# How do I stop the police from harassing me? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 21, 2007, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839 "2007-03-21T08:37:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839/41 "2007-03-23T01:54:17Z")
[QUOTE=Telemark] What vehicle is more suspicious? [/QUOTE] [This](http://www.dvdboard.de/dvdreviews/pics/cheech_chong1_1.jpg) one? ---
**Author:** ![MissGypsy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@MissGypsy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissGypsy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839/42 "2007-03-23T02:14:28Z")
All winter, my husband is called upon to do “fire-watch,” which is sitting in his truck and staring at some condo complex, because the pipes froze and the sprinkler system won’t work. Oh, and he gets to go prowl around the buildings every two hours or so, checking for random fires. The police are fairly attuned to some random person scoping a place, or skulking around apartment buildings at 3 a.m., so he’s been questioned quite a bit. He now has professionally printed magnetic signs on his work truck, with the name of his business, and a placard to place in the windshield of his secondary truck stating that he is there by request of the management company. (Total cost was \<$150, for the magnetic signs. I think he printed up the placards himself.) He hasn’t been bothered since. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839/43 "2007-03-23T03:43:00Z")
[QUOTE=Telemark] What vehicle is more suspicious? [/QUOTE] yeah that’s what I meant ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839/44 "2007-03-23T03:44:18Z")
[QUOTE=Loach] Of course once or twice you can see but THREE TIMES! Holy shit! C’mon three officers at three different times see a vehicle in what normally is an empty lot in the middle of the night, occupied. That is suspicious. It is out of the ordinary. They are trained to know there districts. To know what is usual. To know which business are closed and which have workers at night. They get to know when the cleaning crews show up and leave. If there is something out of the ordinary they check it out. If the OP is there every night then he will become part of the routine. If he is there at night once a month he won’t be. That is what the town is paying them for. Otherwise they would stay at the station and be dispatched like firemen after a crime occurs. Usually the complaint is about lazy cops who don’t do their jobs. These guys seem to be doing the right thing and are getting shit from the OP. It is not harassment. [/QUOTE] You’re right, it is suspicious. I’m suspicious of other things they have to do. You say “three times” and wonder why people aren’t patting them on the back. I’m saying “three times” and wondering why they haven’t got the hint yet. Give them the hint. Talk to the police chief, see if you can’t get some of the heat off your back. **bootyperanma** IS part of the routine. He’s at work. What’s not routine is the variety of cops taking their (snark alert) oh so important time (end of snark) out to hassle him. In my mind, the only question is the use of the word “harassment”. Is he actually being harassed? Does he feel harassed? Is it denoting bias on his part? These are the important questions, and we can’t answer any of them. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839/45 "2007-03-23T06:39:01Z")
What **anamnesis** said. ---
**Author:** ![St.Urho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@St.Urho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/St.Urho)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839/46 "2007-03-23T09:02:44Z")
[QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] You’re right, it is suspicious. I’m suspicious of other things they have to do. You say “three times” and wonder why people aren’t patting them on the back. I’m saying “three times” and wondering why they haven’t got the hint yet. [/QUOTE] I think you’d have a point if it was the same cop. However, he made it pretty clear there were 3 different officers involved. I doubt they get together and talk about the suspicous person/suspicous vehicle call that turned out to be nothing. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839/47 "2007-03-23T11:59:00Z")
This is quite interesting. Although it is a softener plant, don’t lay a bet that the police don’t think it is a water plant. Find a way of making your car distinctive, the mag sign idea is good, but with four jobs it would be a PITA - something like a reflector strip on your rear window - it just needs to be unusual and not jerkish. Get some ID tags made up, it is pretty easy, most copy shops will have a laminator. While fake ID is easy to make, it makes people assume that you are who you say you are. Also do it for all three of you. Clip it on or wear it as a dog tag - get it company policy. Keep the interior light on in the car - people casing a joint or acting as driver don’t do that. Wear something that is vaguely uniformish, a white boiler suit would be ideal. Start with that and work back to something practical - the thing is, like your car, be very recognizeable (and not a jerk). Act informative, tell them why you are there and more specifically what you (collectively) do in there - probably one day you’ll give a guided tour - probably next week. Always leave a good impression. The girl cop was probably scared - and computers screw up - especially at late hours when people take them down for maintenance. In a few weeks you’ll have them waving at you, and you might avoid the odd ticket. My guess is that they have had a local ‘course’ in anti terrorism, it sounds dumb, but if their behaviour has changed in the past few weeks after 16 years, then it is because they’ve had some gingering up. The thing is to stick out a mile - and look as if you belong - also to be very relaxed ‘I know you are just doing your job - and I appreciate it’ goes down well As someone earlier said, soon they’ll be looking out for you. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839/48 "2007-03-23T13:32:43Z")
[QUOTE=boytyperanma] I stopped by the police station and gave them my plate number and a brief description of myself. They told me they would let the overnight officers know. At the point where the third officer treated me like a criminal even after she had confirmed my identity and reason for being there it is harassment in my opinion. I appreciate them noticing something out of place(I’m not sure why they still consider me out of place, maybe they changed shifts around or something) Speaking with my lawyer the police may ask for a license but I am not required to comply with the request. My car is a 2000 white Malibu. I’m can’t think of any vehicle less suspicious. I am 6’1" short blondish hair. [/QUOTE] At first glance I would say you have a bad lawyer. As I think about you either didn’t give him the actual scenerio or you got the complete answer and choose to repeat the part that agrees with your point of view and leave out the rest. If you are stopped randomly on the street you have no obligation to talk to the police or give them ID (that does not happen very often if at all). If it is part of an investigation, including investigating a suspicious vehicle then you are required to identify yourself. Refusing to give biographical information during an investigation is obstruction. If you have a problem with that take it up with the Supreme Court. You are not required to have a driver’s license on you when you are not driving. If you don’t present it as identification during an investigation the officer will be obligated to try and verify your identity in some other way. It will take longer than if you give up your license, which I would guess you wouldn’t like. On top of that you have raised the level of suspicion, especially considering that you drove there and are supposed to have a license on you. The best way to keep them off your back is not to start lying to them. I can think of plenty of cars that are less suspicious. Any car that is not occupied in an otherwise empty parking lot in the middle of the night. I think giving your information to the police station was a good idea. You may still be checked out if you don’t modify your behavior. This is not because of a conspiracy to fuck with you. Everyone might not get the information, or a month from now they might forget they were told. A quick explaination to the next guy including the fact that you gave your information to their headquarters should help. Where I work the information would be in the computer dispatch system and would pop up for any call to that location. We have only had that system for a short time. Your department might still be in the 90s (or 80s). Your information might be tacked up on a board somewhere. [QUOTE=St. Urho] I think you’d have a point if it was the same cop. However, he made it pretty clear there were 3 different officers involved. I doubt they get together and talk about the suspicous person/suspicous vehicle call that turned out to be nothing. [/QUOTE] Exactly what I was going to say. [QUOTE=Least Original User Name Ever] bootyperanma IS part of the routine. He’s at work. What’s not routine is the variety of cops taking their (snark alert) oh so important time (end of snark) out to hassle him. [/QUOTE] I think you missed the point. From the OP it says he has no routine. He is there at random hours when he can squeeze it in, usually at night. He has been questioned 3 times within 2 months. There is no routine there. If he was there everynight at midnight that would be a routine. Cops don’t work 7 days a week. The guy who starts at midnight may not remember seeing the car there before because the other nights the OP was there after midnight the cop wasn’t working. Or more likely the times he did see it might not have registered because it was unoccupied and didn’t cause him to take notice. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-stop-the-police-from-harassing-me/396839.md?page=2)