There's only one thing worse than being tailgated...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

it’s being tailgated by a COP…

this morning, on the drive in from work, i was tailgated by an Eliot, Maine cruiser for at least 3-4 miles, most of the time i couldn’t even see the jerk’s headlights, he was that close…

i was not (obviously) exceeding the speed limit, nor was i going to, i was maybe 2-3 miles below the speed limit the whole way, thru 3 different speed limit changes (45 to 35, to 30)

it’s clear to me that the officer was trying to intimidate me into speeding, at which point, he would then happily ticket me, and fighting a ticket would be futile, after all, who’s the judge going to believe, me, or a police officer…

a tailgating cop also limits my responses to tailgaters;

driving in the gravel on the side of the road to kick up rocks to ding his windshield is out (ticketed for “Weaving”)

brake-checking/slamming on the brakes is out (ticketed for attempting to cause a collision or reckless driving)

flipping the officer off is out

pulling over to let him pass is out (he’d flip on the blues and make an excuse by the time he got to my door)

accelerating to leave him in the dust is out (ticketed for speeding)

so the best i could do is ignore him and stay at the speed limit, which is what i did

now, the next question is…

do i contact the Eliot PD with a complaint, because, in a stroke of beneficial luck, my Mother’s Cousin is the Chief of Police in Eliot, do i tell “Teddy” that one of his officers was being a jerk, and risk being hassled by the rest of the Eliot PD for the forseeable future, or do i be the bigger man and let it slide…

the rage-driven vindictive side of me wants to call the PD and leave an anonymous complaint via phone, so that way they don’t know who complained, yet the officer will still be reprimanded, then again, a diplomatically worded e-mail to Teddy would also work well, but it would be less anonomys…

what to do, what to do…

2

Let it go. Get into a pissing contest with cops, you never win.

Whenever I’m being followed by a cop, I always turn into a store parking lot or something. No sense letting him follow me; sooner or later he’s going to see me do something ticket-able. :wink:

3

Was there a shopping center, a business, or any kind of legitimate parking lot you could pull into? I know towns in Maine can be downright tiny – I’ve visited friends in Dayton, Maine – but in addition to holding my breath and swearing, I think that’s what I’d be looking for.

I feel for you, I really do.

CJ

4

now that my rage is subsiding, i think that letting it slide is the best bet, agreed, no sense in getting Eliot PD’s to harrass me…

problem was, i was being tailgated on a country backroad, there were no stores to pull in at, otherwise i’d have done so

the only drawback to letting it slide is the officer thinks he can get away with this behavior…

Paging Badge, paging Badge would Badge, or any other LEO Doper please report to this thread? what is the best way of dealing with an officer on a power-trip, any suggestions?

5

Slightly OT, I always really do wonder what tailgaters are thinking. I have occasionally caught myself accidentally tailgating when I was daydreaming and the guy ahead of me was going immensely slow…it’s annoying of them but not right of me and I always back off. Not even because it’s rude, but if they hit their brakes hard, I will not be able to stop and then I will be in trouble. Doesn’t this thought ever cross their minds?

As for the cop, let it slide, old boy. You won’t win. :slight_smile:

6

Grrrr. That reminds me of my first ticket. I was driving a lonely stretch of road at night. Out of nowhere a car roars up and starts tailgating me. I sped up and the car remained inches from my bumper. I increased speed until I was 10 MPH over the limit, then the lights went off behind me. I had been aggressively tailgated by a cop! Once I had been forced to speed up, he nailed me for speeding. I was pissed! No one at the court believed my side of the story. :mad:

7

Forget it. Every few weeks I come across a cop on the freeway as I go to work. He always drives about 5kph under the limit and everyone is scared to pass him. Originally I thought it was a pisstake but now I know he is just a sedate driver running an errand, if I pass him doing slightly over the limit he ignores me and anyone else who follows my example.

8

I’m sure it’ll all stem on how much of a ball-buster the cop feels like being, but I’ve had no less than three instances such as this. In each case, I just pulled over and watched as the cop happily blew past me.

9

Do you have a good relationship with the man? You may want to drop the word that one of his people engages in somewhat risky behavior.

10

This happened to me once on the Maine Turnpike, between Eliot and Wells, somewhere. Cop got right on my bee-hind and stayed there. There was enough traffic both ahead and to the right that I couldn’t pull into the passing lane, so I stayed as close to the speed limit as I could and tried to ride it out. The second I threw my cigarette out the window, the flashers came on. It still makes me mad.

11

I agree here. Off the record have a talk with the man. Chances are if he’s the chief, he’s a lot more concerned with his people engaging in stuff like this than closing ranks and making your life difficult.

12

Call Teddy. Seriously.

Look at it this way: that tailgating flatfoot prick probably wasn’t singling you out. He probably pulls stunts like that all day long (power trip, boredom, or both, yeah?). Anyways, Teddy isn’t likely to call a staff meeting, and announce: “My cousin’s kid MacTech complained about you, Officer Needledick, and your incessant, prickish tailgating. Knock that shit off, and whatever you do, guys, don’t harass MacTech. You’ll know it’s the guy not to harass because he drives a purple '72 Roadrunner. Plate number 123 XYZ. That is all.”

Really, that tailgating felcher probably has some history, and you might be doing everyone a favor by complaining to your cousin.

At this minmum, you should make an anonymous call. Call from a payphone in Bangor and tell 'em you saw Officer Needledick molesting a dog by the side of the road. Or better yet, ship some hardcore porn to the PD to his attention. Once a week. For 6 months. That’ll teach 'em.

13

Maybe, maybe not. Some cops I know lament the fact that they get behind someone and then have to drive the speed limit. (hey, they’re human and don’t want to drive that slow, either.) He might actually be thankful that you let him pass. If he then gave you a ticket (for some invented reason), you’d either have a good case to talk to the Chief, or possibly, just a fix-it-ticket (like a light out or something). Safest bet is to pull into some driveway, etc. but if you just pulled off and made like that was where you were going all the time, what could happen?

14

He shouldn’t be tailgating no matter what he feels. If he really wanted to get past, all he had to do was to turn on the lights, and the OP would pull over and he’d go past. If he got an emergency call that’s what he’d do, right?

I agree that the best course is to mention this to the chief off the record. That way he could chew the guy out without having to document anything.

15

Not trying to make this personal, but why would it be okay to throw your trash out the window for everyone else to deal with? I wish they’d ticket for this in MY town.

Sailboat

16

If he had ticketed me for littering, I would have gladly paid the fine, despite the fact that I’ve seen a million other drivers do it and never get in trouble. He ended up ticketing me for driving too slowly–when there was so much traffic I couldn’t go any faster.

In reality, I am still firmly under the impression that I was ticketed for being nineteen years old with NJ plates in Maine and having a car covered with hippie liberal bumper stickers. :slight_smile:

17

"In reality, I am still firmly under the impression that I was ticketed for being nineteen years old with NJ plates in Maine and having a car covered with hippie liberal bumper stickers. "

You did not know that was legal to do up there? Man, those bumper stickers get you young guys every time. That is just a double dog dare to the Maine Mounties…

18

He’s right, you know. Just ask the Wiccan friends I was visiting up there. :wink:

CJ

19

Funny, I had this happen to me in Maine as well. On one of the back roads in Oxford. The limit was 45 and I held it right on 40 the whole length of that road with him right on my ass. Eventually we pulled onto a 2-lane road and he blew right past me.

20

Could the cop have known you were related to the chief? If so he might have been trying to stir up trouble for his superiors.
One option you didn’t mention is to slow down gradually. I don’t know if its still true but when the freeway system was a baby, there was a minimum speed limit, as well as a maximum. IIRC it was 40MPH . He’d get tired of playing with you quicker if you roll over and play dead.