Did he say you would get a receipt for the money? If not, then it does indeed sound like he was shaking you down.
I know of departments that issue small credit card machines to officers so out of state violators can post bond on the roadside and be on their way without having to be booked. But a receipt and other paperwork are issued.
That changes things. Bribery is illegal, but civil forfeiture is not
.[quote=“Bullitt, post:20, topic:921837, full:true”]
Cash is king. Always carry some.
[/quote]
I was driving home, exhausted, at around 3 am one morning. I was at an intersection where there was no left turn, but that was the way I wanted to go. I would normally turn right and then do a turnaround somewhere, but after sitting there and seeing nobody, I made a left.
Turns out a cop was parked in the shadows, drinking coffee. He pulled me over and wrote me a ticket, which I deserved.
We were chatting afterwards and out of curiosity I asked him what would have happened had I shown him a “police courtesy card” a cop buddy had given me. He was friends with my buddy and he was pissed off at me for not mentioning it right away. He said he’d have given me a warning, but no ticket. He couldn’t tear up the already written ticket, but if I entered a not guilty plea, he’d pull a no-show and I’d get off. He might get reprimanded, but he’d do it for a friend.
I paid the ticket and threw away the card.
I lived in Baku about 15 years ago, it was once a month thing to get pulled over by the traffic police and have to fork over 30-50k Manat, which was less than 10bucks. As expats we had different colour license plates so were very obvious targets.
Kayaker’s story above reminded me of this. Sort of a roundabout bribe, I suppose.
About 20 years ago I ran a pizza restaurant in downtown San Jose for a number of years. I had a standing policy that all cops, firefighters, and EMTs always got 50% off. Whether they were just buying a slice and a soda, or buying 12 extra-large pies. My reasoning was that these are the people who are risking their lives to save our lives, so they deserved every little perk they could get. And, for another reason…
One night one of the delivery drivers was heading down a street, approaching a sidewalk (no light, just the sidewalk). There was a pedestrian waiting to cross, so the driver started so slow to a stop to let her go. But she waved at him to go on through, so he did. And immediately got pulled over.
The cop wrote him a ticket, and wouldn’t have any of the driver’s protestations. After the driver signed the ticket and was handing it back to the officer, he said “I still think this is wrong. I mean, I’m working, and this could mess up my job, and --”
The cop asked where the driver worked, and on finding out it was my restaurant, the cop took the ticket back - already signed, mind you - and let the driver off with a warning.