Wellll…that’s 1) a pretty typical thing for a cop to say, and 2) not how non-cops view the world.
I really don’t mean to be rude to guys like you and kopek and pkbites (and others I may have forgotten about) specifically, but sometimes y’all say stuff that is irritatingly tone deaf.
See, non-cops like to just go about their business, getting errands out of the way while trying to decide what to do for supper and how to prioritize any number of bills to be paid, or other mundane tasks. But just like in a video game there are these uniforms who can, inscrutably, scotch all those plans or even “Game Over” you whether you think you’ve done anything unlawful or not. Doesn’t happen all the time, but often enough that it’s on everyone’s mind on some level. So, when you approach one of us, we don’t know for sure what your intentions are, how nervous you might be, or which bloodthirsty blight on society you may have mistaken us for. We just see a thing that can ruin or end our day–and from what we can tell, without repercussion apart from a paid vacation if they really fuck up. Those of us who’ve never had a good experience with the police do everything we can to limit the encounter, just as we would if we were approached members of a street gang. Don’t provoke, don’t speak unless spoken to, remain impersonal especially when they try to appear human because that’s always been a trap in the past.
All that? That’s not escalating. That’s an attempt to survive what is perceived as a potentially devastating (to us) encounter. No, we have no bad behavior to hide. We just want you to leave us alone and please don’t kill us, abuse us, plant drugs in our car, or wrongfully arrest us. And…I’m a law-abiding (well, apart from speed limits) middle-aged white guy and I’m nervous around badges. I can’t imagine what darker skinned folks are more likely to be thinking under the same circumstances.
You changed what I was talking about. You said ‘don’t speak unless spoken to’. My issue was with ‘don’t speak, period’, nothing, no words, no sound, exercise your right to remain silent.
Also, you do realize I’m not a cop, right? yeah I know ‘sounds like something a cop would say’, but you’ve got 30,000 posts of mine to comb through if you really want to check.
I was driving me and my (then) girlfriend back from a club in central London, the drive took us down some country lanes which were deserted after midnight, so I was going pretty quickly. The police in the car behind me put on his lights and I pulled over, he got out and walked to my car and put his head right into my open driver’s side window and said “Confucius say do not speed when a police car is behind you.”
We both giggled, I explained we were coming back from a late night (and, fortunately, neither of us were at all intoxicated) and I hadn’t realised I was going too fast as there was no other traffic about, plus I hadn’t seen him - all true, except I knew how fast I was going. We got a small lecture and sent on our way.
Another time I went through a red on a motorbike, I explained I was late for my Saturday job and got a warning (when you’re on a bike if you get hit by a vehicle at a junction you’re dead) but no ticket.
Something similar happened to me once. I got pulled over when I didn’t immediately slow down on entering a reduced-speed zone. I admitted I had been going the speed I was going and hadn’t seen the sign. The cop seemed understanding and asked if the address on my license was current. I admitted it wasn’t and he gave me a ticket for that only. I suspect if I hadn’t, I might’ve gotten the speeding ticket.
On another occasion I was blatantly speeding. I admitted it when I got pulled over and asked the cop to please just hurry and give me the ticket, because I’d just worked an eight-hour shift with no bathroom break and I really needed to go. It was when I was working in this little restaurant on the pier that only had one tiny airplane-style bathroom, and it wasn’t working that day. The public restrooms at the base of the pier were also closed for renovations, and the temporary outhouses in their place had no lights inside. By the time I finished my sidework and got out, all the restaurants were closed and I wasn’t old enough to get into bars. I was near tears. The cop let me off with a warning. I made it home without, well, either type of accident.
Yeah I think answer to OP question is ‘it should be moot because officer explained it right off’. And actually the only two times I’ve been pulled over they did: 1) ‘your inspection stick is out of date’, and 2) ‘I clocked you going 60 in 45 zone’. In latter case I didn’t agree and politely said so, was on the brakes where limit dropped from 55 to 45 going into a town on a country road and pretty sure I was near 45 when I actually passed the 45 sign. He let me off with a warning, though I guess not necessarily because he agreed he was wrong.
I’d hope cops would always just do that. But if they asked if I knew why they pulled me over I’d probably follow the advice of many posts including from police on thread and not admit any violation. Except I do wonder if you can not come across as a wiseass doing that if it’s 100% blatantly obvious what you did (blew through red light, were going way over the limit, etc.) and whether that could generate unnecessary ill will. Still, I don’t see any case you have to admit you knew your actual speedometer reading. ‘Do you know how fast you were going?’ can virtually* always plausibly be answered ‘no’.
*head-up display might make that more of a stretch?