Have you considered leaving the house early enough to allow for tickets, flat tires, or other possible emergencies. If I have something really important where late is not an option I leave plenty early.
I’ve received a few tickets, warnings, etc. from police. Maybe about ten, mostly not ticketed although a dick cop could have written one. Although it might seem a long time while you are sitting there, it was probably not over ten or fifteen minutes, tops. No matter how unimportant it is, I always give myself at least that much leeway time if I have a scheduled appointment. Not really a serious imposition on my time. The cop is going to have you on your way in 15 minutes, no bribe nor explanation necessary.
Here’s what he said:
All you (and some of the other posters in the thread) are doing is twisting his words into something else and shooting down that premise instead of taking the question at face value and answering it as stated.
Had he said ‘here’s my credit card, Officer, you can do whatever you want with it if you let me go so I can get to my gig on time’ that would be different, but that’s not what happened. That would be a different question, wouldn’t it?
As mentioned, once he’s done all that, the writing and handing of the ticket to you isn’t that much more time you would be saving.
I had a situation like this once. I was running late to set up a booth for my restaurant at a festival. My restaurant was situated on a block between one-way streets, and because of road construction a turn I needed to make was temporarily disallowed. Following the rules would have meant going several blocks out of my way, so I just made the turn. And immediately got pulled over.
You know what I did? I had my license and registration ready before the cop got to my car. When he asked if I knew why I’d been pulled over, I said “yes I do.” I didn’t argue, or even try to explain. I accepted my punishment for doing a stupid thing, and was on my way in about three minutes.
Well, that’s how you started the OP, after all.
Maybe the point was just too subtle, so I’ll put it bluntly. At least half the drivers on the road are going to consider themselves to be in an important hurry, but anyone can say anything to a cop, who doesn’t know you from Adam. Why would a police officer prejudice due process on the mere say-so of a particular motorist? That would be a legal can of worms no one wants to open. Not to mention that, as every cop knows, a good number of serious criminals are caught during the processing of traffic stops, (C.F. Timothy McVeigh), and of course, they’d be the most likely ones to say, “I have to play at a concert, so I’ll meet you at the station later.”
At least I’m not lecturing you to leave the house earlier as though I think I’m your mother.
I suspect that any sane scenario that actually allowed a cop to accept collateral would involve some paperwork documenting what it was, to prevent people from falsely claiming they left something with a cop and didn’t get it back. This might take as much (or more) time as the ticket itself.
Maybe you could stop at the police station before you head to the venue, and drop off your stuff. Then, if you get stopped on the way, you tell the oficer that your stuff is at the station, and you’ll meet him there after your event…
So you’re an accompanist, huh? Well, accompany me to the station.
Ok, so you’re looking for a more general answer. Obviously the police would let the lead violin go immediately, and probably the first oboe or French Horn. But I think the percussion section could be in trouble - there’s an ongoing battle against police prejudice that pretty much anyone can bang a gong or play the drums in a pinch.
This seems kind of late in the thread, so maybe I’m fundamentally misunderstanding the situation, but in the vast majority of cases this is exactly what happens when you get a traffic ticket. The cop makes you sign a piece of paper promising that you’ll pay the fine (or show up to fight it in court) before a certain date and you get sent on your merry way. I really don’t see how you could shorten the process much more than that.
Traffic stops, in general, must be much quicker now than they were in the Bad Old Days. They generally will want to run your plates and your license. That’s very quick in the Atomic Satellite Internet Big Database Age. It used to require making a phone call (or police radio call) to the station, where someone would make a phone call to State Headquarters, where someone would look up your information. Just like credit card authorizations used to require a live-person-to-live-person phone call.
Now it’s all very fast. Everyone is happier. You get on your way that much quicker. And the cop has that much more time to stop and ticket all the more drivers! Win-Win! Except for all the additional drivers he can nab, of course.
That whole process from “Do you know why I pulled you over” to “Have a nice day” takes (IME) 15+ minutes. pianodave is asking if he could say 'look, I’m running late, here’s something that you know I’ll need in the near future. I’ll meet you at the station in a few hours to accept my punishment, this is item that I can’t do without for more than a few hours should prove that I’ll be there" and turn a 20 minute stop into a minute or two.
IOW, he’s saying ‘I’m late, can we do this later?’
While I don’t think it would ever work at the driver’s request, I have seen it happen at the officer request. Many years ago I was pulled over and while the cop was talking to me he got another call. He told me he was going to hold on to my DL but I needed to meet him at the police station in two hours. I met him there, he finished lecturing me and let me go.
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Do you know why I pulled you over, sir?
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No, but I’m an accompanist, so hum a few bars and I’ll improvise.
I think it would be situational. Medical emergency and you might get an escort. Police have broad discretion when pulling people over for moving violations.
Now that is funny.
Joey P, thanks for your insightful comments. You definitely get what I’m trying to say.
I can see how in this day and age officers would be not too thrilled to have to take the word of some possibly dangerous stranger.
What if the cop, upon getting that second call, said: “I’m going to hold on to your driver license. You must wait right here and not drive anywhere while I attend to this other call. Then I’ll come back to deal with you.”
How would you have responded to that? How would you have wanted to respond to that?
I saw a cop doing something like that on the freeway some years ago. There was a massive traffic tie-up and cars were all bumper to bumper, mostly sitting still going nowhere. Near an off-ramp, cars were pulling onto the shoulder to pass the stopped cars and get to the off-ramp. A cop was pulling them over, one after another after another. Apparently he was telling each of them to wait right there while he went and pulled over additional cars. He had a whole line of cars sitting there on the shoulder waiting to be given tickets.
Note, as far as I could tell, these weren’t cars that were trying to pass illegally on the shoulder and then get back into the stream of traffic. They were driving on the shoulder (which might have been technically illegal, and they were passing other cars) but they were heading to an off-ramp that was right just ahead. Multi-layered jerk moves by that cop, I thought.
I am dubious about whether a police officer can legally take someone’s driver’s license and leave the scene without making sure the person doesn’t drive off, much less expect them to show up at the police station two hours later, presumably getting there by driving. At least, I always thought it was considered illegal to drive without carrying your DL, which would shoot a hole in the OP’s idea of giving the cop his DL to hold so he could then zoom off to the concert.
*my initial post about bribery was meant in a humorous vein.
I’m actually not sure if they still do it in Illinois, as it’s been a couple of decades since I’ve been pulled over, but here they would take your DL and give you a ticket with your info on it, so if you were pulled over again, you would present the ticket as ID, but they would take your DL to make sure you show up to court, or something like that.
Wait, actually, that’s not 100% true. I was pulled over two years ago for driving with a taillight out and speeding (I was something like 7-10 over), and I had an expired license (it was a couple weeks after my birthday and I didn’t realize my DL had expired), and all I had to do was show up to court with a new license and the charges were dismissed. I did have valid proof of insurance, so the cop was happy with that and sent me on my way with a warning (for speeding–an actual written warning. I’ve only gotten verbal warnings in the past) and court summons to present a valid license and proof that I had the tail light fixed. So far as I know, if you actually have a license and just forgot it for whatever reason, you will be cited for it, but usually can get it dismissed if you show up to court with it. I know this has happened to a couple friends of mine.