Talk to a Cop- The good, bad, and ugly!

I can't remember the actual numbers but I read once a few years ago that, say, at 8:00 PM, 1 in 10 drivers is drunk and that by 2:00 AM, it's one in three. You wouldn't happen to have those statistic anywhere, would you?

 

That side street is not very well travelled and it's a one-way so that traffic is never coming from there. It's not easy to take that route usually because it's one of those stoplights that I virtually always have to stop for and by the time it's green again, there's a line of about six cars coming from the other direction that I'd have to wait for so I don't bother even thinking about it. Every once in a while, though, I actually get to the light when it's somewhat stale green and no traffic is coming from the other direction so I will take that route. It's not any easier, but it's a change of pace. I'll see if I can take a picture of it.

 

I saw a couple of police officers at Starbucks yesterday and one was a woman and she looked darned good. There's something abut a woman in uniform

 

Studies have shown that exactly "what" is incorrect? Didn't you just say that flashing the speed doesn't work because it precisely affects the people who don't usually speed anyways?

Are you sure we are talking about the same type of camera?

85% of the public drives at a safe speed. Which suggests 15% of the public drives at an unsafe speed. If these 15% drivers are the same 15% that are chronic speeders, then obviously this speed (I wouldn't call it a camera unless it actually takes a picture) flasher isn't really doing anything.

What I'm talking about is a speed camera that will actually take a picture and it lets you know it's taking a picture.

What kind of idiot is going to think.. "Oh look, I know there is a camera up ahead that will actually take my picture so I will keep speeding and get a ticket! I LOVE TICKETS"

Why would a speed camera (takes your PICTURE) be any LESS effective if not equal than a speed sensor that flashes your speed? Especially when that speed camera already has a speed sensor that flashes already????

 

Thanks for this thread! I have a police encounter that I would love to hear some feedback on. A few years ago I was driving from NYC to Maine in the middle of a Thursday night. It was raining heavily and also foggy at 1am while I was in Connecticut so I was driving at the speed limit in the right lane of a three lane interstate. I noticed a car tailgating me and then was releaved when he pulled up beside me. Then I got suspicious when he fell back again. The car repeated this one more time and then I saw the lights come on and realized that it was a cop car.

I figured that I must have had a tailight out or something, but the officer very politely started to question me about where I was going, but in a roundabout and leading manner. "So, you headin' up to Boston?". When I replied no, he then said "New Haven?". I let out a sigh and then told him the entire truth in detail. "Well officer, my girlfriend's grandfather died and she took the Amtrak up to Maine. She wanted me to be there for support, but I was very busy at work so I couldn't leave until today. The funeral is in the morning, so I'm driving overnight but with this weather, I've got about another four hours to go".

After I was done speaking he said "Well the reason I stopped you is because you have a frame around your licensce plate and that is illegal in CT". This was one of those things that the dealer puts on and had been on the car for over 12 years at the time and didn't obscure any of the numbers or the state. He said that he would let me off with a written warning and proceeded to write it on a strip of yellow legal paper? When I looked at it the next day, I couldn't even make most of his handwritting.

I chalked this stop up to "Driving While Black", but I would love to know if there would have been any other logical reason for the stop. Is it a common technique to follow a car for a while before making the stop? Was the written warning a way to protect the cop against me complaining that I was racially profiled? I was more confused than angry at the time. If I were a cop, I don't think that I would get out of my car in the rain to pull someone over for a frame around their plate.

 

For what it's worth, I am white and I have been followed before getting pulled over about 1/2 of the times I have been stopped. But the rest of your scenario sounds pretty damned sketchy! I think you are right to be suspicious.

 

are you from CT?

 

It's been a long time since I lived in CT, but I don't recall any such law.

http://www.huskydirect.com/product.asp?PT_ID=61&P_ID=71474 implies anyone can buy one but only out-of-state Huskies fans can use one.

And why pull up close enough to see the driver? I got pulled over once when someone stole my tax stamp (so they could look like they paid their car taxes), no side-on-view required...

 

They pull people over in the rain so it does happen. I've seen them do it to white people. I've been pulled over by black cops before and gotten tickets. It may be because of the color of your skin but it's not particularly useful to dwell on it or to assume that that's why they did it. Some cops are just a**holes. Some cops just have their own particular pet peeves that will get someone a ticket just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Luck of the draw plays a part. Every copy on the planet may not even care about something but you end up with the one cop who actually has an attitude about a frame on the license plate. Maybe he hates Japanese cars (you were driving a Prius, right?) Forget about him and move on. You could try to fight it in court but if your only contention is that he was profiling, that's difficult to prove and judges in traffic court have too many cases and side with the cops too often for me to believe that you could actually win on those grounds. Also, I've gotten tickets in the past from white cops for the stupidest things so when I got the tickets from the black cops, the idea of it being because of the color of my skin didn't occur to me.

 

Scmika,

Thanks for raising the content-to-noise ratio in this forum a lot. This thread was a very interesting read especially your first posts about quotas. I respect the honesty of your posts.

I've been pulled over by cops less then a handful of times and I've always been treated with respect even if I've never gotten of with a warning when speeding. Only time I just got a warning (don't even know what type of offense if any it is) was recently when one of my headlight was out (in my old car) and I on top of that had forgotten my wallet/ID at home. The annoying thing was that I did know the light was out (it went out that day) but I took the car to/from the gym anyway (I didn't tell the cop that I lied and said I wasn't aware it was out but felt the road was unusually dark which was true the day before). The cop was nice about it and I was on my way in less then five minutes (though he did a U-turn with sirens on when he pulled me over and that scared the bejeesus out of me).

I'm glad to see a PC Copper :-D. Oh! And I've never seen a Prius pulled over so far. I do think that driving a Prius (unless you drive like a maniac) will cut you some slack with Cops. It's not like you're trying to look cool or fast

 

Schmika,

How many Prius drivers have you pulled over so far?

 

No, NY. Passing through CT on the way to Maine.

 

so, how were you supposed to know that the frame you had was illegal in CT?

 

I'm not really dwelling on it, hadn't thought about it in years. I made the assumption that it was because I was black because nothing else made sense. When a cop pulled me over for a headlight being out or for a rolling stop I had a reason. I just saw this thread as my chance to finally ask a law enforcement officer for their opinion on VALID reasons for the stop. Schmika sounds like a very forthright individual, so I'm actually hoping that he will say that this was a standard manuever or that I must have done something that could be precieved as suspicious (perhaps even driving at the speed limit).

My point about the rain is that I would pull someone over if they were speeding or unsafe or had comitted some over moving violation. But pulling me over for a licence plate frame just sounds like grasping at straws for an excuse to pull me over to check me out. As I stated in the post, the reason was a license plate frame and the written warning was not even any official paper.

I was not driving a Prius at the time. It was an 1988 Nissan Stanza.

 

Not that I think it's actually illegal, but "ignorance of the law is no excuse" (I've seen/read too many police procedurals . . .)

That said, I am from CT, and have NEVER heard of this law. Not only do ~80% of cars around here have those license plate frames, but the dealer had one installed on our Prius when we picked it up.

 

I guess that's why I got a warning and not a ticket.

 

:lol:

 

In Michigan, it's illegal to have fully tinted windows on the front door windows. You can tint them on the top four inches but that's it. Showing true stupidity, the state made it illegal to have those windows fully tinted but didn't make it illegal to install them so there are a lot of businesses who will do it for you even though it's illegal for you to have them, unless you have a legitimate, written prescription from your doctor which creates an exemption. The cops almost never stop people who have those windows tinted. Every cop except the Michigan State Police have to do paperwork on the stop so if they stop you and find that you have a prescription for them from your doctor, they can't ticket you so they end up having to do paperwork for nothing. So, it's a nuisance law, one that they can use if they really want to give someone grief who doesn't have that prescription.