation in the last twelve years (for speeding) and have gotten off with six warnings. My favorite incident was after picking up my then-girlfriend from the airport and driving onto Lake Shore Drive (where the speed limit was 40 mph for winter, though 45 mph normally). At any rate, I entered the Drive and ramped up to 55 mph. I checked my rear view mirror. Shit, a cop. Instead of slamming on my brakes, I just kind of maintained speed for a bit and then slowly let off the throttle. He turned on his lights and pulled me over.
I rolled down the window, and put my hands on steering wheel. He approached:
“Do you know what the speed limit is?”
“Um, 45?”
“No, it’s 40 during the winter, but I clocked you at 55. You were driving like a maniac back there! Didn’t you see me trailing you?”
“Yeah, I noticed you were back there for a bit”
This threw him slightly off.
"Then why didn’t you slow down?
“Well… I figured if you got me, you got me. What could I do?”
He kind of looked at me like I was a little off. He asked me where I was coming from, where I was going, glanced at my license and proof of insurance (but didn’t run them), and then sent me on my merry way with a somewhat exasperated “Slow down!”
I’m not exactly sure why that worked, but it worked.
Didn’t we just have a thread here about how car speedometers read something like 5-10% higher than your actual speed? So really, you should adjust way down just to get to your actual speed. I’m not going to lie, I’ve actually started going 5-10% faster since I read that thread.
Somehow I don’t think the cop will be impressed if I say, “Well, the speedometer said 90, which means I was going anywhere from 81-86 mph. I read it on the Straight Dope.”
I always get my license, registration, and insurance ready as soon as I get stopped. Somehow, I’ve never been shot.
I don’t worry about getting out of tickets, anyway. I seem to permanently have two or three points on my record, no more, no less. As soon as the last ticket has aged off, I get another one. Then I don’t get any more for three years. Go figure.
I got a ticket the first month I had Missouri plates and license. My co-workers were telling me I should pay for a lawyer to plead it down. Pay a lawyer to plead down a speeding ticket? Let’s see, I can pay a lawyer some money and pay $100 fine and still get points or I can pay $100 fine and just not get another ticket until I’m due sometime in the summer of 2011. So far, so good.
I’ve no idea how accurate the roadside “you are going this fast” signs are, but they do seem to match up with my speedometer pretty well. Either they’re both right, or they’re both wrong to an astonishing degree of correlation. And since I’ve passed cops who were going 68 in a 70 zone, I guess I’ll trust my speedometer.
In my part of the world, the first time you know you’ve been done is when the infringement notice arrives in the mail. You could try being nice to the envelope I suppose.
“Depends if you caught me before or after I saw you.”
Whenever I’ve seen the cop light up behind me, I’ve gone into calm and polite mode, but not fawning or apologetic. I’ve gotten a couple of warnings and only one ticket. For that one, though, my speedometer read 85, the cop told me he had clocked me at 80, and he wrote me up for 75 (in a 65 zone), so I can’t really complain.
I got a warning a couple of years ago for going 41 in a 35. I think she was bored. The local cops up here don’t have much to do. I was polite and cooperative and got let go. I had just left work and wasn’t paying attention, totally true. I now go 35 on that road and if somebody doesn’t like it, too bad. They really upped ticketing the last couple of years all over here anyway; the next town south actually had the nerve to pretend in the paper that this meant the police were protecting us better. No, it meant they were making a shitload more money off speeding tickets because the town needed it. We’re not stupid.
If I’d gotten a ticket I’d never have heard the end of it from a coworker who had gotten one that same morning. I told her I’d never gotten one. Once I stopped, though, all I could think besides “Omygod, I can’t afford a ticket!” was “Omygod, I’m never going to hear the end of this if she finds out!”
