I got stopped by a State Trooper on Saturday night

[Horse with no Name]

Apparently, the light over my license plate is out.:eyes:
Anyway..it was a really creepy experience.
The guy approached the car with his hand on his gun. I had both hands on the steering wheel and didn't move to get anything until he asked for it. He was eye-searching my car the entire time. Asked me where I was going? WTF? I was a block away from my house and he had my drivers license in his hand with my address when he asked me. I had just returned from grocery shopping and I stopped and picked up dinner on the way home. When I pulled my drivers license out...I left my purse open (but lying on the floor) and I had some cash lying on the top of my purse because I didn't want to take time in the drive-thru to put it back in my wallet. He told me that I needed to put my cash in my purse before it fell out? I was like, oh great, he thinks I am trying to bribe him.
Anyway...I was stopped for a total of about 10 min and he only spent about 2 min checking my insurance, warrants and printing the warning. Was pretty creepy.

[elleng]

1. Where are you,

what 'color,' and at what time?

He needed something to do?

[Horse with no Name]

2. East Texas, 8 pm and a white woman

I have no idea what was up.:shrug:

[elleng]

4. So Sorry!

Did he 'apologize' for the inconvenience, or anything? And why State Trooper? Sounds unusual to me; in a neighborhood?

[Horse with no Name]

5. It was right before I got into town

Was still on the highway bypass.
No apologies were given though. Just told me to get my light fixed. I assured him I would.:)

[elleng]

7. Well, take a breath (NOW! I just did!)

and sweet dreams!

[Captain Hilts]

20. I think your tailight was out. nt

[riverdale]

3. Never in my life have I gotten by with a warning

For me it's a ticket every time I see the flashing lights.

[RC]

22. Have you tried slowing down going through the stop signs?

:evilgrin:

[dysfunctional press]

49. i've gotten off with warnings about a half-dozen times or so...

i've got several methods that generally help out...here's one i've used twice- both times i got stopped while enroute to home- look really embarrassed, and tell the officer that you have a condition that causes you to have a spastic colon, and you're trying to get home before you shit yourself...i've used that one twice, and it worked both times.

if you're genuinely friendly and apologetic with the cop, instead of frustrated and angry, it helps alot. a plausible, and hopefully embarrassing story is always a good bet too.

women: cry.

[KillCapitalism]

6. We all get that treatment.

I know a guy who's a retired state trooper & he used to say "When we pull people over, we treat them all as if they're hardened criminals."

So there you go.

[pnwmom]

8. A cop pulled my son over recently on a Friday night. He lied,

after my son rolled the window down, and claimed that he could smell a strong odor of alcohol in the car.

So he made my son do sobriety tests. My son (who doesn't drink and had just taken his girlfriend out to dinner) was saying, "All we had was some spicy chicken -- smell my breath if you don't believe me!" The cop said he didn't want to smell his breath -- but he also didn't bother doing a breathalyzer.

Afterward, my son couldn't even remember what excuse the officer had made for the initial stop; nothing was broken on the car and there wasn't any traffic infraction. And the only smell in the car is "new car smell." Anyway, it was a depressing reminder that the police will just make stuff up. If my son had been anything but stone cold sober, things could have gotten a lot more complicated, I'm afraid.

[etherealtruth]

29. I had a very similar experience ...

... except that I am not a non-drinker, I am a person that drinks very little. I was pulled over, almost immediately after leaving a bar parking lot where I had went to listen to a friend in a band. I had had a single cocktail three hours prior and had eaten in the interim. When asked,"Have you had anything to drink tonight?" I answered honestly, stating that I had had a single drink three hours prior.

My answer was met with,"Since you have admitted to drinking and driving .... you need to do a field sobriety test ... followed by a Breathalyzer. The fact that I was completely sober and the 0.00 Breathalyzer readings seemed to anger him. I was truly grateful that his car was equipped with a video camera.

Like your son, I have no idea why I was pulled over in the first place.

[pnwmom]

30. Based on a trial where I was a juror, in your situation

I think they were probably watching the bar parking lot and randomly stopping people who came out of there.

Could you easily see the video camera? Is that how you knew it was there?

[etherealtruth]

41. This happened a year and a half ago ...

I can't recall whether I saw the camera (I think I did) or if someone told me after the fact.

It actually was a very traumatizing experience.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. My son and his friends got pulled over not long ago

He was with 3 friends and one of them was driving. It was just a few minutes after midnight and they pulled into a gas station to buy cigarettes. The station closes at midnight and turned out the lights just as they pulled in so the driver turned around and pulled out of the station. A cop pulled them over and wanted to know what they were doing out that late. They said they were buying cigarettes and the cop asked for all of their IDs (my son is 25) and said if any of them were under 18, he was going to arrest all of them. (Yes, for WANTING to buy cigarettes.)

Then he made them all get out of the car and asked if they had been drinking. They had not. He asked if anyone had any drugs on them and they said no. So he said he was going to call the drug dog to come sniff out the car and if one of them was holding anything, he was going to arrest ALL of them. He cuffed the driver and went back to his police car. After about 10 minutes, he came back and said the drug dog was on another case and uncuffed the driver and let them go. Then he followed them all the way to our house.

I was just floored. What an asshole cop.

[pnwmom]

34. How scary for those young men -- and for you.

Since when has it been a crime to buy cigarettes when a minor is present? Or even alcohol?

[proud2BlibKansan]

35. Or to turn around in a gas station parking lot?

That's what blew me away. He pulled them over because they turned around in a parking lot? :wtf:

[midnight]

14. O no we don't. My sister has been pulled over.

Speeding. But she has such a nice smile, and she gets nervous and giggles. It's embarrassing. They take pitty on her I think.

[pnwmom]

37. Did you ask why? When it's just a random stop? n/t

[Edweird]

9. Tx, Ar, Tn, especially along I40 are major drug smuggling routes.

You will find the troopers to be humorless folk. I'm not excusing bad behavior or excessive force, but they tend to be a little extra cautious/suspicious.

[midnight]

12. I love this reason... I love it because we have poured so much

money into terrorism/drug smuggling in this country, but those drugs keep pouring in. They even know the routes. I just love it.

[Captain Hilts]

19. I-95 between Delaware Mem. Bridge and NJTPK they catch a lot of drugs. nt

[Cid_B]

10. Was your license light out?

Apparently, the light over my license plate is out. Was it out?
Anyway..it was a really creepy experience.
The guy approached the car with his hand on his gun. I had both hands on the steering wheel and didn't move to get anything until he asked for it. He was eye-searching my car the entire time.(So?) Asked me where I was going? So what? You don't have to answer and he has every right to ask WTF? I was a block away from my house and he had my drivers license in his hand with my address when he asked me. I had just returned from grocery shopping and I stopped and picked up dinner on the way home. When I pulled my drivers license out...I left my purse open (but lying on the floor) and I had some cash lying on the top of my purse because I didn't want to take time in the drive-thru to put it back in my wallet. He told me that I needed to put my cash in my purse before it fell out? I was like, oh great, he thinks I am trying to bribe him.Seems like he is covering himself and you
Anyway...I was stopped for a total of about 10 min and he only spent about 2 min checking my insurance, warrants and printing the warning. Was pretty creepy. I just don't get what was creepy about this

[midnight]

13. You bring up a good point, but I'm not sure you are so correct.

"So what? You don't have to answer and he has every right to ask WTF?" That is about he has every right to ask...... Does He? I don't think he does?

[alphafemale]

16. Nothing to see here. Be a Good Citizen. Move along. nt

[Captain Hilts]

18. I agree. No big deal. I was pulled over on the 401 outside Toronto , for having a VA license plate

I know they're looking for cigarette smuggling.

The officer was very polite and let me go.

[pnwmom]

31. They're not supposed to pull you over just for having an out-of-state

license place -- not in the U.S. anyway.

But that happened to me, too. Nothing was wrong with the car or the driving -- but we had a U-Haul with a Florida plate. We let them look in the U-haul when they asked because we just wanted to get out of there -- revealing the usual assortment of household stuff. Brooms and a vacuum probably fell out on them. They closed it up and sent us on our way, after acknowledging they'd been looking for drugs and cigarettes.

I always wondered what we "should" have done. I knew they weren't supposed to have stopped us, but to stand on our rights might have kept us there for hours, and my boyfriend had a class early in the morning. So we just cooperated and went home.

[Leftist Agitator]

26. "You don't have to answer "

I see that you've never tried to refuse to answer a pig's questions, otherwise you wouldn't have made such an asinine statement.

You're right, technically you don't have to answer an illegitimate question. But you had better be prepared to get hauled to jail on the flimsiest pretext, or at the very least have your vehicle and its contents turned inside out, delaying you for God knows how long, and leaving you with quite a mess to clean up.

Anyway, the next time a pig asks you a question that you don't HAVE to answer, I suggest that you refuse to do so, and then tell us all what happens...

:eyes:

[pnwmom]

33. What you are saying here

is what I've always figured -- see my post #31 just above -- which is why I answered all questions and cooperated fully in a baseless car search.

I'm wondering though: did you have an actual experience of suffering the consequences of not talking to them, or did it happen to a friend or somebody you read about?

[uncle ray]

47. that's right.

the last time i was pulled over for no license plate light, in the usual questioning the trooper asked where i was going, i said "home from work". he asks "where do you work?" "on the west side" i said. he says "why won't you tell me where you work?" my reply was "what does my place of employment have to do with my license plate light?" he was not happy with that response one bit. he then asked to search my vehicle, i of course politely said no. he searched anyway and accused me of having drug paraphernalia in the car, which i actually didn't, for a change! the supposed paraphernalia was a commercial deccident air filter. while he was searching i asked the deputy sheriff who had stopped to serve as backup for the state trooper, "is that a legal search?" of course i knew it wasn't legal, but had to "ask". he told me i needed to direct my questions to the state trooper, so when the trooper comes strolling back with the so called paraphernalia the deputy says "this gentleman has a question for you." way to put me on the spot! the conversation quickly devolved into a nose to nose conversation where the trooper yelling things like "are you accusing me of doing something ILLEGAL? do you really think i would do something illegal?" oh, how i wanted to say, "yes, that is EXACTLY what i am saying!" but of course in the interest of self preservation i deferred to the troopers supposed authority and was very polite. i didn't get out of there before passing a few field sobriety tests as i did have a partial sixer in the car. i think the only reason i managed to leave without any citations was because the backup was a deputy who the trooper did not know.

that's just the most recent incident. i am usually very polite and do everything right, hands on the wheel, shut car off, don't move unless told to, etc. but i got a little cocky that one time.

[midnight]

11. Last year I was pulled over twice in about 15 min. for a front light

being out. They didn't ask for a drivers license. We had to order a part for the light and it was on backorder. That is all I could say about the situation. But this guy came up to my window so close to smell if I was drinking. Real strange for a light being out?

[onethatcares]

15. it's called a "routine traffic stop"

and if you have alcohol on your breath, you get to pay his salary for a while and support the insurance companies to a greater degree. With all the taxes that have been cut the money has to come from somewhere.

I've been told that even building inspectors now have to generate income for the city here.

BTW, those licence plate lights are about a worthless p.o.s. you would think if a cop was behind you with his headlights on the plate he wouldn't need that dinky little light. Huh?

Peace

[mrcheerful]

25. Try getting pulled over in a car that wasn't made with one of those plate lights

Then having to argue with the cop for 20 minutes about the car being older then the cop or the law. Then having to go to traffic court where the judge throws out the ticket after chewing the cop out for not knowing that the law only applies to cars made after the law was enacted. Then having to deal with the police looking to nail you for something or anything for the next 25 years.

Then a year later you start your bike to let it warm up, you go back into the house to get dressed for the cool day, so you put your warm riding clothes on, put your leathers on then walk out your door with your helmet on. You hear a car door shut, turn around and see a state cop, demanding that you shut the bike down.

Then he informs you, I saw you weaving all over the road, Excuse me, but I just started up the bike to warm it up while I was getting dressed, I just came out of the house to go for a ride. Well your cycle exhaust is to loud, excuse me but the bike is a 1967 and todays exhaust noise levels doesn't apply to the cycle.

Well you covered the VIN numbers on the down tube and the cycle is stolen. No sir, this is a 1967 BSA, the VIN number stamped on the down tube standardization law didn't come out until 1970, so manufacturers stamped VIN numbers anywhere on the frame they wanted, on the 67 BSA its stamped behind the exhaust bracket, which I will gladly take off if you want to see the VIN.

No I'm giving you a ticket for reckless driving, loud exhaust and I am impounding the cycle for it being stolen and your being charged with grand theft auto. In court again, the judge is livid at the cop, my lawyer went off on the cop, charges were dropped, tickets thrown out. Why? 1) the bike wasn't stolen, the VIN was exactly where I informed the cop it was, my lawyer got experts that backed up what I had told the cop. 2) same with the exhaust ticket. 3) Same with the reckless driving, how could I be reckless driving when I wasn't even on the cycle.

The cop admitted on the stand that he saw a motorcycle swerve as it made a right hand turn at the street so he turned down the street and the 4th house on the block he saw a cycle sitting running.

For 25 years I have dealt with state police pulling me over and writting tickets going to court and having the judge throw them out. So in the end I moved away from that area, mom lives 3 miles from the post so I have to drive in the area once in a while, but these last 10 years have been ticket free. I think it was the judge who put a stop to it, cause after the last ticket, 40mph over the speed limit, I had turned a corner, got 1/2 a mile down the road saw a cop make the same turn, his emergency lights came on, I pulled over and the cop said he had to do 70 to catch up to me, I was doing the 30mph speed limit.

The judge asked the cop did he use his radar, cop said no, judge said dismissed, can I speak to you officer so and such in my chambers. Then the BS stopped. Think it was the judge got tired of seeing me every few months.

[pnwmom]

36. That is a depressing story.

You'd think the police would have better things to do than harass drivers of old vehicles.

[onethatcares]

45. wow, that's a story and a half.

I rode a 63 Triumph Bonneville. Du13808 and only got pulled over once in Pennsylvania, funny thing was, the cop that pulled me over was the son of one of my dads' friends. When I saw the name tag we started reminicsing(however you spell that), and he let me go with a warning.

Here in sunny florida I got pulled over maybe three times for pulsing headlites (capacitor start or magneto when I switched over) and dull tail light. Never got a ticket on any of them.

Those Beezers were way cool in the day. Did you know that triumph/norton/bsa all fit the same frames or could interchange into each others?. Amazing technology for the Brits I say. I sold a 75 Bonny to a British sailor that took it down the stairs of a frigate and said it was cheaper to buy it over here than on the island. Hell, he had it apart and ready for rebuild in no time.

[Captain Hilts]

17. Hey, it was out of date plates that got Timothy McVeigh caught.

If you are going to commit a crime in your car, you loosen the light over the license plate. That's standard practice.

This guy was FAR more polite than police in Virginia Beach are.

[rug]

21. A pretext stop. They use traffic regulations to pick the lock on the Fourth Amendment.

[TexasObserver]

23. Unfortunately, that brusk manner and a disregard for basic constitutional rights is SOP from police

I've been stopped and given a ticket once in the past 22 years - a speed trap on a highway in East Texas, given by a State Trooper. That was two years ago. It's a little town that keeps extending its boundaries along the highway. A town of a couple thousand people, most of them not living near the highway, with six miles of highway in their city limits. They stick up a speed limit sign in the heavily wooded, unpopulated, dark parts of the highway, then the DPS sits around the curve and catches everyone who doesn't get off the gas fast enough.

It's a scam they've been running for years and years. It's the town's only real source of revenue.

When I was stopped there two years ago, I noticed the difference in the way the DPS officer behaved from the time 22 years earlier, when I got a ticket from a DPS officer on the other side of the town. Both times, for driving 70 mph in a 60 mph zone, poorly marked, easily missed.

I do everything needed to put the officer at ease. License, insurance out. Hands visible. Car in park. Courteous. I don't like the way they think they have the right to ask you questions about where you've been, where you're going, why you're here right now.

[aikoaiko]

24. Sounds like a normal traffic stop.

:shrug:

[blaze]

28. That's what it sounds like to me too.

[mnhtnbb]

27. My son was pulled over by a State Trooper in Cary about a year ago.

Hauled out of the car, body slammed onto the hood and handcuffed. The trooper cited him for speeding, evading arrest.

Turns out my son was exceeding the speed limit and had abruptly made a turn. The trooper was going the opposite direction and made the assumption that my son had spotted him and turned in order to avoid
being caught. Actually he had turned because that was the direction he took to return home.

My son was able to get a public defender to help him. The trooper didn't show up for the trial, and the judge dropped the resisting arrest citation.

Rather harsh treatment for going a little too fast.

On edit: my son was 21 (at the time)white, driving an 03 Altima.

[undeterred]

39. And the police wonder why we lose respect for them.

My brother was roughed up by the police when he was that age too. For no apparent reason.

[marlakay]

38. My last ticket was last May I was driving on a

mountain highway and on my way from WA to CA to see my daughter and traveling alone. All day I had the car set to go the speed limit and then something from breakfast hit me wrong and i felt sick real sick. I grabbed some peptobismal and had some but i was in total pain and 25 miles to next rest stop with no stores, gas stations or anything near by but trees and it was pouring rain.

I know this is no excuse even though I was so sick i wanted to die but i started going faster and faster the sicker i got and then i got pulled over. I felt so sick i could barely talk to the officer, i told him my problem and showed him the medicine i just took.

He still took his time and wrote me ticket for $300.

I sent the money in with a letter because I figured I did go over speed limit. I asked in the letter if I could go to traffic school online because I have a clean record. I never heard back from them in a letter, they cashed the check right away. Three months later I got a check for $75 with no explanation why, only thing I could think of is the judge must have thought it was unreasonable. Still on my record since they wouldn't let me do the online course.

Learned my lesson to either not travel alone, take freeway 5 from now on or eat real healthy!

[Shakespeare]

40. I don't see a problem with the stop.

If your license plate light was out, that's a legitimate stop. He didn't harass you in any way, and it's absolutely standard procedure to check license and registration.

I just don't see what the big deal is. :shrug:

[Contrary1]

42. I suspect that the extra minutes were spent checking out the plate...

Your car may have resembled one that had been involved in a crime. I was driving with my mother when we were pulled over for what appeared to be no good reason. This officer also had his hand on his gun as he approached us.

Took my license and registration and returned to the patrol car. Soon after, two more patrol cars showed up.

After several minutes he came back, and started asking all kinds of questions as to my whereabouts 90 minutes earlier. Then he wanted to know who all had driven my van in the past 2 weeks. We were there for about 20 minutes in all.

Turns out, there had been an armed robbery earlier that day. My van matched the description of the getaway vehicle.

It was, as you said...pretty creepy.

[qwlauren35]

43. I Find this SOOOOOOOO Amusing.

Black people are expected to take this sh*t lying down, but when it happens to white folks, the police are pigs and ass-holes.

Sounds like they're finally being even-handed, and random.

Catching criminals has always included inconveniencing the innocent. It has always included spreading out a wide net, and everyone is guilty... until proven innocent. If it only take 10-15 minutes to be proven innocent, that's pretty reasonable in my book.

BTW: Most of the black men I know who get stopped either go through this, or get hauled off to jail. Sounds like all of you are getting off easy if all you get is a ticket, or a warning, and a 10 minute delay. And hand-cuffs at the scene are still better than ending up in jail.

Sorry - no sympathy. They are doing their job.

[PeaceNikki]

48. I agree.

Most of the black/brown people I know go through FAR worse on a VERY regular basis. They get pulled over more and are subjected to far worse treatment than is described in the OP.

[uncle ray]

50. where the hell did you get that from?

as a white man who has endured much worse treatment from police dozens of times, i have tons of sympathy for those pulled over for DWB. i've been pulled over countless times for simply driving a car that gets the cops attention, or because i happen to get off work late at night. sometimes i've been let go, sometimes i've been hauled in.

i can understand a headlight being out being cause for concern over safety, but it is common knowledge that police use all sorts of petty equipment violations to pull people over to search for drugs, etc. this has been going on for years, nothing new. regardless of if you are white, black, whatever, the cops love to pull you over for any reason they can find, just so they can get a sniff inside your car, or a look around and nail you for something big. i've been illegally searched plenty enough times to know what the cops agenda is.

i don't find any humor in blacks being pulled over, so fuck you for finding humor in it when a white person gets pulled over.

[Captain Hilts]

51. It's not "random" if your license plate light is out. nt

[blockhead]

53. what bullshit

if you don't want your civil liberties, thats fine. I'd like to keep mine.

[CRF450]

44. I dont see what the big deal is here.

He stopped you because of a blown license plate light which is a legitimate reason to pull you over, no if, ands, or buts about it, they HAVE to be able to read your license plate! Same thing happened to me, though I got a warning ticket it was no big deal really. I went strait to Autozone and got a pair of bulbs for a few bucks and replaced the one blown bulb right their in the parking lot. Problem solved. And its standard procedure to check your license, insurance and any kind of criminal records, that alone can about 5 minutes.

I noticed that some people are putting tinted covers over their plates, and that asking for trouble from the law. I know one dude who bitched about being pulled over because of one of those cover's, which was stupid cause that was his own fault.

[Captain Hilts]

52. It isn't a big deal to me either. The light was out. They got stopped.

SOP is to make sure the car isn't stolen and you aren't wanted.

[Thickasabrick]

46. Women need to be extra careful pulling over - I've heard lots of

stories about rape, murders, etc. There needs to be some kind of law that said women could keep driving to the police station or something.