The last time I got tailed by a cop for what felt like an excessive distance I called her supervisor, that same shift, and complained about it. I got the plate number of the vehicle, and a quickie description of the cop driving the car.
Then I calmly related this to the sergeant on duty once I got to my destination and could talk freely. And explained that while I understand that it’s normal procedure to get close enough to read the plate, and then run it, I don’t appreciate being followed at 30 feet for more than two minutes.
I can’t promise that anything will come of that, but - if people don’t complain about what seems to be an abuse by the police, it won’t change.
ok, question. is it illegal for cops to follow behind? cuz my father says they can only follow you for 3 minutes appx. but i can’t find it anywhere to prove it. help? message me at kaylajoy20@hotmail.com please!
a curious 17 year old.
You’re not going to get a good answer to that question on a messageboard with international posters: You want to ask that of people in your own state, since state regulations vary all across the US. If you’re not in the US, it’s even more difficult to give you a good answer, because while we have posters from all over the world, here - we’re mostly North American.
As someone who called and spanked a local police dept. for letting one of their officers tail me at an unsafe distance for an excessive time, the impression I had was not that the patrol sergeant was concerned about legal issues, but safety - and his own ideas of what proper policy for his patrolers should be. i.e. Tailing at one to two car lengths for two minutes is dangerous, not that it is illegal. (Brighton, NY - if that might matter to you.)
I’ve also heard that when you’re buying dope from someone, if you ask them three times “are you a cop?” they HAVE to tell you. So far, that and the giant crocodile repellent I bought have served me very well.
Not to disparage the use of sarcasm, Og knows I’ve used it more than a few times myself, I think it would be worthwhile to at least make it obvious to someone who may still believe in that ‘three times’ bit of folk wisdom to make it explicit that you’re comparing garbage to garbage.
More than a few people whom one would expect to be more worldly wise than a 17 yo have continued to believe, and propagate, that ‘three times’ garbage.
Or that they just happened to be behind you and didn’t begin “following” you until after x amount of minutes (which would probably be true a large amount of the time).
kaylajoy20, no rule against it, but not the best idea to put your e-mail address out there like that - you’ll attract a lot of spam. If somebody wants your e-mail address, they can just click on your name and pull it up that way. Click on “report this post” (triangle icon at upper right of the post) and let us know if you want your e-mail address taken down.
I love how a car can be perfectly fine 2 seconds back from you, but if it’s a cop, it’s tailgating. Every time one of these topics comes up, someone screams “Harrassment! Those pigs!” I wonder if the cops’ threads go something like “So I’m driving down this country road and this guy in front of me is doing everything fine, so I let him go. 2 or 3 miles later, I pull off and turn around. When I get back to the station, my sergeant says the guy complained that I was tailgating and harrassing him! The nerve! Hippy prick…”
I figure cops should just sit in the police station and wait for drunk drivers to feel really bad about themselves and turn themselves in. Much better that way. We can’t have these guys just going around investigating the situation! Sheesh!
Bottom line is: If you don’t get pulled over and don’t get LEGITIMATELY tailgated, you aren’t being harrassed. I don’t care if he’s following you for 30 miles. Just drive legally for 30 miles. It’s not that hard. If you can’t do that, go cut up your license. The OP didn’t even get stopped, let alone a ticket, and the cop gets pitted. Amazing.
I sympathize with the OP. I live down the road from a police station, and still always get nervous when there is a cop behind me, though I am sure most of them are just heading back to the station for a shift change.
When I was in my twenties, I used to have to drive, alone, through some pretty desolate areas late at night coming home from work. One night there was someone following me for quite a while. Pretty close behind me. His lights were starting to bother me in my rear view mirrors, so I slowed down enough that he could easily pass. He didn’t.
I started to get creeped out. So I then sped up to get away from him. And I’ll be damned if it wasn’t a cop! As soon as I started speeding, he turned on his lights and pulled me over. I was pissed, to say the least.
So angry, in fact, that I let the guy have it. Did he have any idea how frightening it was to be a single, young woman driving at night with someone following close behind for miles? Someone who wouldn’t pass when I slowed down? Someone who sped up when I sped up? Damn!
He apologized and drove off. Needless to say, I didn’t get a ticket or a warning. The guy felt bad – but that was a pretty dumbass thing to do.
Mrs. J. and I were vacationing in Arizona when a police car followed us onto an access road and up onto an expressway, then stayed close behind us for miles, matching our speed (even when I was going several mph below the speed limit in a vain attempt to encourage him to pass me).
I was getting increasingly paranoid and checking the rear view mirror frequently. Finally he turned on the flashing lights and pulled me over. The excuse? I was “swerving in my lane”. I told him (in a restrained but obviously pissed-off manner) that any irregularity in my driving was explained by constantly checking to see why he was tailing me and if I was about to be stopped. Mrs. J. helped out by shushing me.
I didn’t get a ticket, but I still can’t figure out what was so suspicious about me or my rental car.
Just don’t go a mile over the speed limit, because that cop might be waiting for you to go 56. Don’t drive too slowly, because that’s a ticket too. And don’t even think of driving at exactly the speed limit, because that’s a sure sign you’re being overly cautious because you’re transporting drugs and you’ll get pulled over for that.
