It very much depends on the nature of the stop, the mood and personality of the officer, and whether they need to reach a quota or are allowed to issue warnings.
A number of years ago I was driving my SiL in the passenger seat, but she had two beautiful nieces in the back seat. Their ages were approximately 8 and 4. I got stopped by a CPD cruiser for running a red light, but I was really finishing a left turn. The arrow went to yellow and then to red within, I swear, one second. Anyway, the female officer came to the car but, when she saw those two beautiful little girls in the back seat looking scared and sad, she just gave me a brief verbal warning and walked away. God bless their little souls! LOL
That is the law here too. A veteran officer knows when to not ask questions they don’t want to know the answer to.
Before I became a supervisor I was backing up a new officer. Before I got there he called for a warrant check. The nature of the call didn’t require that but as a new officer he felt like he was being thorough. When I got there I saw it was a new mom with a month old baby. She wound up having a bullshit traffic warrant. I turned to him and said “Congratulations that’s your baby now.” Then I stood back and had him figure out how to handle it. He thanked me later for that and many other lessons. Discretion is a wonderful thing but it takes years to learn to use it right.
My friend changed provinces and neglected to renew either license plate or insurance for several months. One day he got pulled over by the police, and they told him that was expired. He says he told them “look, that’s my future father in law in the car, I’m taking him to the airport, and whatever you guys do to me is nothing compared to what he will do if he misses his flight because of this.” I guess the cop was not up to doing all the paperwork, because he let him off with a warning.
Many years ago on an episode of One Day At A Time Valerie Bertinelli tells Bonnie Franklin she got pulled over for speeding and got off with a warning. “Face it mom, I get away with everything because I’m young, cute and gorgeous.”
And more news today - having a family doesn’t appear to have mattered here…
The lawsuit currently underway in Kansas deals with the KHP and, specifically, (soon-to-be-former) patrol superintendent Herman Jones, who performed one of these “two-step” stops on a Colorado family traveling cross-country in their RV. Jones extended the stop after issuing a warning for crossing the fog line. He then detained the family for another 40 minutes to allow a drug dog sniff and the tossing of the RV’s interior by three troopers. Nothing illegal was found, but the troopers still managed to damage the toilet, throw clothes everywhere, and break the bathroom door off its frame.
i do about 2% of my driving in Az and NV, I have gotten 80% of my tickets there. I have lived in Ca my entire life and gotten 2 tickets in almost 60 yrs of driving. I have probably had a dozen between AZ and NV.
Driving 120mph in the wide open spaces of desert NV & AZ will do that to a man. At least it sure does for me. Your mileage (and speed) may vary.
On a more serious note, many folks complain that out-of-state plates are a magnet for highway enforcers. From the police POV they’re easy tickets with very little chance of the recipient showing up to complain or plead innocent. I’d sooner blame it on folks from out of state not being familiar with the local speed traps, highway patrol regular hiding places, the local “going rate” for tolerable actual speed vs posted speed limit, etc.
I could not care less if someone complains or pleads not guilty. We get OT if court lands outside of our regular hours, which for me it always does.
Most of my out of state tickets are to FIBs. They drive like Kamakazi pilots. Have you driven in illinois? You can go 110 and pass nobody. Hell, a school bus full of kids will fly by you.
I don’t know what an “FIB” is. I’m guessing an Illinoisian?
I do know my own last ticket was driving on a nearly empty freeway 20 miles outside of Las Vegas in an NV-registered rental car. I was going 80-something in a 65 zone. Which is about 20mph less than I (and everyone else) drive on the crowded urban freeways at home in Miami.
The Nevada Highway Patrolman was courteous and professional. I gave him my rental paperwork and Florida driver license. After handing me my citation and delivering his explanation of my options, he added one parenthetical note at the end.
I’ve driven all over the USA often several times a year, and only got stopped once - 40 years ago on the Interstate in Idaho, because I was sppeeding. I wonder at the older black Republican senator who said that he got pulled over several times a year in Washinton DC - he must be one lousy driver.
Not sure if you are kidding-but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been in a car that was pulled over. I do not think for one minute that it’s a coincidence that two of those times white me was in a car with a couple of black men and the cops claimed they pulled the car over because a taillight was out or some such thing. (Whatever the excuse was, I remember it wasn’t true)
Being stopped for DWB (Driving While Black) is real common in the US. To the point there’s even a term for it.
When I was in USAF at one point I had about 50 young enlisted folks under my command. As was commonplace then, about half were black, half white, and a few Hispanic. About 80% male. So quite skew distribution from the general US populace. The number of interactions my short-haired respectful black kids had with the local off-base police was night and day compared to the short-haired respectful white kids. Both groups’ interactions with USAF’s on-base police were about the same.
I learned a lot in that job. Not all of it welcome.
Yes, there was a flavour of sarcasm in my comment, given that he was an older gentleman, Republican US senator, said it while wearing what I assume to be a fairly expensive suit and tie which would be a not unusual mode of dress for him, and I presume owns and drives a luxury car, and also presumably lives in an upscale neighbourhood.
In terms of speaking with the driver, here in the UK the SOP is for the officer to sit them in the back of the police car for a chat, while any passengers remain in the car. Of course that may change if it’s a solo cop and the driver is in sole charge of young children. But even in that case, as already stated, if your vehicle is uninsured or unroadworthy, you may have to phone a friend to get a lift home while it gets towed.
I was once stopped for driving without a valid registration. We had neglected to renew it. The cop was visibly relieved when he ran my id and learned i was the owner of the car. He asked if i had a smart phone and could register online, and he left me on the side of the road with a promise to do that before i started the car again
Middle aged white lady privilege.
Weirdly, he also told me that if i contested the ticket i would win. But i was guilty, and paid the fine.
The car was full of crap because I’d just been taking stuff from a friend selling his house. I had bags of plants in dirt, garden equipment, and hidden under other stuff, several open bottles of liquor. I was really glad I’d thought to hide those.
I think I’ve posted here before but I spent a night in jail and posted a bond that I never recovered and incurred thousands of dollars in legal and impound fees because I was stopped and admitted to the cop that I had moved to the state 47 days ago and my registration and license were still from the old state.
The cop was ranting about “you people coming here thinking you can do whatever you want”. I’m sure he was talking about people coming from Missouri to Georgia, not Brown people moving to upscale developments in previously lily white suburbs.
The weird thing in my story is that the cop, seeing an unregistered car full of crap, was visibly anxious as he approached my car. I could see the change in his posture when he looked up my driver’s license. The whole tone of the interaction changed. But I’m sure it also helped that i look like a wealthy middle aged white lady. I mean, i was dirty, because I’d been digging stuff out of my friend’s yard. But it was “nice” work clothes.
FIB’s This made me chuckle you must be from Wisconsin. We see them here in Michigan too, heading North on M37 speeding, tailgating, passing in dbl yellows.
Your mileage (and speed) may vary.