Officer: "Do you know why I pulled you over?" Should the answer always be "no?"

In My Humble Opinion
61

I agree with this.
The truth is you don’t know for sure why you were pulled over, even if you suspect the reason. But you can be polite and respectful without confessing to any violations. “No, sir, I’m afraid I don’t” is just fine. I doubt any cop will be pleased at a smart-alecky or lawyery answer, and IMO you’re just increasing your chances of getting a ticket if you’re intentionally obtuse.

My only exception to this rule pertains to roadside DUI tests. You cannot be compelled to provide evidence against yourself. A lawyer once told me that “I respectfully decline to perform any roadside tests” is a your best response. In my younger and more foolish days, I admit I needed this advice more than I do now. But the one time I used this line, it earned me a trip to the station and a half-hour wait for a breathalyzer, which tested under the limit. Got a ticket for following too closely, which was better than a DUI.

(Not that I advocate drinking and driving. I don’t, and I haven’t done it myself in about 20 years. But I still believe that roadside DUI testing is a violation of the 5th amendment.)

62

Yeah i suspect RT was not nearly as pretty. :wink:

63

In the state I grew up in, at the time that I grew up, one’s license was automatically suspended if one refused to take a roadside sobriety test. Maybe things are different now, or where you are, or both.

64

You are not required to perform field sobriety test, under the 5th amendment. However, your state may have “implied consent” laws. Driving is a privilege granted by the state and if you refuse to take a test your license may be suspended and possibly other penalties, even without criminal charges.

The Supreme Court ruled that DUI roadblocks are not a violation of the 4th amendment.

IANAL but I read what they write.

65

Given that it’s impossible to know the mind of another, “No, why?” is always an honest answer.

I mean, my dad was speeding one time and was pulled over - because the cop noticed that the inside of his tire was bulging as could pop at any time. You never know why you were pulled over.

66

That’s always what I figure. All the “tricks” you read about seem like, at best, will result in you getting a ticket for whatever you were pulled over for. At worst, are going to irritate the cop, potentially break laws (like not identifying yourself) and end up with either extra charges or a trip do the police station. Watching LivePD, I’ve seen quite a few people talk themselves into a ticket for, more or less, being an asshole and plenty of people end up not getting one for, well, not being an asshole.

Also, I was talking to an officer, who at the time was very new to the force, about something along these lines but similar and how he’d react to them. He said this kind of behavior would raise his suspicion, it’s totally legal but it’s not normal.

And lets not forget, it’s going to vary from cop to cop, hell, a single cop could handle the exact same stop differently at the beginning of his shift as he would at the end.
I remember one time I absolutely blew through a stop sign. I was speeding, I didn’t see the sign, didn’t even slow down a little. I saw the sign as I was passing it…I also saw the cop that was lucky enough to see me coming and waited instead of pulling out in front of me. He pulled me over, but just pulled up next to my window, yelled at me for a few seconds from his car and drove away.

67

I had almost the exact thing happen. A cop pulled me over as I was driving home with a date fairly late, maybe 2am on a weekend night. The cop asked if I knew why she’d pulled me over. I said no, as indeed I had no clue. She said one of the brake lights on my car was out. I said I’d get it fixed, and she let me go. On the way home, my date opined that the cop pulled us over just to see if I was sober. I scoffed at the idea, but sure enough, the brake light was working fine. I even took it to a shop to confirm it wasn’t an intermittent problem, a useless expense that I think the cop should be responsible for. I don’t care if she wanted to do a sobriety test, she didnt have to make up some bullshit lie and get me worried about the safety of my car.

68

I have gotten out of tickets by admitting that I was travelling too fast twice.

For one, I said I was tired and not paying enough attention. I even admitted that I knew I was coming upon a lower speed limit, which I always brake for. Another time, when I was going seriously too fast, I had pulled over before the cop even got his car turned around behind me. For my honesty, and the fact that he did catch me slowing down when I saw a car on the horizon, he gave it to me at the second speed he clocked me at, which saved me money and a trip to a courthouse several counties away from home. I learned how well honesty works when I was a passenger with a friend who had just been pulled over after we got off the Interstate and onto a local highway. He even owned up to having a radar detector and still didn’t get a ticket. Maybe it was the minivan? It’s still a lesson that has served me well in more than just speeding tickets.

69

That sounds odd. Keep in mind that if it was, indeed, an intermittent problem, it’s extraordinarily for a shop to figure anything out if it’s working when they have it. If the shop did anything at all, they stuck their hand around the wiring harness and shook it and maybe took a quick look under the car to make sure there wasn’t an obvious break in the wire or a ground that was failing.
Anyway, I don’t know why the cop wouldn’t have just waited for you to drift, even a little, over a line or said you didn’t use your blinker or something like that.

Saying your brake light is out seems like a good way to get reports filed against you. Enough of them and the department is likely to reprimand you (or at least tell you to stop).

Now, back when I was in college, the city I was in passed a new rule (law? ordinance? policy? I don’t know) that gave police the ability to pull someone over if they saw them smoking and believed they were under 18.
I think we all saw through that one pretty quickly. This, at least this area, was a college town, there were college kids all over the place and a lot of us would go for a drive in the campus area to smoke weed. It’s hard to believe that policy wasn’t put in place so the cops could pull us over if they saw us smoking (cigarettes or weed). They wouldn’t need to see what we were holding or get behind us an smell it. They just needed to see that we were smoking something and could claim we looked under 18.

70

I’ve found this as well. The difference being when you talk nice, they’re more friendly about writing the ticket, trumping up the arrest warrant, or ignoring the assault case completely. IME with regard to traffic stops, the correct answer is always the honest, “No”. Because you almost never know why they’ve decided to pull you over.

71

Another thing I’ve learned over the years is that people (cops included) tend to be nicer to the opposite sex. If a female trooper pulls me over, I’m getting a ticket. If a male pulls me over, I have a fighting chance of getting out of it. But not the time I was going way, way over. Still, he gave me a break. And we both had a great laugh over the experience.

72

Is that a big deal where you are? Around here a burnt out light citation is no points and no fine, even, if you show up at the cop shop and show it’s been fixed before the court date.

73

“I will be exercising my 5th Amendment right to remain silent.” Not another word.

74

Not a single cop is going to respond to that with ‘You won, have a nice afternoon, drive safe’. I think the more likely response it to ask you to step out your car, put you in handcuffs, mirandize you and explain that it’s your legal right to remain silent, but you’re also going to be arrested for failing to identify yourself to a police officer (or whatever arrestable offenses they may have witnessed).

Now, I understand why someone might clam up until they have a lawyer present. If you have something illegal in the car. If you have warrants. If you’re drunk/high. But if you got pulled over for running a stop sign and you’re otherwise clean, I just can’t see any real advantage to not being friendly and cooperative and driving away when it’s over. If you have nothing to hide, I see no reason to go out of your way to escalate the situation.

75

Exercising your constitutional rights is hardly escalating a situation. If a cop believes that someone who exercise their constitutional rights is trying to create a scene, then he or she has no business being on any police force.

And I never said not to identify yourself. You should of course hand over your driver’s license. But the “Why did I pull you over” question is just a fishing expedition to get you to admit guilt. Don’t fall for it.

76

IME, the police will usually give you 2 or 3 opportunities to lie to them. If you don’t take them up on it, you’re more likely to get a warning. But I’m an older white guy too, so YMMV.

77

Some people in this thread–apparently on both sides of the law–either haven’t been asked or do not themselves ask “Do you know why I pulled you over.” As others have surmised, obviously some cops do, as I was asked.

I just wanted to clarify I’ve never NOT been asked. Maybe it’s a state-to-state thing–apparently it’s a state-wide protocol here.

I grew up in a small suburb of the biggest city in the state–about a half hour away. We had around 15k in our city, but there was an even bigger suburb around 10 minutes closer to the big City.

I familiarized myself with typical speed traps and things of that nature to avoid trouble (this was when I was 18 years old, around 1999). I was getting ready for a summer trip and borrowed a CD Walkman (remember those?! OH!! I just remembered it’s called a DiskMan) so I would have a way to listen to music on my headphones while on the trip. I had to get it from the bigger, neighboring city from a friend. It was around midnight or so and I was driving home. A cop got behind me right as I left her house and stuck to me like glue. It was obvious he was trying to find a reason to pull me over.

He hung back as I got on Highway 66 on the way out of his town.

A few miles out of town I see flashing red lights hauling ass in the far distance. So I pull over to let what I presumed would be an ambulance pass by. Except it was that cop, and he pulled in behind me. So he pulled me over from a few miles back. I suspect he tried to snag me before I was outside city limits.

When he asked the inevitable “do you know why I pulled you over?” I certainly had no clue.
“I have no idea because I wasn’t even moving by the time you got to me.”

He asked: “what are you up to tonight?”

I said “I just grabbed this Diskman from a friend, I’m going on a trip.”

“oh someone you know in town?”

‘yes.’

“Doing any drinking?”

‘No sir I’ve never drank before’ (and didn’t until I was in my 30s).

“Oh ok.” (Proceeds to make small talk about where I was going, about the weather, before saying “Ok have a great night and a safe trip” and dismissing me).

I said “Well, I’m sorry for whatever caused me to get pulled over…”

And I swear, he said:

‘Oh you didn’t do anything wrong. There’s nothing going on tonight and I was just looking for something to do. I saw your car early on in town and had an inkling to check you out. But you’re good and didn’t do anything wrong.’

I apologized again, because I literally do not know how to respond to that.

78

The cops always tell me why they pulled me over, although it’s pretty infrequent these days (and honestly, I deserve to be pulled over more often).

The honest answer if asked, though, is always “no”; you don’t know why they pulled you over. Cops always have discretion. Even if you know you were speeding, so were a lot of other people; why did the cop choose to pull you over? It’s not lying or even a loophole to answer “no.”

Here’s some backup from a fellow Michigander.

79

You can have a normal conversation with the cop while also not admitting guilt to anything.
Even if remaining silent doesn’t escalate the situation, it’s certainly not going to help it. Unless, of course, you do actually have something to be concerned with.

Driver: Why me, everyone was speeding?
Officer: Have you ever gone fishing?
Driver: Yes
Officer: Did you ever catch all the fish?

I wish I could remember where I heard that.

80

You missed the last line -

Driver: I catch & release so there’s some for next time.