# Can you be pulled over for NOT violating traffic laws? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 19, 2007, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-pulled-over-for-not-violating-traffic-laws/430606 "2007-12-19T19:14:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-pulled-over-for-not-violating-traffic-laws/430606/21 "2007-12-20T16:40:41Z")
[QUOTE=yabob] Like I said, it’s been done before. I’ll bet if you dug, you would find somebody trying to start a legal case for those programs, and having it thrown out. I don’t like it either - I don’t need the inconvenience of being pulled over just to find that the cop wants to hand me a free burger or a Starbucks latte. But I think **they** can do it legally. And possibly, enough people react with “Why, thank you, officer, how nice of you” that the gimmick keeps surfacing as a PR exercise. [/QUOTE] I am “they”, **yabob** , and I can’t see this flying here. Of course, nobody around here has tried this (that I know of). ---
**Author:** ![Elret](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Elret](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elret)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-pulled-over-for-not-violating-traffic-laws/430606/22 "2007-12-20T16:48:44Z")
I got pulled over for not speeding once and got a toonie! I was not distressed by the experience, and disagree that it’s a waste of police resources (assuming it’s happening in an area without rampant constant crime or anything - mine was rural). I went away with a more favourable impression of cops in general than I’d had prior to the stop, and I bet enough people do that it’s worth it for the PR. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-pulled-over-for-not-violating-traffic-laws/430606/23 "2007-12-20T17:04:00Z")
[QUOTE=Elret] I got pulled over for not speeding once and got a toonie! I was not distressed by the experience, and disagree that it’s a waste of police resources (assuming it’s happening in an area without rampant constant crime or anything - mine was rural). I went away with a more favourable impression of cops in general than I’d had prior to the stop, and I bet enough people do that it’s worth it for the PR. [/QUOTE] That’s in Canada, right? I can’t comment on laws, rights etc.. on that. But here, if I pull over a driver who is not doing anything wrong, and theres a bag of dope on the seat (it happens. Trust me. :rolleyes: It’s actually happened). I don’t see how it would survive a challenge. We just had a case here a few months ago where an officer (not me) pulled over a car because it sat too long at a green light. The driver turned out to be intoxicated. The case got tossed on appeal. The ruling was not going at a green light wasn’t enough cause for a traffic stop. ( :eek: people were screaming over that ruling). If that case gets thrown out, I don’t see much hope for a case where the driver was pulled over for not violating anything. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-pulled-over-for-not-violating-traffic-laws/430606/24 "2007-12-20T17:34:08Z")
[QUOTE=pkbites] I have to have reasonable suspicion to pull someone over, and NOT violating the law doesn’t cut it. I’m waiting for the first legal case on this. [/QUOTE] I was pulled over once for “driving with extreme care”. It was 3 am, I had spent the evening at a bar, but had stopped drinking much earlier. The area I was driving through is known for speed traps and nuisance stops, and it _was_ 3 am, so I was driving with extreme caution. A cop friend of mine told me that IHO it was ashame I didn’t have contraband in the car, because he thought the stop was a bad one. ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2007, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-pulled-over-for-not-violating-traffic-laws/430606/25 "2007-12-20T17:47:35Z")
Great! Now I have to figure out how to drive just illegal enough not to get pulled over, but not too illegal so I get pulled over. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-be-pulled-over-for-not-violating-traffic-laws/430606.md?page=1)