Almost Got a ticket last night
 

I just had to post this ....

I got pulled over last night ... sorry for the longwinded story, its how I roll.

Coming home on a three lane city street where the speed limit is 45mph I drive 40mph. It was 10pm and I was in the middle lane with no traffic to be seen. In the distance I see a set of headlights coming up behind me really fast. Fast enough to make me want to brace myself in case the idiot is drunk and doesn't know to swerve. Well once on top of me the lights finally slowed down to uncomfortable tailgating distance. After about 2 minutes a spot light came on which of course was aimed right into my rear view mirror. I immeadiately directed the mirror away from my eyes and thats when the lights came on ...

Since I wasn't speeding, the roads were empty and I was not in the mood to deal with this, I simply slapped the car in neutral, cut off the engine and coasted to a complete stop, (that took a while and about a mile). The cop then asked me to step outside the vehicle and walk back to his car.

I got the standard, "Do you know why I pulled you over?", to which I responded, "Because I was in your way as you were speeding down the road?". He then called me a smartass to which I responded I was. I asked him if he knew why he pulled me over. He answered with, "One more disrespectful remark and I'll ticket you." I asked for what?

He says I was driving to slow on the road ... I laughed, quite loudly and said,"Let me get this straight, you are going to give me a ticket because I am driving alone on an empty road 5 miles below the speed limit?" "Ticket me now so I can save the smart ass comment", I said.

He checked my license, reg, ins and then said, "I'm going to let you off with a warning", I interrupted him right there and said,"Let me let you off with a warning, remember this car, because I will not alter my driving habits to suit your power trip. Furthermore, if and when you give the ticket because I was driving to slow, there better be a sign stating what the minimum safe speed is for this road, otherwise, I will own the city via lawsuit for encouraging speeding by driving at the speed limit. And undoubtedly, you will have to answer to a pissed off judge when my high priced lawyer shows up in court and makes you look like an ass for wasting the courts time with such important matters. Therefore I hope YOU have a better evening and can only hope that 2 open lanes is enough space for you pass my vehicle in the future.

I collected my things got in my car and drove off @ 35mph with him following me for the next three miles ... LOL

Maybe later I'll post what really went through my mind as he was lecturing me on my driving habits .. LOL

Now I rarely challenge the law and I do not encourage this for anyone else, but I felt with a 15yr safe driving record behind me I could afford 1 ticket and perhaps a night in jail may elevate my rep amongst us ecomodders .... LOL

I feel like that's completely out of line on the officer's part. Did you get his badge number? I would report him. Cops should be doing more than pulling people over with absolutely no cause.

YOU ROCK!:thumbup::cool::D I can only wish I had the guts to say that. You should report him. If anything else happens with this cop It will be on file that he messed with you. Any chance of getting a copy of the tape that he has in his car. It would be good evidence if he harassess you again.;)

I did, he did not volunteer the info, I simply remembered it from being in such a close proximity to his person. I also recorded his vehicle number and plate as he sped away, with his light off, I also witnessed him come to an intersection, turn his lights on, cross it then turn them off.

I gave this information to one of my cousins who is a lawyer and specializes in DUI. Hopefully he will give me guidance as to how make sure this type of behavior is frowned upon.

I hate to say it, but Cities, counties and states often cry about their budgets, then hack from education. Instead if THEY mandated safer ecomodding among all the vehicles in their use, car, trucks and busses I am sure they could offset any budget cuts and infact put money back into education, including programs on how to teach future drivers better driving habits. (Got pushed off soapbox, OUCH)

trikkonceptz -

You're my Hero!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CarloSW2

O, reading that completely just made the rest of my evening, you sir are a hero of heros...I'm thinking this is a story worthy of digg...anyone else?

trikkonceptz
I don't mean you any disrespect, but I have to disagree with what you did. It would have been very easy for the cop to put meth in your car, or just shoot you. Poking at a cop is like poking at a rattlesnake. It may be amusing, but it can be fatal.
Making a complaint thru channels is a good idea.

I completely agree with you ... but, I know the temperment of my city, I have the incredible ability of expressing my opinions without losing my cool, and I totally expected to use my right to a single phone call. So I considered all my risks before going off on this tool. Also consider that I am educated, so I know what to do in the event this cop decided to flex any muscle and make my life a living hell.

Way to go trikkonceptz!

Here's the deal...............

A lot of people are slowing down to save gas and speeders are hard to find (when there is a cop around that is), so cops now go after the slower traffic.

Amazing story. Way to stick it to the man :D

He probl'y thought you were drunk. They look for too-slow driving as a sign of being overly cautious, likely for a reason.

I wouldn't have gone off on him like that but you did good.

I've learned lately that there are 2 major divisions of officers in most areas these days (also a lengthy tale, as is my style :o)...

1) Traffic (mostly speeding), and
2) Patrol

Traffic assignments are fairly straightforward -- speed traps, driving the roads, clocking vehicle speeds and catching blatantly unsafe operation.

The second is "Patrol". This is generally the group that shows up to 911 calls, assists other officers, and cruises around for crime prevention and detection.

When a patrol officer pulls someone over, it's generally "for cause" to look for drugs, DUIs, weapons, warrants, mismatched plates to the vehicle, etc -- they perform this by observing "unusual" behavior or conditions: head/tail light out, slower driving, etc. -- and generally happens "between assigned calls".

This is likely what happened, Trik. It's too bad the officer was rude -- you didn't deserve that kind of treatment. The "cause for suspicion" failed on his part, and it sounded like he took it personally -- hoping to make a big bust or something.

However, I've learned that it goes sour quickly with any question of authority. I know it's hard, but you just have to answer the questions with respect, and if it doesn't go well, have your day in court and/or file a complaint. Police dash cameras protect the rights of both the officer and the suspect, so that could be used as evidence. It sounded like a "procedure" to run up behind someone quickly -- DUIs generally freak or act strangely. The speed was apparently cause for concern. I know hypermilers feel like a target lately, and that can get personal too.

I had an odd instance (not as bad) -- failure to display a front plate. I was doing 55-60 in a 65, saw the lights as he had someone pulled-over, I merged left (per State Law and safety/courtesy), and then all of the sudden he's on my bumper and flipped on the lights. I had no idea what the deal was. I got questioned about everything on the car: SG, Weather radios and antennas, the head unit was loose, so it appeared stolen (but the bracket's busted), etc. He told me about the plate, which finally ended the whole "discussion". I had the front plate in the hatch, so I got it out, presented it, and left with a "warning". It seems after that, I had the Police behind me about 5 times in the next 2 weeks. Maybe a similar car was involved in a crime, who knows.

I've worked with Sheriff Deputies, State Patrol, and local Police as a Medic, and the range is "human" -- there are nice guys, and jerks too.

RH77

Being an officer is not an easy job and I have a lot of respect for them, so I'm not going to bash the profession. I have, however, had two really bad experiences with officers which left very lasting bad impressions. The 20 good following experiences with officers did not repair the damage done by the two egomaniacs. It's too bad a couple of goofballs have to ruin it for everyone.

Frankly, I think that officers will eventually get used to the slow drivers.

ttoyoda -

Yeah, I wouldn't do what Trik did. I always assume that the cop that pulls me over is the 5% bad cop that the judicial system assumes will be telling the truth in court. I also assume he/she might have just had a really bad incident prior to me, and is ready to take it out on me.

But Trik is still a Hero to me because he risked a world of hurt in a situation where he was justified. It was a calculated risk on his part, but still a risk. As he states, if he was in a different state/county, he probably would have behaved differently.

Hmmmmm, thought for food. I wonder what the cop did to the next alleged perp? Did he learn from Trik or did he just "take it out" on the person?

CarloSW2

Great story way to go!

Here's my favorite cop story.

I was in Charleston SC on a bright summers day many years ago. The street was a four lane with a center turn lane with traffic lights. The through lanes were red and the turn lane green. I attempted to turn into the turn lane when a police car came up from behind and cut me off. I had absolutely no choice but to run the red light. Immediately the police car slid in behind me a turned on the lights. I pulled over into a empty parking lot and here come five more back up police cars. A young female police officer came up to my vehicle and asked the usual stupid question "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I responded with "Maybe it had something to do with the red light." She says "That is exactly why. Do you always drive like that?" Then I returned "Only when I get cut off from a turn lane I was signaling for and get cut off by a speeding police car." She stood with a dumbfounded look on her face, the other police officers started laughing. She slammed her ticket book and stormed away and got into her car. Another officer came still laughing and told me I was free to go. The officers were still standing there laughing when I drove off.

I was so hilarious the way it happened. I guess maybe to really appreciate it you had to be there, unless of course you were the female officer, then maybe it wasn't so funny.

Just last night I was headed home from my second job at about midnight. Rt 93 was practically empty so I decided to practice a little P&G. I'd noticed a car in the left lane kind of staying with me, but since I was 3 lanes over I thought nothing of it. All of a sudden the car swoops over and starts to tailgate me while I was on a pulse up to the speed limit. He rode my bumper at 65 mph up to where the lanes reduce from 4 to 3 (about 3 miles), then flipped on his blues and pulled me over. Got me out and checked me over for DUI and explained "erratic" driving is often a sign of DUI. I explained about P&G and he was clearly interested. It seems Mass state troopers have been briefed on the AAA position on hypermiling practices. He let me go but warned me to expect similar treatment any time I'm observed doing P&G late at night or driving "too slow". He also warned me about tailgating trucks (guilty) and high exit ramp speeds (also guilty). ;) All in all a very professional encounter. :thumbup:

Great story! I'm happy you didn't let Mr Power Trip get all over ya. In court, you could have gotten that ticket waived off for sure. Not like you were slowing down a ton of traffic.

A$$ holes like that piss me off.

After a lengthy discussion with one of my family attorneys, he dropped this knowledge on me.

He says that the way we drive, (Safe and under speed), does mimic that of drunk drivers, the differnece being that we do not swerve all over the place. He advised me to be a bit more tolerant of law enforcement because they operate under suspicion at all times. He did not condone the treatment I recieved, just asked that I be more patient when approached at night by police until this becomes more mainstream.

I agree with the advice just not the profiling .. oh well what will cops do when a larger percentage of the populations begins to slow down ..

This is why you need a sticker on the car that explains your speed. Seriously.

Bravo on defending your right to not break the law. The profiling does make sense as far as driving under the speed limit, but the lack of swerving and reaction to the tailgate should have been a clue.

A similar incident happened to a friend of mine that ended very differently. He was all alone on a 3 lane highway late at night doing the speed limit. A random car comes out of nowhere and tailgates him hardcore. My friend starts to freak out: clearly there's room to pass, so this guy is there for a reason; he's in a fairly customized Monte Carlo (not by him but the previous owner) and figures the guy on his tail might be after a car-jack. My friend speeds up to try to get away, tailgater matches all the way up to 95 before the lights come on.

Unfortunately the cop falsified the records (took the report in pencil, erased the original comments, and re-wrote it), repeatedly delayed the court date, and my friend tried to defend himself in court with an entrapment defense. It did not end well.

WOW, your so whipped by society, this dillweed pulled him over for minding the laws of the road.. then harassed him about it and threatened him with tickets.. this cop is a schmuck that deserves what he gets.. a majority of cops are like this it seems.. I'v heard and seen way to many horror stories of these over zelous cops on power trips..

Know your rights.. and use them!!!

I say good ide but then the drunks will all get "I'm hypermiling" or "Hypermiler Onboard" stickers..

Were a odd bunch.. were driving at or below the limit, that must mean were doing something wrong?.. the nail that sticks up gets the hammer. However going to slow doesn't in any way constitute a traffic stop..

I still have not gotten stopped in the modded out crx, but im waiting for the time when i do.. but at least i just look crazy to others, I think they say , oh they must be kind of crazy, ill leave them alone.. lol

Wonder if Basjoos has gotten stopped? hes got a lot more miles on his oddity on wheels..

The cops where I live are almost always really cool. In fact, most of the times I've deserved a ticket (when I have clearly broken the law) they have let me off, without me asking. Usually, when I'm just driving slowly, they pull up behind me and follow me for a few miles and then drop off. A sticker would probably shorten the distance quite a bit.

As for the habitual drunks, I suspect one of their problems is their lack of planning, so I'm not too worried about them slapping a geek's sticker on their car.

I know some habitual drunks that go through many lenghts to avoid getting busted.. quite interesting actually, most consist of either walking home, getting a ride, and some even carry a bike in there truck bed to ride home on.. However they are pretty good about not driving , but for you know how that goesafter a few to many.. "OHH , I'm fffineee to drivvve"..

Not a bad Idea, I had already thought of using dry erase vinyl to make a panel on my hatch that indicated the last tank mpg, plus gallons saved over time, with a statement saying, "Achieved by adjusting the nut behind the wheel."

I may go ahead and do it now ...

Dont know about your area, but here tourists are king, and they know it. By mass majority theyre the ones who drive 20 mph over the speed limit, pass into oncoming traffic, run stop signs, drive cars/boats/snowmobiles drunk, etc. They charge down the roads like packs of wild animals. For whatever asinine reason, Michigan decided to rely on tourist dollars to run the economy instead of building a strong local economic base. And anything that discourages tourism is not allowed. That includes making tourists responsible for their own actions. They come up here to party and blow their money and go home with no strings attached. The police could make a killing by ticketing them and make the roads a LOT safer, but they wont touch it. Instead they would rather pick on locals for doing 5 over, 10 under, tailipipe that sticks out too far, and other things like try to accuse me of kidnapping my own daughter because I dont look like the typical yuppie golfer. With prices of everything going up and jobs being sent overseas, the tourism business is becoming more fragile and they dont want to discourage it.

The more wasteful you are the better you are treated. This is true for the receiving end of every business. And big business is what runs this country. Back in the older days, it was always taught to drive like youve got an egg under your foot. And anticipate traffic ahead and drive accordingly. Things that saved gas and were considered safe. That was back when people cared. These days its all about oil and money. We are expected to cater to those who pump more dollars into the system with their wasteful and many times illegal behavior.

Hypermilers tend to do less for the ecomomy because we save money on gas and usually other things as well. As we become more well known we are going to get picked on more and more.

Thats my soapbox.

trikkonceptz -

That's pretty much what I thought. My car has the "Big E" in the rear window, so I think I am communicating what I am all about in terms of how I drive.

CarloSW2

Just be happy that you guys aren't the modder/tuner crowd. That kind of response to a cop pulling over someone with a perfectly legal but flashy car would land them many many bogus tickets and days in court. Now in Ontario if a cop feels like accusing you of doing a burnout, screaching around a corner or driving 50km/h over the limit, he can have your car impounded with no due process and send you walking home.

Sweet!!!

I don't have any super cop stories. I do, however, love the movie Super Troopers.

Only story i have is...

I was driving 45 down a country road, which is normal speed limit. However it was actually city limits and speed limit was 30. Cop pulled me over, but I just explained I really didn't know it was city limits and he let me go. Cops don't have a reputation for letting you off for that in my town.

Also, first month into having license. Got pulled over for going 50, what every sign I saw said 45. The same speed everyone else was going too. I've even been down that road since and have not seen any sign saying 30 mph. Only got a warning though.

Its a good thing I've slowed down to 55 mph during the day and 50 at night if I'm in the mood.

Reading all these stories makes me really happy that I ride my bicycle...screw motor vehicle law, a cop, 99% of the time, will ignore a bicyclist unless they are endangering themselves or others by doing something stupid...I've been pulled over in my care twice, once for my tail light going out (on the way to the store to buy a new bulb) and once for speeding at night while I was the only one on the road for at least 5 miles in both directions. But never for anything I've done on my bike, and I'll admit, I've done some pretty stupid things on my bike and some of them were actually in front of cops.

My personal opinion on police has already been stated, there are good and there are bad. However, the bad ones can be REALLY bad and there aren't enough good ones (at least that I've met) to make up for the idiocy of the really bad ones...I understand that law enforcement is necessary, but the distribution of power in the law enforcement system is very very centralized and is a prime example of why we have a system of government over top of them that supersedes anything that they do, like we have...but like any system, there are loopholes, and some of those loopholes when found by the wrong (or right actually) bad cop, can really mean a world of hurt for whoever happened to fall victim to their trap.

good cop/bad cop aside.....

I do feel that the practice of speeding up behind you quickly and riding your bumper is unsafe....this technique should be abolished for obvious safety reasons.

Kudos for standing up for yourself.

NoCO2 -

I take the stance that 90-95% of cops are good. The failing of that 90-95%, however, is that they protect the other 5-10% that are bad, because of the fraternity/culture. A bad cop has a judicial system and a prison system at their disposal. Protecting "one's own" is typical in any family/gang culture, but with cops, it is so much more dangerous to the innocent victim.

Internally I assume that all cops I meet are bad cops until I can ascertain their behavior. Externally I treat them with lots of respect, which generally works for good and bad cops.

CarloSW2

awesome !
i only have big balls with cops when there are cameras in my car. oh man was i bad then.

i do have a big issue with these cops. i saw my dad get pulled over by such a cop a while back. he had 3 people from out of town with him looking to move down, cop was very rude and stupid (they didn't move) told him that he needed to replace the factory headlights because his were to blue. what a moron. car was 2 week old vibe totally un-modified. complained heartily about that one.
just sharing the story so we know that cops pull everyone over for no / stupid reason, not just us hypermilers.

Those blue headlights do suck though. I'm sure they are out of wavelength spec in many jurisdictions despite the fact that they came that way.

i take it that you are joking.
these are not hid's just standard halogen bulbs.

How's this for a sticker?

***CAUTION***
Angry Hypermiler on Board

:D

I wasn't joking, I've seen the regulations. So if they were the blue ones then yah, they are awful for everyone elses night vision. A shift towards red would be preferrable.

I have no problems driving any way I want. All the local Police around me wave or acknowledge me when I go by. Must be that front plate, solid aluminum with a Mil-Dot Sniper reticle cut out of the center and the BLACKWATER license plate frame on the rear. :eek: Alizée singing in french usually coming from the open windows.
There are no hand jesters or horn honks from other drivers when I'm hypermiling around town. :D
Although at lights I do notice very few cars will pull up beside me. They stay back by my back bumper. :rolleyes: