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A Politically Incorrect Reflection on Traffic Stops
I’m no longer a police officer so you’re all safe from me.
Warning: My sarcasm filter is rather low. Do not take it personally. There were many different encounters with people that helped to hone my sense of the absurd, my sense of humor, and my sense of wonder. I cannot thank them enough.
I’ve made a list of the things I have experienced as a police officer on traffic stops, with the exception of the body in the trunk. That happened to an officer that I knew. For those of you that think I’m too acerbic you can take some comfort from the fact that I’m no longer on the road as a police officer.
I had no problem with a private citizen obtaining a concealed handgun permit. I had no problem with said citizen having the handgun in their vehicle. I believe that you have the right to defend yourself. As a police officer I assumed everyone that I approached and talked with was armed.
When I was on a traffic stop my preference was as soon as I got to the driver’s window I was told; “I have a concealed hand gun license” and then I was told where the gun was in the vehicle. Do not display the pistol and then say to me; “It’s okay, I have a permit.” I am going to ask to see the permit. Remember, I did not ask you to show me the pistol. I’m a literal person.
Even though I checked your license plate with a dispatcher I have no idea if you are the RO (Registered Owner) of the vehicle until I see your ID. All I know at that point is your license plate matches the make and model of the vehicle I pulled-over. If the plate does not match the make and model Officer Friendly (that’s me) will start our discussion by asking you to explain why your plate does not match the vehicle.
I have no idea what type of person you are. For all I know you just cleaned your garage, to include the body that had been in there for two days, that is now in your trunk. (this happened to an officer I know on a traffic stop.) I’m not going to call your sixth grade teacher, former Scoutmaster, priest, minister, or rabbi for a character reference, or to find out if you’re kind to small animals and children.
When I ask for your license, registration, and proof of insurance please do not reach into your glove box and try to hand me a stack of paperwork as thick as War and Peace. I’ll let you sort through the paperwork. This keeps your hands busy and allows me to watch you and scan the interior of your car.
If you don’t have your ID and decide to give me someone else’s name pick someone who does not have a warrant for their arrest. If you do have your ID and the dispatcher tells me you have a warrant I’m probably not going to buy into the story that you have an evil twin.
If you’re under 21 you might want to separate your falsified license from your real license. I know it’s not fair that you have to wait until you’re 21 to go night clubbing, but you now have a traffic violation and a criminal charge, and no you don’t get to keep the falsified license.
Please no tears. I’ve seen my share of intended and unintended mayhem. I’ve dealt with people who have lost family members to violence and accidents. I empathize with their tears.
I received my first traffic citation two weeks after I received my license so I’ve been in your position and I muddled through the incident without having to see a therapist.
You can tell me that you believe some traffic laws are ridiculous and should not be enforced, especially the one I stopped you for violating. I already know that, that’s how we met.
Important Tip: You can swear at me all you like, I’m not going to hit you. I am going to write down every expletive, without asterisks on the back of the judge’s copy of your citation. The judge also has a copy of your DMV history in front of him when you go to court. Do not tell the judge you have a perfect driving record unless you do. If you have collected 15 moving violations in 3 months the judge will be led to believe you have two problems. The first is your credibility and the second is you are a slow learner.
I did not write the traffic laws nor assign the amount of the fine for a traffic violation. Your elected representatives do those things. Talk to your representative.
I do not like red light cameras or photo radar vans any more than you do. Once again these are legislative issues. Talk to your city council member, or state legislator.
I abhor city council meetings. Most city council members are to the left of Bernie Sanders. I avoid them whether in a public setting or in a private setting.
If you do decide to go to a city council meeting be prepared to sit and listen before your turn comes to address the council; to a member of The Friends of Trees; to a 35 year-old skater complain that the your city isn’t building enough skate parks; or the bicyclist that has run every red light in the city and who has displayed the impudent digit to every driver that had a green light and almost hit him. His complaint, there aren’t enough bike lanes in the city, which he has no intention of using even if they were provided.
Be careful out there.
Published in Policing
Police officers are allowed to make discretionary decisions in some incidents. I find it interesting, especially among libertarians that it must be all or nothing in every incident. I suppose it furthers the fantasy that all officers are totalitarian jerks.
Or automatons of the state.
I think it’s a form of corruption. The law is the law. Of course, they can’t catch all law breaking, but when they find it they should do something, but it’s most especially corruption when they give favors to people they recognize or who have jobs they like.
Better yet, we should dispose of police forces. And even better we should dispose of most laws. But having laws, and having police, they should do what they are charged with doing, without malice, prejudice or favoritism. Perhaps if all people knew the extent of the laws in place, they might be inclined to not vote for so many of them.
No. It’s just that it’s not really fair that some citizens are more favored than others, and that is antithetical to our system of government. “Discretion” is not the same as giving favors for people who work as police or with the police, for example.
Perhaps I could clarify my position on officer discretion. Discretion is used concerning violations, not crimes. For example I stopped someone for running a stop sign. He was on parole and excessive speed was not a factor in this case. He was on his way home from work. He had a good job working for a manufacturing company. The dispatcher asked me if I wanted to contact his parole officer I said no and I told him I wouldn’t write the cite. He was gainfully employed and was meeting the conditions of his parole. A verbal warning and I sent him on his way.
Corruption comes in when an officer voids a written citation on a regular basis. All cites are numbered and you sign for a citation “book” and the first and last numbers are recorded. A supervisor sees all cites at the end of each shift. Voiding cites means you will be asked if you’re holding your own traffic court and collecting fines out on the road.
I am certainly sympathetic to your first example, but how is it not also holding traffic court and a parole hearing out on the road? Yes, law is a human construction and will be flawed, but he could just as easily have been coming home from or on his way to committing a burglary. The people of your state gave him conditions for his parole. You made yourself a judge. Of course, common sense says it probably costs your city more to arrest this parole violator than to ignore his infraction, and we know that most traffic enforcement is based on revenue, not safety. So, petty corruptions in an imperfect world are understandable.
However, the original example was a suggestion that a citation wouldn’t normally be issued to someone because of familiarity with the arresting officer. That’s not quite the same.
This is a difficult discussion and is making me think. Sometimes the consequences of stated principles aren’t so easy to take, and sometimes we find our principles aren’t really our principles.
A lady I used to work with, her husband was a Houston city cop, used that as a get out of jail free card for traffic stops – she was very open about it, didn’t feel at all guilty.
A friend’s father once got out of a ticket by making the officer laugh. He was clocked doing 75 in a 25 (in fairness, the road was deserted, and the guy was driving a friend’s car, the friend was in the car egging on the driving to test some recent speed modifications – this wasn’t racing, just a quick lark when they thought nobody was around).
The officer had them dead to rights, and the driver (my friend’s father) didn’t deny his speed, but deadpanned “Wait, I thought it 25 MPH per gear, and you see I only had it in 3rd…” The cop had never heard that particular excuse before, and was so caught off guard that he cracked up laughing and told them to just drive off.
Ohio broke these traps up after one village of under 100 people somehow raked in over a million bucks in 1 year. Very corrupt mayor’s court, had been fleecing people for years for an illegal, and illegally posted speed reduction on a stretch of US40 (they hid the speed limit signs behind bushes, or mounted them very low to the ground). Well, when they nailed a state legislator, they made a lifelong enemy. The legislator even got the feds involved for the illegal speed reduction, and meanwhile mayors’ courts were abolished for villages under (I think) at least 500 people. There were other reforms too. It was glorious.
There goes federalism and the crazy patchwork of state and local regulation. No wonder we can’t win.