I am “they”, yabob, and I can’t see this flying here. Of course, nobody around here has tried this (that I know of).
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.
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.
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.
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.