# Do police officers always give a warning to someone never pulled over before? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 13, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523 "2015-10-13T05:28:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![NightfallBliss43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bcef8e/32.png) [@NightfallBliss43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightfallBliss43)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/1 "2015-10-13T05:28:16Z")
To be honest, I just got pulled over for speeding, 10 miles over at night (I just got off work, wanted to get home which I told him) He barely looked older than me (19) and when he told me why I was pulled over, me being the idiot I am I’m just like “Uh, yeah” XD and after handing over the stuff he wanted, he just gave me a warning and drove off. I have major social anxiety and this of course just had my heart racing. Do cops always give a warning to people with blank slates or did I just get lucky? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/2 "2015-10-13T05:32:52Z")
You just got lucky. Keep your nose clean, keep driving safely, and don’t try to expand your circle of acquaintances by getting pulled over. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/3 "2015-10-13T05:33:35Z")
Lucky. 🙂 Sometimes they’ll give you a warning for being polite and being honest. I’ve been told it’s a nice change of pace from the normal excuses they hear. Sometimes they get another call or something and need to get going. ---
**Author:** ![NightfallBliss43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bcef8e/32.png) [@NightfallBliss43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NightfallBliss43)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/4 "2015-10-13T05:39:42Z")
Also wanted to add that I remember he told me what county, his name, etc but he might as well of spoke alien ☹ I would have loved to see my face though 😉 Not gonna lie, it was kinda exciting. For 5 seconds -\_- ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/5 "2015-10-13T14:03:38Z")
lucky for you! Don’t they like to ticket “teenies”? Maybe he got a message to hurry to a crime scene Me likey men in uniform and all weaponed up! (where’s the tongue hanging out of the mouth drooling smilie?) ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/6 "2015-10-13T14:38:36Z")
You got pulled over for 10 miles over the limit? That would never happen here in New Jersey… ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/7 "2015-10-13T14:41:46Z")
I have always been honest with police officers. I’m not saying I say “I was going 27 miles over the limit” but I will say, “I might have been speeding a little, officer.” it helps that I am: - not black - a woman - have a 100% clean driving record - am unfailingly polite - have my license and registration out before they even ask I rarely get pulled over as I rarely go more than 10 miles over the limit, and in my 22 years of driving I’ve gotten only one speeding ticket. Other times it’s been dropped down to a seatbelt violation and I’ve gotten no points. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/8 "2015-10-13T14:46:30Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > … > > it helps that I am: > > … > > - have my license and registration out before they even ask > > … I’d be real careful about that one. It seems that an officer seeing you reach into your glove box before he’s beside the car to watch might take that as you reaching for a weapon. I’d recommend sitting there with both hands on the steering wheel until he asks and then, only use one hand. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/9 "2015-10-13T15:02:32Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > I’d be real careful about that one. It seems that an officer seeing you reach into your glove box before he’s beside the car to watch might take that as you reaching for a weapon. I’d recommend sitting there with both hands on the steering wheel until he asks and then, only use one hand. YMMV. very true ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/10 "2015-10-13T15:03:15Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > I’d be real careful about that one. It seems that an officer seeing you reach into your glove box before he’s beside the car to watch might take that as you reaching for a weapon. I’d recommend sitting there with both hands on the steering wheel until he asks and then, only use one hand. YMMV. This. He won’t necessarily take it as reaching for a weapon, but until he fully understands what you _are_ doing, he’s going to be very wary, and his hand will remain resting on his sidearm, ready for action. Best bet is to do nothing that makes the officer doubt his own safety, and that means no fidgeting: hands on the steering wheel until the officer asks you to do otherwise. I don’t reach for documents until the officer requests them - and then I request permission to reach wherever I’m about to reach. “License is in my back pocket, do you mind if I reach for it?” “registration/insurance are in the glovebox, do you mind if I reach for them?” I think that you may get off with just a warning if: -your driving record is clean -you are unfailingly polite and deferential during the encounter -the infraction for which you were pulled over was not _way_ beyond the pale -the officer is not a dick My last two traffic stops, all four of the above applied, and I received only warnings. A dick officer will nail you to the maximum no matter what; not much to be done about that. I last encountered one in 2002, and he cited me and my friend (us on our motorcycles) for 55 in a 45. On a deserted four-lane divided highway. With him going the other way, and going I-don’t-know-how-far before he could turn around and come after us; we had stopped at a gas station and were halfway through filling our tanks before he finally came roaring in, sirens blaring, stepped out of his car and said “where’s the fire?” A classic dick-officer way to begin the encounter. ---
**Author:** ![Blaster\_Master](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/cab0a1/32.png) [@Blaster\_Master](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blaster_Master)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/11 "2015-10-13T15:15:42Z")
Lucky, more or less. In general, if your offense isn’t that bad, and 10 over generally isn’t, especially if it’s on the highway at night, as long as you’ve got a clean record and are polite, most cops will let you off. Even in a couple situations where I’ve gotten pulled over for doing more, that’ll often knock it down to a lower speed to save me a few bucks, or perhaps to avoid court, or whatever. That all said, when I was young, the first two or three times I got pulled over for doing about 10 over were all warnings. In fact, it wasn’t until I got pulled over by a dick cop that I finally got my first ticket, though I think he was only a dick to me because he knew my brother (who’d recently gotten in a lot of trouble) and I guess he thought either I must be into the same stuff–I’m not–or that he’d just stick it to the family. ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/12 "2015-10-13T16:01:07Z")
I don’t think the cops routinely check your driving record at traffic stops. They check for active stuff like warrants or suspended licenses, but even if they have the ability to check for prior traffic convictions on the computer I don’t think they usually do. I know I’ve certainly been pulled over while in possession of an extensive rap sheet and nobody ever mentioned anything, nor has it had any noticeable effect on warnings versus tickets. But I’ll tell you what _does_ lead to more warnings: driving a janky-looking car at night. For a while I drove a succession of distressed-looking 60’s through 80’s GM and Chrysler products and I would _constantly_ get pulled over for completely spurious stuff (once a dirty license plate!), but only at night and I’d never get a ticket for any of it. Flippantly, I’d say they were pulling me over on suspicion of DWB but let me go when my skin checked out. ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/13 "2015-10-13T17:03:51Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > I don’t think the cops routinely check your driving record at traffic stops. They check for active stuff like warrants or suspended licenses, but even if they have the ability to check for prior traffic convictions on the computer I don’t think they usually do. I was once pulled over for speeding and asked the officer to go easy on me because I had had a few speeding tickets a few years prior, and my newly acquired job relied on my having an active driver’s license. As it turned out, the out-of-state tickets were not on my New Jersey driving record for some reason (or perhaps the time that they would remain on my record had expired, I’m not sure). In any event, the officer came back from his car with a warning for me, and advised me that my driving record was completely clean. He may have checked only because I raised the issue, but clearly he had the ability to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/14 "2015-10-13T17:31:46Z")
> [@NeonMadman](#): > > I was once pulled over for speeding and asked the officer to go easy on me because I had had a few speeding tickets a few years prior Wow. That was a bold move. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/15 "2015-10-13T18:08:41Z")
Per Tru TVs ‘Speeders’ a German dude said that German police never give warnings. He was happy an OC officer let him off. ---
**Author:** ![Spiderman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spiderman/32/230_2.png) [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2015, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/16 "2015-10-13T19:43:36Z")
To answer the OP, no it depends upon the cop. However, we had one Lt who would always run your record, if you were clean, he’d let you off with a warning; if you had prior tickets, you’d get another one. I always thought that was kind of backwards & piling on to the guy who could use the break & letting off the one who didn’t need it as much. > [@Morgenstern](#): > > I’d be real careful about that one. It seems that an officer seeing you reach into your glove box before he’s beside the car to watch might take that as you reaching for a weapon. I’d recommend sitting there with both hands on the steering wheel until he asks and then, only use one hand. YMMV. That’s answer part A. Answer part B is you have less time to talk to him, he grabs your paperwork & walks back to his car. If you have to pull it out, you have a few seconds to tell him your story & build sympathy. ---
**Author:** ![NeonMadman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58f4c7/32.png) [@NeonMadman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NeonMadman)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/17 "2015-10-15T16:43:41Z")
> [@Desert\_Nomad](#): > > Wow. That was a bold move. In retrospect, it probably was. But I was trying to be very diplomatic about it, and it worked. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2015, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-police-officers-always-give-a-warning-to-someone-never-pulled-over-before/734523/18 "2015-10-15T17:32:06Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I don’t reach for documents until the officer requests them - and then I request permission to reach wherever I’m about to reach. “License is in my back pocket, do you mind if I reach for it?” “registration/insurance are in the glovebox, do you mind if I reach for them?” I had to go to traffic school once to not get a point on my license and make my insurance more expensive. This is what the instructor told us to do. Anything to put the officer more at ease will work in your favor of getting off with a warning.