Trying asking him if all the murders and rapes have been solved. He’ll probably see where he’s wasting his time on you and take off to stop real crime.
“These aren’t the drunks you are looking for.”
A long time ago, in a VW far, far, away, I was speeding on the main highway with 4 guys in the car, all had beers, when we got pulled over about a mile from my house (we hid the beers). Still all on the young side of 30 years old.
The cop is being polite to me while checking license and registration, I am being polite back, when Donnie in the back seat starts flipping the cop a bunch of shit…
I turned around, the cop is still standing at my window holding my license, and I loudly told Donnie, “Will you shut up!?! This is MY ticket!!!” Cop looks at the address on my license and said, “That’s right up the hill? Yes I said. You boys go directly there and stay all afternoon. Yes Sir!!”
I think he actually laughed as he went back to the car, and he did follow us up the hill and into my driveway. I’m sure we would have all got arrested if I hadn’t told Donnie to shut up.
This worked for me also, on the approach to the Dumbarton bridge at 4 am (I was heading for the airport.) I admitted it right away and apologized. It clearly helped that I had a suitcase in the car and was clearly not drunk.
But what really helped is that I’ve had no tickets in California for the 22 years I’ve lived here. It seems getting the first ticket is harder than getting the nth one.
Don’t forget to add “Don’t you have any real crimes to worry about? Or are you just a glorified meter maid raising revenue for the state?”
I think having your documents out is fine, but only if you can just open up your glove box and take them out. Don’t be rummaging around in there because the officer could think you’re looking for a weapon.
That’s why I have my registration and insurance card in a little pouch attached to my sun visor. I don’t want to make the cop nervous by digging in my glove box or console. I would have to get my license out of my wallet, but would let the cop know before I reached there.
We had one LT who would always ask (dispatch) for priors back when that was allowed. If you were clean, you got off with a warning, if you had prior stops, you got a ticket.
IME, honesty is the best policy. Most police will give you several opportunities to lie to them. Do not take them up on it.
Humor helps too.
I’ve gotten a couple of speeding tickets over the past few years (red Mustang + lead foot), but being friendly and deferential may have gotten one of the troopers to not give me the full ticket that he could have: he pulled me over for speeding in a construction zone, though it was a Sunday morning on a holiday weekend, and there were no workers present.
When I was a kid, in the late '70s, my father had a CB radio in the car (as a lot of people did in that era), and when we’d go on family road trips, he’d use it to learn from the truckers where the cops were located. We were driving up I-57 in central Illinois, and the truckers had been chattering for a half-hour about a state trooper in the median ahead of us. It was around noon, and we were looking for a place to turn off for lunch, and my dad turned off the CB – and forgot about the trooper, whom he shot past at about 20mph above the limit.
The trooper pulled him over, and my father explained the situation, acknowledging he was speeding, and that he knew that the trooper had been on radar duty there. The trooper sent him along with a warning, telling him, “tell your family that lunch is on the Illinois State Patrol.”
Twice I’ve been stopped near/in a small town and gotten off with a warning when I expressed that I was stopping off in that town. Both times, it was like:
“So, where you headed?”
“Oh, I was just going for lunch”
“Yeah? Where at?”
“Bell’s Diner? You know, around the turn up there?”
“They still have the cookouts there on Tuesdays?”
“They did last week. The steak sandwich is good.”
“Well, I’m going to let you off with a warning this time…”
Each time felt like the officer was testing me to see if I qualified as enough of “a regular” to let off with a warning or if he was going to hit me as some out-of-towner blowing through his jurisdiction.
QFT. You can improve your odds by being polite and respectful, or worsen them by being a smart-ass jerk. Either way, it doesn’t matter nearly as much as the officer’s mood before he pulled you over.
If you don’t want speeding tickets, then don’t speed.
If the cop asks, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” how will you respond?
Even though you’re being honest, “Because I was speeding” is not a good answer because you’re admitting guilt. When I am asked this question I simply say, “I don’t know.”
If I thought that I was speeding (which I rarely do), I’d probably say something like “I guess because I was going faster than you were willing to let go.” Or something similar.
In my previous life as a long distance touring motorcyclist, I got stopped plenty of times. I enjoyed traveling in the triple digits. I had a radar detector, but the best they can do is shave a couples miles off.
I tried everything, except fellatio, to get out of the ticket. Nothing worked. I was always traveling solo. My logic was, who am I hurting? It is just me and the highway.
Fortunately the citations never made it to my insurance company.
Some police apologized saying, “Sorry, my boss said to write tickets today”.
Be an attractive white woman?
While conceptually, I get the part about not self incriminating, my experience in talking to actual cops is that it doesn’t matter. In most cases, they pulled you over because they already have all the evidence they need. Your admission of guilt changes the picture not at all in that regard. What they have told me though is first, honesty goes a long way, and second, if you actually don’t know how fast you were going, that’s maybe worse than speeding itself.
I always admit that I know why I’ve been pulled over. And I’ve been pulled over a lot; I think my worst ding was 75 in a 40. I’ve only gotten two tickets in my life though. Once because I didn’t have my registration or insurance papers (trooper said he didn’t mean to give me a ticket, but I left him no option) and once in a small town revenue operation (27 in a 25).
The cop that pulled me over for the 35 mph over incident above was cool. He made me sit in his car for a while while he gave me a huge lecture, then showed my how the radar worked and let me run it for a while. I think he was most glad I wasn’t drunk.
Always wanted to answer, “Because you wanted to compliment me on my fine driving.”
The two times I’ve been stopped in the last 10 years or so (the first was bogus) I know my priors were checked because it was mentioned. I guess in California it is allowed.
The only time I talked my way out of a speeding ticket - I was making my way down a twisty canyon in Colorado and this guy towing a boat or something careened past me speeding (obviously) and crossing the double yellow line in this narrow canyon. I’m the one who got pulled over and I can’t remember exactly what I said but it was along the lines of ‘why are you pulling me over when that other guy just blew past me? He’s the one that should get a ticket’ and I was honestly pissed off. So, maybe the cop thought I was right and ultimately didn’t give me a ticket.
I worked with several LEOs in my USAF Reserve job, from state police to locals in 4 different states. In conversation with them at various times, they all said their decision on whether to write a citation or not was mostly made (based on the nature/severity of your violation, prevailing conditions, etc.) before they even left their car to get your documents. For the rest of their decision, attitude was everything… so don’t be an asshole. They all said if they couldn’t let something go with a warning for whatever reason, they’d often write something significantly reduced from the actual circumstances if the driver wasn’t an asshole.
Don’t be an asshole.
For me, being in the military was enough to escape with a warning 3 times; once pre-9/11, twice post-9/11. The last time was, literally, less than 1/2mi from my house… after an 8 1/2hr drive home for a long Labor Day weekend. Which was almost really bad, because sitting on my passenger seat was a speeding ticket from one of MDSP’s finest, just 2 1/2hrs prior.