What to do if you are pulled over by the police

[Diopos]

Always have a lawyer in the car ...

avoid sunbathing during summer and generally be as white as possible

It really gives me the creeps that something completely normal such as an interaction with a policeman, for whatever reason, is treated as a high risk experience (for all involved parties). What happened to be polite and cooperative?




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[em2nought]

In Thailand before the movie starts there's a montage to the King that everyone stands up during. Apparently in the USA we should be showing that Chris Rock video before every movie, maybe we should play the Star Spangled Banner too. If the movie industry doesn't agree we could always start a new Un-American Activities Committee.

At the very least we should make them show a different Schoolhouse Rock episode each month starting with my favorite(Obama's least favorite)

[Jimbuna]

Two good and informative videos and as already stated, common sense does help a great deal.

[Feuer Frei!]

No amount of 'common sense' or yes sirs will make your day any better if you get some cowboy who just got assigned to a precinct after graduating from the Police academy.

[aanker]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

No amount of 'common sense' or yes sirs will make your day any better if you get some cowboy who just got assigned to a precinct after graduating from the Police academy.

You got that right! Sometimes it doesn't appear to wear off.

I am grateful for law enforcement and support 'blue lives' however with one exception in my long life, every cop I've met in real life has been a jerk. Beginning at age 11 or 12 when I got lost downtown after a dental appointment and asked a cop which direction I needed to go to find a specific street so I could catch the bus back to school, he said, "get lost" or "go away". I eventually found the street 2 or 3 long blocks away.

The good one was a State Trooper who pulled me over for speeding. When I told him that I was 'going with the flow' and had been following a particular truck ever since Indiana (several hours ago), he cheerfully let me go.

I won't go into detail on other bad 'encounters'... too many dumb stories like getting a ticket for going 58 mph in a 55 zone.

I just don't understand the problem. Quota's on white guys for their budgets maybe? My sister's ex boyfriend was caught exchanging sexual favors for letting women off many years ago. Power corrupts?

For many years now one of my best friends on the internet is a cop.... funny : )

[mapuc]

When I lived in Sweden it has, what I can remember, only happens once that I was told to stop the car.

The rest of these stopping, the police had those "controls" where you had to blow in a tube(alcohol test)and that you have a driving license. Sometimes they also checked your car you are driving.

Here in Denmark, there's a lot of anger against these "control" and here's why

The law that give the police the right to stop a drive is in many occasion given away to another authorities who's standing behind the police

E.g

A person is stopped by the Danish Police, he or she is asked to take the alcohol test and to show the driving license. After the police is finish, they passes "the law" to the next authorities- for example the taxation authorities and then the driver has to do what they are requesting then the taxation authorities passes "the law" to the next authorities

So when a drive is stopped in Denmark he or she could be facing 3-5 different authorities in one stop.

Markus

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Feuer Frei!

No amount of 'common sense' or yes sirs will make your day any better if you get some cowboy who just got assigned to a precinct after graduating from the Police academy.

Brings to mind an incident from about 1970-1. I was living in one of the many small towns that make up the whole of the Los Angeles area, each with their own police departments, albeit very small ones. I used to work swing shift at a bank data processing center and would get off work at about 1:00 am. It was my habit to go down to a local supermarket where the morning edition of the newspapers would be dropped off in the vending machines outside. The market had closed for the day some hours before. I bought my papers and drove away; I got about a couple of blocks when a patrol car came up behind me and lit me up. I pulled over and saw two cops get out, one about my age (20) and an older officer. The younger cop handled the stop and with great enthusiasm for the task. Since I was a long-haired guy, I got the idea he was seeing visions of his first narco bust or maybe, even, a wild hippie revolutionary caught in the act of planting a bomb at the local supermart. He asked for my ID, gave it to the other officer to run. and then proceed to pepper me with all manner of questions; he even went through my entire car looking for God knows what. Coming up with absolutely nothing, he asked his partner what my ID check turned up; he was crestfallen to hear my record was absolutely clean (and still is, to this day). He then turned to me and demanded, "Have you ever been arrested!?". My answer: "No". He then practically shouted "Why not!!?". That was when the older officer stepped in, telling the young cop to go back to the car. The older cop handed me back my ID, apologizing for the actions of the young guy, saying, "He's new"; I said, "Yeah, I noticed a bit"...



<O>

[Fubar2Niner]

Run Away:

[The Old Gringo]

I would like to relay how it used to be done (in the old days). I retired in 1996 (WOW 20 years last April) from a small mid-western town, USA, I was a patrolling officer the first 11 years and chief the final 14.
First I would like to add the huge amount of respect I have for todays street COP, the stress level must be horrendous. Secondly when I was a COP, we (both the good and bad guys) were like children playing a game, no one ever dreamed of a shoot-out. I drew my weapon 2 times during my career, the first as a rookie and it was unwarranted, the second when a girlfriend wanted to shoot her boyfriend for hitting her, and then only after she fired a shot.
But I digress, sorry I suffer from SOMS (Stupid Old Man Syndrome:-) back on point. Daytime stops were pretty straight forward, visibility wasn't a problem and there were many people to observe the situation. Nighttime another story, the officer would observe while calling in the plate if it was an unknown vehicle. Also if the driver and/or passengers displayed a lot of movement. It was assumed they were hiding something, more caution was given. As stated it was a small town, we knew everybody. Normally, we would tell dispatch we were stopping "Johnny Jones".
Thanks for reading this old mans ramblings.

[vienna]

I grew up in San Francisco in the 50s and 60s. Although it is considered a big city, the geography of hills and valleys make a lot of the areas in the City borders more like small villages. The one thing I do remember about the police at the time was there was a practice of keeping the same officers patrolling a given beat for very long periods of time. The officers were then able to get to know the citizens of their area and to know what problems or difficulties might pop up. We knew our beat cops and they knew us; as a kid, we knew, if we did something wrong, the cops were more likely to take us to our fathers rather than to the precinct house; our neighborhood was blue-collar working class, predominantly Irish and Italian; those fathers were harder on the kids than any police force could ever be...

I also remember that the cases of officers pulling guns were very few and far between; an officer firing a weapon was front page news in the papers, above the fold , and that's saying something for a city with a population of about 750,000 citizens...



<O>

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by vienna

We knew our beat cops and they knew us; as a kid, we knew, if we did something wrong, the cops were more likely to take us to our fathers rather than to the precinct house; our neighborhood was blue-collar working class, predominantly Irish and Italian; those fathers were harder on the kids than any police force could ever be...

I also remember that the cases of officers pulling guns were very few and far between; an officer firing a weapon was front page news in the papers, above the fold , and that's saying something for a city with a population of about 750,000 citizens...



<O>

U obviously didn't hang out at Geneva Towers and UN Plaza

[vienna]

@ The Old Gringo:

I didn't notice at first the heading on your post: Retired Chief of Police; just want to say I'm glad you were able to retire, given how dangerous an occupation policing can be, and to thank you for being one of those people who do put on a badge and try to serve and protect. I know I would never be able to do that job and, even with some of the 'bad apples' we hear about, I have known a lot of good officers in my life and I have always believed the vast majority of the officers and deputies are just trying to do their best in a very trying job. Thanks again...



<O>

[Platapus]

When I was in the Military, we had to brief the new officers on a fictitious but practical "Air Force Regulation 4-16" which stated that the E-4 standing over you with an M-16 IS the ranking person in control of the situation. There is plenty of time to lodge a complaint afterwards.

We had, to our great amusement, many instances of brand new LTs and some Captains ending up laying face down on the flight line.

There was one instance where this one O-2, who was kinda a jerk, was observed being "escorted" out of a controlled area, handcuffed and loudly proclaiming "you can't do this to me". To us who were watching we all thought "yeah, well it looks like they are doing it to you"

Strangely, few NCOs ended up face down when they made entry mistakes... Perhaps because they immediately cooperated IAW AF Reg 4-16. I know I did.

I am pretty sure the other services have their own version of "4-16"

One time when I was in Korea, the base LE made a mistake and arrested me for something that was no illegal. I was not particularly worried as it was plainly evident that there was no issue. But IAW AFR 4-16, in my case six E-4's with M-16's and one with an M-60. I was Mister Cooperation.

The arresting cop actually thanked me on the way to the station for not giving him and his team crap.

"You guys are just doing your job and you treated me with respect while you did it."

He remarked about how few people recognize that. and he thanked me..... but he did not remove the handcuffs though.

It is almost like there is a life lesson here. Cooperation often makes things work smoother.