My wife got pulled over the other day. We have a new car and the temp license was “expired” because the dealer had written the wrong date. When I say pulled over, it was after the car lit her up. So, my wife being new in America pulled over to the right lane and slowed down. Dang cop just hung behind her and didn’t do anything and didn’t try to pass her. So, she moved over to the left lane to get out of the cops way. I’m hazy on the actual details and number of miles that passed, including one left turn at a light. Cop finally got on the mic and told her to stop – and she did there in the left lane in the middle of the street.
Now we do live in suburbia, and there were 2 kids in child seats in the van, and a couple of elderly in-laws from China that speak not one word of English. And my wife has finally learned after a few months that Americans actually are not rude but seriously can’t look at someone and realize they are new to this country. So, she gave it the old, “I just moved her from China, driving my kids home and what should I do sir when a police car turns on their lights behind me?”
Officer didn’t give her the $1,000 fine for failing to stop, but did write up a ticket that required proof we had a valid license and she was good to go.
I know that it’s standard in some countries for the police to pull ahead of you and stop you by slowing down in front of you. Is that how it is in China? That would explain her confusion about the cop not passing her.
I have been warned literally a zillion times, but have only received one speeding ticket in all my years. Mind you, I speed like a bat out of hell. Do you want to know why I don’t get tickets? Because I don’t say stupid shit like, “There are real crimes going on in LA, and you’re citing me for driving 15 mph over the speed limit on an empty street?” Sure, I am thinking that, but when those lights start flashing behind me, I pull over, shut my yap until asked a question, smile, and be nice and cooperate. They’re probably so used to dealing with assholes declaring how their taxes pay cops’ salaries all day, that they’re glad to encounter a cooperative, friendly person who wasn’t doing anything wildly dangerous. There are a million ways to make cops like you, but here’s a simple formula that almost always works: be nice and dumb.
Yeah, I’m always polite. I’m about 50/50 on warnings/tickets and have almost always had the fine reduced to something lesser. Mostly, I just don’t speed much anymore.
And you probably won’t get shot unless the cop thinks he sees you pointing a gun at him - but if he sees you reaching/fidgeting/fumbling with things/places he can’t see as he approaches your car, you will make him nervous, and that can only make the whole thing go worse for you.
Back to the bribes or whatever, when I was waiting tables and some cops came in for coffee, I tried to give it to them on the house. They apologized and said they were not allowed to accept anything at all for free. This was in northern California.
Yeah, if it had been up to me, I wouldn’t have bothered with a discount for cops. But I knew they couldn’t accept free stuff (all the time, anyway).
FTR, I extended the 50% discount to firemen and EMTs & paramedics as well. I figured since these are the people who save our lives for a living, they deserve it. Especially EMTs, who only make like nine bucks an hour. :rolleyes:
I was on the freeway driving my mom to the doctor and we were late when I missed my exit. I glanced all around and, seeing no traffic, pulled a u-turn in the police lane. Immediately there was a trooper at my rear. To this day I can’t imagine where he came from.
I started to laugh; it was so absurd. Mom’s whispering, “Stop laughing, Kite! Right now, stop!” But I couldn’t.
Mr. Trooper’s got his serious face on, all business, and I’m giggling like a schoolgirl. He asks for my license, glances at it and asks, "Are you The Mighty Oak’s wife?’
Affirmative. Drat. Wait until this gets back to spouse who often lunches with our town’s Finest.
Mr. Trooper reaches in his pocket, hands me his card and says, “Here’s your get out of jail free card.”
I sighed with relief. It was only after I dropped my mom off that I began to think, “If I’d looked poor or “different” or hadn’t been married to the person I am I would have gotten a ticket. How fair is that justice?” I didn’t like thinking that I had been treated as a priveleged person.
Nonetheless I am always polite to an officer when I am stopped and I try to drive in a way that won’t result in me getting stopped. Can’t figure out why people think hostility is going to get them anything but harrassment. It’s plain that LEOs are human beings and have their personal issues like the rest of us. Treat them as you’d want to be treated and, unless you run into a jerk or have done something really out of line, you’ll probably be treated accordingly.
And the Dude didn’t tell my husband, either. Nice guy!
Cite, please, if you stand by “Yes, its true”. I see OHP with folks pulled over on the Turnpikes or wherever often enough, and most of the time, the Trooper is standing by driver’s window with pen in hand, or in his/her car with other driver in theirs. Or walking between the two cars, of course. I’d bet its more Trooper discretion-v- ‘how it is supposed to happen’. I rarely see both persons sitting in Trooper’s car unless its obvious its an arrest (sitting alone in back seat, per se). If it was standard practice, I’d expect to see many more traffic stops with both persons in Trooper’s car. But I have yet to be pulled over by OHP, so can’t say I have been there/done that
I’ve been pulled over by OK Highway Patrol, and was invited into the front shotgun seat while he pulled everything up. He was really chatty, too. Not appearing to ask Qs as if he was looking for me to slip up on something, just chatty like a regular Oklahoman is. Anecdotal, sure, and only the one experience for me. I think they may have some discretion as to how to proceed, but I don’t have a cite, not irl nor online.
If you say “I think I was going (the speed limit/slower),” there’s no way they can prove that’s not what you thought. Instead of just saying “I don’t know” you could say something along the lines of “I didn’t think I was over the limit, it felt I was going at a safe speed given the driving conditions.” That’s assuming you weren’t going 70 down a winding 45 mph road in sleeting rain.
I remember also, doing 101km in a 50 zone, the cop pulled a u-turn at a gap in the median, I had stopped before he switched on the lights - got off with a ticket for 99 which is fine only as opposed to the automatic dangerous driving of 101.
Then there’s the day I flipped the bird to a cop that was in his personal car (in uniform) - yeah, that went well.
then the other time I came up behind a cop in a 60km zone while I was doing 160km …he pulled me over.
First words out of his mouth “I’m not sure how fast you were going because I didn’t get you locked in on radar - you lucky” Meanwhile I was giggling to myself thinking - indeed I am officer…
I got pulled over outside Ada, OK in… um, I was married, so it was 1995-1998. I got asked to sit in the OHP’s vehicle while he wrote the ticket. It could have been because it was cold and rainy, or because he wanted to “scare me straight” and explain why he was giving me a warning for speeding, NOT in front of my spouse who was a passenger in the car.
I suspect they don’t ask if you have kids in the car, but do ask if maybe there’s a car full of adults and they want to talk to the driver without interruption? That’s my theory.
I was pulled over in OKC while I was driving a little blue Datsun 1970/nissan 72 truck with a wooden box nailed together in the bed, full of stuff I was moving to California. Couldn’t drive for shit, it was so heavy, and the rain was pouring down. I think we got pulled over cause me and my BIL at the time were chatting on the CB about how little control I had over the damn truck.
Cop pulled me over for not having a licence plate light (that year didn’t need them, but I didn’t know them at the time)- this was in Feb 2002, and I am driving a piece of shit truck with a huge wooden box nailed together in the back of this truck- we built it to the truck before the move and intended to just take it apart when we got to cali. He invited me into the passenger seat while he checked us out…
My wife at the time and my BIL were driving behind me and both were unlicensed, but had id. They also both had the same last name, but to a midwestern cop they probably looked like unrelated arabs right after nine/eleven, although they were philippino/mexican american born. Cop let me go when I agreed to open up the truck even though I couldn’t put it back together…
He just told us to keep driving until we were out of his jurisdiction…
Being polite when stopped is your #1 ace-in-the-hole any time, any where. So sayeth my BIL, who is a state trooper with more than a few years under his belt doing road patrol. Based on his inside info, I too have talked my way out of three vehicular tickets in my 30+ years of driving: speeding, following too closely (the officer was actually after the guy in front of me, but I didn’t give him enough room to get in behind him, so I became his substitute quarry), and rolling a stop sign.
Even when the officer had me dead-to-rights for said offense, I was calm and cooperative, hands in plain sight on the wheel as he approached the car, behaving as instructed by the officer, etc ,and either got just a verbal warning or a written one. That old saw about catching more flies with honey than vinegar has never been more appropriate when you’ve got armed, suspicious, ***and ***curious in uniform strolling up to your car window.
The only time I’ve ever gotten a genuine speeding ticket (and deserved it) was because I was a little too pissy with the uniform. While the judge waived the court cost, the ticket I was given was the next thing closest to a charge of reckless driving because not only had I been seriously speeding, I was a perfect bitch about it. As a result, that ticket was salty, salty, salty. :eek:
Stupid of me at the time, but I just couldn’t seem to sensor my mouth that day. That was about 1980, so luckily for me, I’ve both smarted up - and studied up - since then.
I have been pulled over twice in 18 years of driving. The first was a stupid pull-over for a cracked windshield and running two states plates (I was driving a 1969 Dodge in TN in 1996, which had a 1969 SC tag on it, and was told I couldn’t run two state plates, even though TN only requires the rear plate, but oh well,) but didn’t have the registration with me. I had cleaned the car out the day before, and was within visual distance of my apartment, and told him I could run right in and get it, but he said no. He did tear the $100 ticket up after I dropped the papers by the station the next day. The second time was a couple of years back. I was clocked at 30 in a 25 school zone, and when asked why I was pulled over, I told him I guess I was speeding. I told him I was on the phone and wasn’t paying attention. I decided to be perfectly honest. I got a verbal warning.
You in bad mood, cop in good mood = Cop in bad mood
You in bad mood, cop in bad mood = Cop in worse mood
You in good mood, cop in bad mood = Cop possibly in better mood
You in good mood, cop in good mood = Cop in good mood
