I carry multiple rolls of both duct and electrical tape in my car, as part of the massive combo first aid/emergency repair kit that goes everywhere with me. Granted, it’s a huge joke amongst my coworkers (who routinely approach me to borrow tools or other things), but I’ve never been caught on the side of the road with an emergency I couldn’t take care of myself. The OP doesn’t strike me as approaching my level of paranoia in that area, though, so your question probably stands.
Thank you, KC- I promptly paid the two tickets I’ve gotten in my {mumble mumble} years of driving, so I wasn’t sure what policy was on that.
One of the effects of methamphetamine abuse appears to be that it’s really hard on the teeth. It’s not difficult to imagine cops in a problem jurisdiction using the symptom as a profile point.
I’ve driven hundreds of thousands of miles over the last 38 years, in dozens of states and six different countries. During most of that time I was long haired and heavily bearded, and drove what might be charitably called beaters.
I have been stopped on five different occasions, and every one was a fair cop. I was warned and released on four offenses, twice for speeding, once for failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign, and once for an expired registration.
I only got one ticket, a violation of section 1225, avoiding a traffic control device, and when I went to court the judge dropped the charge. In every instance the cops were nothing if not polite.
Where are these police that have the time and the energy to pull people over for fun?
(I really need to actually get some work done, rather than continuing to reply to this thread)
I work in a high crime/drug area; every day I drive past the local dealers and the (yes, there’s just one) crack whore. The police are not infrequent visitors to my workplace due to our clientele, and know exactly what goes on in the surrounding area. Yet last year they pulled me over to find out what I was listening to on the radio. Granted, they used the opportunity to “check in” with me and see if the dealers or the whore were bothering us, but they literally pulled me over to find out what I was listening to. The whole time I was thinking “Would you mind sparing a little of that energy to pick up the guy standing about 100 yards from you who is well known for concealing a shotgun under his coat??”
I was pulled over the other day for rolling a stop sign; no ticket, and the cop found it the height of hilarity (and agreed!) when I pointed out that no one I know comes to a complete stop at that sign, because it’s a sure signal to one of the businessmen to mosey over for an exchange. A coworker wandered up while we were talking (he’d lit me up just as I was getting to the entrance of our facility), and it turned out he’d pulled her over the week before to let her know she was missing two lug nuts on a tire, and he was worried she might have a problem driving home.
So the partial answer to your question is “Georgia.”
We get away with so much shit on a daily basis that it’s frustrating as hell when we get a ticket for something that people all around us are doing scott-free, and we’ve done scott-free a thousand times, so we try to convince ourselves (and others) that we weren’t doing anything wrong, the cop is meanie, etc.
-Been driving for almost 13 years including long commutes, multiple cross-country and cross-regional road trips, 3 years as a pizza delivery guy, and 1 year as a courier. Two tickets. One for speeding, which I was guilty of, and one for “running a red light”, which I eventually realized I was guilty of, because of ignorance of the law.
Tip: Don’t “dress down” the police officer, or even ask “what did I do wrong?” when he walks up to your car. Just be polite, let him do most of the talking and ALL the question-asking, and answer with yes-sirs and no-sirs. I’ve gotten out of more tickets that I can count like this, and the 2 times I was cited, minor offenses that I could’ve also been ticketed for were overlooked.
It will probably annoy you to read that, thrice last year, I was NOT given a ticket I clearly deserved.
In the first case I’d gone to check my post office box, which I do each week. As I was getting out of the car my cell rang, distracting me, and I walked away without feeding the meter. I got to the post office door, thought “crap!” and turned around. When I got back to the car there was a cop there with his ticket book open, leaning on my car and grinning at me. I waved the quarter I had just pulled out of my pocket and asked if she HAD to ticket me; she said that she’d decided to give me 60 seconds to see if I’d return to feed the meter.
In the second case I was driving to work, approaching a traffic signal, and over-estimated how long I had before it went red. By the time I realized my mistake it was too late to stop, so I sailed through, and there was a cop right behind me. She hit her siren, and I groaned and pulled out, resigned to getting written up as I had no defense. (“I was thinking about cookies” is not a recognized defense in the state of Tennessee.) But the cop looked at me, sniffed my breath, and asked to see my license; then she said that she had done the same thing before and I should be more careful, as if there had been more traffic around I might have caused an accident.
The third case is just like the second, except that I ran a stop sign on purpose.
I’m not pushing my luck, though. The traffic gods are doubtlessly monitoring my SDMB posts, and they’re vengeful.
I got pulled over a few months ago for doing 77 in a 65 zone. I was just barely able to keep my mouth from saying, “But I do 80 down this freeway every day!” to the cop. Got let off with just a warning for that one, instead.