Seems I remembered that wrong, it seems only to be in some counties.
Watch the first two minutes of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud_jVgBurJg

Possible scenarios.

Good cop - good citizen. Police officer is polite, respectful and citizen is cooperative. Result good.

Bad cop - good citizen. The ball here is in the citizens hands. Be polite, respectful. Don't roll your eyes, mutter under your breath or do or say anything stupid. You may still get the shaft but if there is a camera or witnesses you will have a chance in the final outcome.

Good cop - bad citizen. Only a truly professional LEO will defuse this situation without a bad outcome. Some people are belligerent jerks. Some people are crazy. Some people drink to much.

Bad cop - bad citizen. Somebody call 911. :O:

A little anecdotal story.

In 1979 I was stationed at Storck Caserne in Illesheim Germany. A bunch of us, maybe 10 or so, had gone out one Sunday night to a nightclub in Ansbach which is about 20 miles from the post.

When the nightclub closed at 1-2am (I forget exactly but it was late) we found that the cab company wasn't answering their phone leaving us stranded with a formation to be standing tall at in just a few hours.

After wandering the deserted streets making a ruckus like drunken GI's are wont to do, one of us had the bright idea of going into the local Polizei station and asking for help. Now imagine 10 loud and rowdy GI's showing up in a bunch at the police stations front desk demanding that they find a way to get us back to the base.

Well I can tell you that had we done this at any US police station we'd have been immediately thrown in the drunk tank (maybe with a little tuning up first) and our CO would have had to come down to bail us out the next day, but not in Germany. The on duty cop got on the phone and proceeded to chew the butt right off somebody for maybe 10 minutes (that might be an exaggeration being 36 years ago and the fact that i was hammered at the time) but very shortly after he hung up two large Mercedes cabs arrived out front. We piled in them and they brought us back to the main gate. They wouldn't even accept payment IIRC.

I think this illustrates pretty well why there are differences in perception between European (at least German) cops and ours. First their reaction but also the fact that we weren't afraid to ask them for help.

Plus, it solved the problem with getting 10 drunken people home and out of harms way for them and others) for the cost lower than a taxi fare.
Just the work hours for the paperwork would have been tenfold of that one ride. Not to mention keeping you under surveillance and then the backlash from the army.

If that would happen in seventies Yugoslavia, the cops would have opened a bottle of slivovica and you'd be so hammered even a Russian invasion would go un-noticed.

A friend of mine had a similar experience. The cops thought the easiest way was to drive him home than handle a drunk at the staiton.

A co-worker of mine keeps a digital voice recorder clipped to his visor. the few times he gets pulled over, he just hits record.

Most of the time he uses it to remind himself of what to pick up at the store. :D

I always think it's sad to hear how some people coming to Britain from less, well, civilised countries, are automatically afraid to approach the police, even (and maybe especially) when they need help.

It helps when people act with a little sense and maturity. I do not like it at all when a cop stops me for revenue collection, er, traffic ticket. But that's the system we have here. I'm not going to fight the system on the side of the road. I make it as easy for him as possible: I turn on the cab light when dark, get my license and insurance out before he gets out of the car, and I roll down my window and keep my hands on the wheel. I says 'yes sir' and 'no sir', and I never make excuses for his silly questions ("Was there a reason for your driving 65 in a 60?"), I just answer politely and generically ("No sir, wasn't watching the speed").

All of these deaths we keep hearing about could have been avoided if people would use a little sense in dealing with law enforcement.

Well said Eich :salute:

My approach was always cooperation with confidence. It worked every time. I was caught speeding 3 times, 2 times I got off with a warning and once my penalty was reduced from €250 to €80.

Alcohol tests are a cirkus with me. There's no chance in hell they'll ever catch me driving under influence so I'm always confident enough to have a go at the cops. One time I was stopped 3 times from a long drive and I made myself a necklace from breathalyzer mouth pieces and then begged the fourth cop to test me because it would look better with 4 pieces than 3. He insisted I was too out of my mind to be drunk :) And that one time I told the cop I'll demand a blood test if the alchohol level doesn't show up in a negative number :)
They're great sports when you show them they won't be dealing with a hothead or a jackass.

That story reminds me of an encounter many years ago.

One day I borrowed my dads car (with his approval) and my one year older brother was sitting beside me.

It was a nice day, I was young and speed limit was for everybody but me.
My brother made a remark about my speeding: "so, you must be a lucky guy, obviously you never got a speeding ticket eh?"
I replied with full confidence: Nope.

When we went back home, my brother wanted to drive dad's car.
OK, go ahead.
He started driving and somewhere during that drive he overtook another car.
He needed to speed up to do so.

Once done, he looked in the mirror and laughed: "Look that silly car tries to get in front of me again. Probably that driver is annoyed because I was faster than him.

However, that driver turned out to be a cop.
He forced us to stop and ask my bro's driver license.
"Sorry officer, but I can't show it to you. I left my license at home."

OK, the cop replied. What do we have here.
Speeding, overtaking when it's not allowed and no driver license.

We both became very worried.
Look officer, my brother replied, this is my dad's brand new car and we were
curious how fast it could go.

The man smiled somewhat and said: Look, I'm gonna give you one ticket, you may choose for what offense.

My brother chose the one for not carrying his driver license (the cheapest option).

When all was settled he drove along and said to me: Next time you drive. :haha::haha:

I'm fairly certainly these unfortunate encounters with law enforcement would go a lot smoother if we all had nicer legs.

http://pyxis.homestead.com/Road_Curves.jpg

I guess the "feminine charms" defense is a bit obsolete these days. :O:

http://i.imgur.com/0gwPAtz.gif

I am a former UK Police Officer, and there are no 'quotas'.

However what the forces do have are regular performance reviews every six months or so for each officer. They look at your workload, and divide the work into 'response' incidents i.e. generated by calls from the public which the officer attends; and self-generated work.

The reviewing senior officer wants to see a reasonable level of self-generated work as well as the response incidents. This tends to manifest itself as motoring offences, as they are the simplest to rack up. There are no set numbers, it is left to the judgement of the reviewing officer - if you have been working on three murders or other complex cases, they understand that you probably have not had time to prosecute people for having a light out on their car.

In other words, they don't want 'fire brigade' policemen who only respond to incoming calls - there has to be an element of crime/offence detection too.

I'd say 'points for pulls' is a most unfortunate and potentially misleading way of explaining a crackdown on a given theme or category of offence which is temporarily made the subject of a zero tolerance operation brought about by a localised and notable increase in said type or types of offences.

I have to agree with Clive in that I have never been made aware of definitive 'quotas' or absolutes being dictated.

There are a few traffic black spots near me where deaths have occurred in traffic related incidents and it is not uncommon for road stops being performed where zero tolerance is operated on whatever theme is taken for the time eg: speeding, tyres, insurance, road vehicle excise etc.

I admit to have taken part in them on occasion myself and the moment the operation ceases or has run its course it was always back to the individual LEO using his power of discretion (being able to verbally warn without the need to issue a ticket)....and often that had a better response from motorists.