Then you were very lucky. Getting out of the car is a good way to get shot; the police have to make quick decisions, and getting out of the car looks an awful lot like someone making a break for it…
As an aside, I didn’t know that deaf people could get driver’s licenses. Did you have to do anything special for the test?
I’ve only been pulled over a couple of times. The first time was late at night on a Louisiana state highway. The first thing I heard on the bullhorn was “DRIVER STEP OUT OF THE CAR.”
He was cool, only gave me a warning for 70 in a 55. I figured he didn’t want me anywhere near a gun. Troopers probably expect that most youngish guys driving around Louisiana have a gun of some sort in the car.
To the cops out there - you want to know what’s hilarious? When a cop tries to pull you over on the highway, and you decide to try and protect his life. To explain:
Here in this area we’ve had a number of police who have been the victims of very tragic accidents because they were working with a person they pulled over on the side of the highway, and were hit by another car. So, the Chief of Poilice gets on the TV, and asks people to pull off the highway on the next exit if possible, to protect the officers’ lives. Sounds like a great idea to me.
So when I see the lights behind me, I immediately drop my speed to 55, put on my turn signal, and slowly drive for another mile to the next exit, where I pull off the highway into a parking lot 300 ft from the exit.
Where I am surrounded by 3 cop cars and 5 cops, guns drawn, and nearly clubbed like a harp seal ala-Rodney King. Where a cop actually spits in my face, screaming “YOU NEVER FUCKING DO THAT AGAIN OR YOU’RE DEAD!” Where I am held for more than an hour, without being read my rights, and threatened with being charged with evading arrest, unlawful flight, and “endagering the life of a police officer” (?). Where I ask for a lawyer, and am told “shut your fucking mouth or I’ll shut it for you”. Finally, some other cop who seemed to be in charge arrived at the scene, took one look at me, asked me what I was doing, and says to the other cops “OK, I’ll buy that.” I eventually get a ticket for 75 in a 65, and a warning not to “pull any stunts like that in the future, or you could get shot”. BTW, I have no criminal record, 1 ticket in 5 years, was dressed professionally in a nearly-new car, and have been described as “textbook non-threatening” in appearance.
Fuck it. They can take their chances on the highway next time, with people roaring past at 70+ mph. I tried to do the right thing, and I paid the price. Don’t make my mistake.
I really think the getting out of the car thing depends on the situation. I firmly belive that the only reason I have gotten out of many tickets is because I got out of the car and met the cop halfway. I started doing this after my psych professor talked about some of the mind games that go on. If he gets to stand up outside and look down at you in the car it gives him a feeling of superiority. Plus you have to sit there and wait until he feels like coming up to car, which is another who-is-in-control thing. The prof also theorized that some people who become cops became cops becuase they felt weak and needed a way to feel powerful, and those are the cops most likely to pull you over for something stupid, so the mind game theory works really well for these weak minded people. Don’t do anything threating, and be respectful, but don’t act submissive and start the “yes sir, sorry sir, my fault sir” crap.
I’m sure some people will disagree, but I got 3 tickets in 6 stops sitting in my car, and no tickets in 28 stops since started meeting them halfway.(long hair and fast-looking cars get a lot of attention).
28 stops?
I’ve only been driving for 4 years. Never been pulled over when I was driving.
I will stop speeding when I get a ticket. Probably because i won’t be able to drive. do they suspend my license if i get caught going 100+ mph?
A friend of mine and i were testing out his dad’s new vette and we were doing 110 and a cop pulled us over and ending up writing us up for 90 mph. lucky us huh? saved my friend’s ass since 100+ is a felony. We did the whole “yes sir, thank you sir” thing and i guess it helped.
dev
There is no law at all, anywhere, saying that you can’t get out…So I do. Didn’t use to but I noticed how effective it was.
I know a woman who decided to reach in the car for her purse in LA once & the cop let her go, saying ‘I like your dress.’
‘As an aside, I didn’t know that deaf people could get driver’s licenses. Did you have to do anything special for
the test?’
Yeah, drive.
Here a good tip for getting out of fines…at least in your local (rural) areas.
Date the son/daughter of an officer or join the lions club or something like that (a lot of cops join social clubs like that…at least where I come from) and become buddies with them…I dated a cops daughter once…saved my ass a couple of times…he aslo washed my car for me a couple of times.
The last time I got a speeding ticket was 19 years old. Anyhoo, I was going to visit a friend in the Rio Grande Valley. Right as you get into San Antonio, the speed limit changed from 65 to 55. I wasn’t really paying attention to that and I didn’t slow down. I was pulled over for speeding.
When the policeman asked me why I was speeding, I was honest. I told him I wasn’t paying attention that the speed limit had changed. Now that was stupid but then I added “and I was singing with the radio.” So when I got my speeding ticket I looked at it and in the notes section he wrote “singing with the radio.” I think he must’ve written that to share with all the other cops later.
To this day I think that is the stupidest, most embarassing thing ever said to a police officer. I keep imagining him still laughing about that one.
Oh and about pulling off the road to a safe spot. The last time I got pulled over it was after work late at night. I worked until midnight and was driving on a deserted road with no stores or anything for several blocks.
I was in my husband’s Mustang. The light had just changed to green and I hadn’t gone more than 20 feet when I saw the lights go on. I turned on my hazard lights and slowed down (not that I was going fast to begin with) and drove several blocks to a fast-food restaurant that was open late. The policeman came to the window and asked me about my speed. I don’t remember how fast he said I was going but I know I wasn’t going that fast. He asked me where I was coming from. I told him that I had just gotten off work. He didn’t look at my driver’s license. Didn’t ask for it or my insurance. I didn’t get a ticket. He just let me go.
Now I don’t know if what I did was wrong but there is no way in hell, policeman or not, that I was going to pull over in the middle of nowhere.
from dev:
I don’t live in California, so I’m unfamiliar with the quirks of their traffic code. Is the above true?
I probably don’t qualify to answer this question because, as a woman, I believe I’m far less likely to get a ticket if and when I get pulled over than a man would, merely by virtue of my gender and not based on any of my actions or what I may or may not say. That said, here’s one of my stories…
Re: getting out of the car.
I was a teenager, I think I was 18. I’d gotten into a fight with my sister. She’s a bully (love ya, sis!) and where I would cuss her out with a stream of profanities that would make a truck driver cringe, she’d get physical. She kicked me. Bent my little finger all the way backwards and it started swelling up and turning black and blue.
I was late to work and I wanted to stop at my dad’s office to show him my finger and see if he thought I needed to get it x-rayed at the emergency room (and also maybe get my sister in trouble - hehehe). On a road with one lane in each direction where passing is pretty impossible; speed limit 45; jerk in front of me going about 35 the whole way - for probably 3-4 miles. GRRRR
Oh, and it’s the day before Halloween and we’re dressing up that day at the office. I’m dressed as Tweety Bird; bright, lemon yellow, poofy body with legs that end just below the knees with an elastic band; orange tights, big, fluffy yellow house slippers on my feet. The giant ‘head/hood’ is laying on the back seat.
Annoyed with the jerk in front of me, by the time we reach the intersection where I’m turning and I can get away from him, I gun it - vroooooom!! ::whee whee whee whee:: sirens start going almost immediately. I pull over. I open the car door and put one foot only out the door, kindof pointing my toes a little, pretending I’m trying to be sexy with my leg or something. It looks ridiculous - remember, I have on fluffy yellow slippers, orange tights and a blousy yellow thing from the knee, up.
I glance out the sideview mirror and see the cop in mid-stride coming towards my car, stop, hold his stomach, bend at the waist and crack up laughing his ass off. Of course when he got to my car and asked why I was speeding, I held up my broken, swollen finger, explained my predicament and got off without so much as a written warning. He told me I was going 49 in a 40 and had I been going 50+ (the cut-off being 10mph over the speed limit) he’d have had to ticket me. HA! I KNOW I was going faster than that. Hehehehe It’s times like that, I love being a girl!
That doesn’t mean I’ve gotten out of tickets every time I’ve been pulled over. I’ve even < GASP! > been arrested. But I’ve already used enough bandwidth here. 
Well, I drive a cop catcher, usually alone. 24 years old, clean cut and non-threatening. I manage to get pulled over a dozen times a year. Most of the time I don’t get a ticket, and I’m frequently made to preform a DUI field test. It pisses me off that cops have basically been granted carte blanche to pull people over for absolutely any reason, without cause. I’ve never gotten a DUI and have very rarely driven drunk, not at all since high school. Recently in Illinois a mandate has been made authorizing and instructing cops to pull people over for not wearing their seatbelts. Previously not wearing a seatbelt was only ticketable if the driver was pulled over for another legitimate offense, or a equipement failure. Now they have assumed cops are now able to see into a car and determine if they are wearing a narrow piece of fabric over their shoulder at 60 mph. Sounds to me like they can pull anyone over for a “safety check”. Scares the shit out of me, and it eliminates any need for probable cause. It is the equivalent of random searches and profiling.
As for what to do when you get puller over, I have no fucking clue. Cops are goddamn schizophrenic, one time I was pulled over on a fast moving 4 lane road with no shoulders. I pulled immediately into a parking lot and placed the car in park. The cop got on the loud speaker and demanded that I pull out of the lot into the road and pull over. I do so and in the process block the entire right lane during a busy lunch hour, making traffic especially ugly, and presumably utting the cop i serious peril. He was abusive and confrontational when he came to the door, I explained why I pulled over into the lot, and that I was sorry. After taking my info he goes to the car, and I’m sure he plans on ticketing me for 46 in a 40. He come back with a 100% different mood and lets me go free. I was polite and had all my information ready the moment he arrived at the door.
Another occasion, I get pulled over in Chicago, two officers in the car at 2PM on a Sunday. I’m alone, dressed very nicely and accidentally turned right on red when it was prohibited (signs are notoriously sparse in the city). anyways, they give me the two-by-two cover formation and unholster their weapons. No idea what set them off, they asked me a bunch of questions and god knows what else. They ran my info and I was very impolite as they sent me on my way ticketless.
Another occasion I was going 62 in a 55 in the absolute middle of nowhere. I was polite, the cop joked around and was seemingly very cool and laid back. I felt that I’d get off with a warning after my info was clean. Nope, he tells me to have a great trip, ask some questions about the Illini football, and hands me a $175 ticket…fucker.
Long story less long, theres no way of telling if he’ll give you a ticket or a warning, and nothing you can do about it. Maybe they have quotas, maybe the guy fucking his wife has the same car, maybe they are caught off gaurd when you’re nice to them. Fuck if I know. But all the assholes can try a guys patience especially a guy who generaly has a high opinion of cops.
I’m a girl… I’ve been attractive in the past. I drive a station wagon. I am always extremely polite and friendly with cops. I’ve gotten a ticket every single time I’ve been pulled over. 
(twice for speeding, few times for expired tags)
I don’t know about the rest of you, but can you imagine what Shayna’s dad must have thought? Having his daughter dressed as Tweety Bird come visit him to play the STOOL PIGEON role on her little sis??
Kind of appropriate, n’est pas?
Personally, I’ve never gotten a speeding ticket…yet.
I did, however, get a ticket for riding a bicycle on the freeway. Long story.
In Drew Carey’s standup routine, he says he likes to run stop signs when it’s raining so the officer will have to get out of his car and stand in the rain to give him a ticket. “Do you know why I pulled you over?” He says “Yes, do you know why I ran the stop sign?”. He says he can afford the fine and what’s the use of having money if you can’t enjoy it.
I suppose I could be wrong, but I don’t think police are allowed to use deadly force (shoot) to stop a fleeing suspect, especially for a traffic stop.
DreamWorks said:
Those middle two make me very nervous. Any strange movement could really terrify a police officer, who is never sure what s/he’s getting into. When he sees you making reaching movements, even to do such innocuous things, he could react aggressively.
Of course, there was that instance recently where a woman was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop because the officer thought her cell phone was a gun. Crazy shit.
My foolproof way on getting out of a ticket-go to medical school.
Seriously I’ve been pulled over by a cop who was my patient and they let me go. I’ve also used the “I’m speeding to the ER to see a critically ill patient” excuse and gotten off-but I feel really bad about it.
And about getting out of the car-I once opened my door as the cop came up and was told to “get back in the car and open the window”. I stay in the car.
handy wrote, quoting me at the bottom:
If it works for you, so be it. Personally, I have the feeling I’d probably be shot if I tried that.
Okay, here I can’t tell if I’ve offended you or not; I’ll explain why I asked. I wear glasses, and my license states that. In addition, I use my sense of hearing extensively while driving…
Actually, nevermind. I’ll go find the information myself. I apologize for having bothered you.
Art Linkletter once interviewed a little boy who said he wanted to be a traffic cop someday and give people tickets.
“Even pretty young women drivers?”
“Oh, you don’t give them tickets. You just stop and talk to them.”
(Linkletter later commented: “We’ve all seen those dashing young patrolmen do just that!”)
One time I was on my way to town to go to my bowling league. I noticed in my rear view mirror that there was a big pimple on my chin. I decided it would be better to pull over and take care of it right away. I turned onto the next dirt road and then stopped. I moved my rear view mirror so I could see and popped the pimple. When I moved my mirror back to my surprise there was a cop parked right behind me with his lights on. He came up to my door, and asked for my license and registration. Then he asked me what I was doing parked on the side of the road and asked me to get out of my car. I was about 8 months pregnant with my first child with a large pimple on my chin. I said: “Do you really want to know what I was doing?” He started getting a little huffy, so I told him. “I was popping this pimple”. He just looked at me and then walked back to his car. I watched in my rear view mirror. He sat down in the car, his partner said something to him and then he answered and then they both just started laughing, they laughed for 5 minutes. Finally he came back and gave me my license and told me to have a nice day.