I’ve been pulled over five times. Four of these were because I was, in fact, speeding. Not Mario Andretti type speeding, but speeding nonetheless. I may have gotten one warning out of the four, but no tickets.
The one other time, I’m coming back from seeing Apollo 13 with son who was in his early teens then. I got pulled over because I looked like someone who the cop had either pulled over or arrested before. The cop was polite and sent us on our way when he realized I was not that person.
Since the cop didn’t come out with his gun drawn or something, I can only assume that there wasn’t an arrest warrant out for the guy he thought I was. I guess the cop was just planning on hassling the other guy.
Got pulled over, didn’t deserve it, didn’t get a ticket. I was driving through a school zone on my way to work. It’s one of the zones where they have flashing lights on either end of the zone - if its around opening or closing time the lights are flashing, and the speed limit is 15 through the zone. If the lights aren’t flashing, the speed limit was 35. As I got to the end of the zone I got pulled over for going 32. Cop lectured me a bit, ran my record, but decided to let me off with a warning. I was honestly surprised, since I always check the lights (they’re not hard to see), but given that I could see that the lights were still flashing on this end of the zone and he was letting me off, I didn’t say anything. The next day I drove through the same school zone right around the same time, and noticed that the lights on either end were out of sync - the lights that I passed as I entered the zone were off, but the lights at the other end were still flashing. So the day before, the cop thought the zone was still active, even though people entering it from the other side thought it was not. I called the school to let them know, and they fixed it in a week or so.
I was rear-ended by a man driving a pickup truck which was, in turn, rear-ended by a woman driving a van. I was ticketed; they were both released without a ticket. The officer would not tell me what my alleged offense was and when I told him I had not done anything wrong he answered “I don’t care.”
I had to go to the city hall of the municipality where the accident occurred to find out what the ticket was for; it was for “improper turn,” of which I was not guilty. I went to court and won. The other two drivers, however, got away with assured clear distance violations and, because they were not cited, their insurance companies, which were trying to sue mine, couldn’t raise their rates. Fortunately, mine couldn’t raise mine either.
My HATT (husband at the time) and I were driving somewhere and he got pulled over. When the cop asked if he knew why he stopped us, my husband was very defensive and irritated. He got a ticket.
A couple months later, i was driving and we got pulled over. When the cop came up i was polite and respectful. i didn’t get a ticket.
HATT says, “It’s because you are a female and I’m a male.”
I replied, “It’s because you were an asshole and I wasn’t.”
I realize there is probably a male/female skew out there. But I don’t like to put that kind of stereotype on cops. I think there are other variables at play.
But I’ve seen it hapen over and over again. When you treat someone in a gatekeeper position with politeness and respect, and not get defensive - they are more apt to help you out.
I was pulled over because I made a left turn from a left turn only lane. The cop said that I entered the lane too early. I did ask what was the law on that: how far from the intersection do you have to be to get into the left turn lane?
I think what happened was that the cop decided to make a left turn and wanted to switch lanes, and saw me coming up in the lane.
In any case, he didn’t even give me a warning. Just told me what I did and moved on. My age and the fact I was polite and calm to him gave him no reason to force the issue.
I was on a windy back road. The car behind me was following pretty closely. I decided to blow him off, I couldn’t tell it was a police car, it was dark out and all I saw were the headlights. I am usually pretty conservative in my driving, but this guy was really on my ass. I was driving a car that could blow him away, so I did it. I paid $212 to do it, but I did it.
As soon as I got to 45, his lights went on. We were in a 35 mph zone.
I was driving in Tempe and the cop flipped on his lights. I pulled onto a side street out of traffic, did the kill the engine, drop the window, put the hands on the wheel thing. When he asked I told him I didn’t know why I’d been pulled over.
He said my plates and registration had been suspended for no insurance. I told him I did have insurance and produced my card, which, unfortunately, was the previous 6 months’ edition. I couldn’t find the new one anywhere.
He said, “Oh, you’re with Geico? I bet what happened was they didn’t actually process your renewal. One of the guys on my squad had that happen to him. He was pretty ticked when he got the suspension notice in the mail. Did you get one?”
“No, sir, but I moved a couple months ago and it might not have forwarded.”
“Well, look, I’m sorry, but I’ve got to seize your license plate, since even though it’s not really you’re fault you are driving with them suspended. I’m not going to cite you. Call Geico on Monday and figure out what happened. Once you have insurance in place, go to MVD and they’ll lift your suspension.”
He took my plate, got in his car and took off, as professional and polite as could be, which is a far cry from most of experiences with cops in the Phoenix area’s East Valley.
I called Geico, they said, “Oops. Sorry about that.” I demanded a full refund for the policy period and have been happily using esurance ever since.
I have always been unfailingly polite and deferential in all cases where I was pulled over. Even when I was pretty steamed about being pulled over for looking like someone else.
Even if you know the cop is 100% wrong, it serves no purpose, got get beligerent or defensive.
I was doing 90 on I-5 on a long downhill straightaway in northern California. It was early in the morning, I was the only car on the road for miles. I saw the police car’s flashing lights–he was a mile or so behind me. I had time to pull over, open my window, and was holding out my license and registration by the time he walked up. He only ticketed me for doing 72 in a 65 zone.
Got pulled over for going 48 in a 35 zone on a road I’ve been driving the same way for something like 30 years. I was polite, if maybe slightly defensive. After the usual wait for no reason I was let go with a warning. Why did he pull me over and then not bother to give me a ticket? My best guess is that he didn’t realize I am a middle-aged white guy until he got to my window as I happened to have a surfboard on top of my car at the time. I bet he thought he was teaching a lesson to some youngsters.
I was speeding (the reason for the stop), and would have probably failed a breath test.
I was NOT ticketed, because the cop was in a good mood, I suppose, and because I said as little as possible (so as to reduce the odds that I would utter a slurred word).
I was on vacation, with my wife and two kids in the car.
Ever since – beginning at the moment I saw the red lights in my rear-view mirror – I have envisioned myself being arrested and ticketed for DUI in front of my family.
It’s a horrible vision.
Since then, I have never, ever operated a vehicle after consuming even a drop of alcohol – and in fact I have been a near teetotaler ever since, and completely dry for the last month or so.
Thank you, anonymous Minnesota State Trooper. I learned my lesson, even without a ticket.
Heh, sounds exactly like my guy just sitting there and pulling over everyone (which happened in VA).
Though I guess I would be the Youngster he taught a lesson to.
Last time I was pulled over was on a semi-curvy 2-lane rural road that had been 55MPH for decades, but recently the speed limit was reduced to 45MPH. A cop passed me going the opposite direction and clocked me at something over 50, forget the exact speed. He turned around and pulled me over. He informed me of the new speed limit and let me go, he was almost apologetic. It’s not a busy road, not sure why it’s 45MPH now, but a lot of speed limits are going down around here.
slight hijack, but my favorite story to tell about gatekeepers is the time I was vacationing in Key West and we got evacuated due to Hurricane Irene.
In 1999, the HATT and I drove from Key West to Miami to avoid the flooding (our flight had a changeover in Miami). We weathered out the hurricane in a local hotel room. and skipping the first leg of our flight required us to go through customs, for some reason.
EVERYBODY was stuck in customs. And due to the hurricane, there were lots of electrical malfunctions - poor air conditioning, leaking roofs and wet carpets, and constantly breaking baggage scanners.
There was a huge pile of luggage to be scanned and only one scanner ocassionally working. Meaning everything else either had to be hand-checked or they had to delay while maintenance tweaked.
People were loudly complaining, huffing and puffing, and some were even trying to throw their bags in the front of the line. One of my most vivid memories is this tiny bulldog of a Dominican nun in her white and blue habit hurling her bags continually in front of everyone else, spouting what sounded like hexes and curses on the airport personnel.
One of the custom workers was having to serve as front man, apologizing for the delays, making announcements, dealing with the screaming. Every time he tried to update the crowd on the situation, people would either totally ignore him or roll their eyes and huff and puff.
I felt bad for him. He was just trying to do his job and obviously stressed. I always made sure to listen attentively and nodded that I understood. It must have showed that I didn’t blame him, because he started to just focus on my HATT and I whenever he had something to say.
When they finally got the scanner back up and running, the employee came right up to me and asked me which bags belonged to HATT and I. Fortunately, they were bright pink and blue and easy to spot, because he pulled them out of all the others and put us first on the scanner. Then he met us at the other end, thanked me for being a friendly face in the crowd, and called over a golf cart to take us directly to our terminal.
We were one of the only ones who made the connecting flight. Not even the Dominican nun got through.
It’s a lesson that has stayed with me for over 10 years.
My last pullover was entering my work’s main road. The claim was that I went through a red during my left turn. My counterclaim was that it turned yellow as I approached the stop line, and it would not have been safe to stop, and I believed that I was nearly through the turn before it went full red.
I was in a line of cars pulled over, as this was a team enforcement. I only got a warning. There had been a fairly couple of bad accidents at this intersection the week before, so they were targeting the area, and though they claimed they’d be back to do the enforcement action again, they haven’t returned in the year since.
Same as the last time I got a speeding ticket - I was picking up speed heading out of some little town and picked up too much speed before the speed limit changed.
