Beware of Sneaky Traffic Cops

Off Topic
21

To jo3- No. Police certainly do not get paid based on the number of tickets they write. Any sense of ethics precludes that.

To BrentM(who wrote)-

My tips for getting pulled over.

  1. Never admit guilt. If the officer asks your speed, always state that you were going the speed limit. Never say things like, “I don’t know.” You are still guilty if you didn’t realize your speed.

1a. Never agree with the officer if he states that you were going too fast.

1b. Never respond to the “Are you in a hurry comment.” The correct answer is “No, I’m not in a hurry, Officer.” No further commentary is required.

  1. Never make casual conversation with the officer.

  2. Say NOTHING more than what is needed to respond following the above rules.

  3. Take off your sunglasses.

  4. Accept your lumps and submit the ticket to your attorney.

I disagree with what you posted to some extent. Pretending like you have no idea what happened when I saw your car clearly tearing down the highway and got a sure radar reading will often result in a ticket. I know the defense attorney will tell you to never admit guilt, but I have never seen a radar ticket beat in court as long as the officer was dilligent with some of his procedures. It doesnt matter if you admit guilt or not, those kind of tickets are not easy to beat…even if you have Johnny Cochrane. Much of courtroom testimony(especially in traffic court) comes down to credibility and the judge is always going to give the edge to the officer. Take it for what its worth, but being polite and acknowledging wrongdoing can go a long way. Personally, as long as you werent doing something outrageous, admitting wrongdoing is usually a free pass(or a very significant break) with me. But that is a decision you have to make for yourself as not all cops operate that way.

I dont remember who posted it but somebody said something like “dont do traffic duty if you have such a hard time with it and let the chips fall where they may”. Actually, I love traffic enforcement. People dont realize how important traffic enforcement is. For consideration, the son of sam was caught by a parking ticket. Serial killer Joel Rifkin was picked up on a traffic stop. So was Tim McVeigh. Motor vehicle stops are not just about writing tickets. They are also about getting drugs off the street, recovering missing or endangered persons, catching fugitives, recovering stolen cars…I could go on forever. However, those kind of things don’t happen every day. In between, a part of the job is to write tickets and that is never going to change.

There are a host of reasons why politicians always seem to be screaming for more money(ie. they waste most of it on crap), but that is a topic for another time.

22

Stop your whinning. You know the speed limit - if you speed then be willing to pay fine if you’re caught. If not then don’t speed. Easy and simple.

23

I drive over the speed limit where it’s safe. I always have and always will. I’ve never, repeat never, had a traffic accident.

I’ve been pulled over and about half or less of the time I’ve been ticketed. If the cop feels like chatting I talk to him. Most of the cops that go beyond the minimum amount of talking don’t give you the ticket. The less they say the more likely you are to have to fight it in court. The more abrupt you are the more likely they are to think you’re a dick that deserves a ticket. They are all humans after all.

I’ve seen radar tickets beat with a simple phrase in WA state. It’s a precedent that I don’t remember but that guy’s speeding infraction was tossed because of it.

Almost every aerial surveilance ticket gets thrown out if you fight it.

I’ve admitted guilt and not gotten a ticket. I was doing 90 in 70, had an expired insurance card, and beer on my breath. I had two beers with my dinner about an hour and half before leaving on the trip. I admitted to everything and got a written warning. I wasn’t contrite, I didn’t beg, and I wasn’t apologetic. I was cordial and respectful and let the trooper make my excuses for me. What I told him about the beer was, “Two beers over an hour ago, I’m 200+ pounds, you can do the math. I’ll take any test you feel like giving me if you have the time”.

Sometimes you’re lucky. My buddy got stopped for going 120+ in a 45 at 2 AM in his BMW. He was a half mile from his house. No ticket.

I get radared a lot. One in a while I’ll be pulling my horse trailer with my Ford Superduty and can clearly see the officers reaction when they look at the reading on the gun. I’ve never had one even pull me over. That shows how accurate they believe their gear to be. It says 75 and they see a 4 horse trailer and the two don’t match. It must be the radar…it’s not. My wife saw one cop actually shake the gun and look at it twice.

The new stuff might be better but my boss was a cop and did traffic duty for a while. He’s told me more than once that you can get all kinds of inaccurate readings on the gear he’s used. So they use their judgement and for some reason a pickup seems less likely to be speeding than a Corvette or one of the Fast and the Furious looking rice rockets (even though they are more sound and fury than speed).

24

I have to refute some of what steelyeyes said.

I dont know about Washington, but there is no magic phrase that gets you off of a speeding ticket in New Jersey. Like I said(and I have plenty of experience to back this up), radar tickets are hard to beat if the cop dots his “i”'s and crosses his “t”'s(I’m not going to go into what those are but I hear there are a number of books written by greedy lawyers that give some examples where police may not have been as thorough as they should have). We have very good gear here and it is rigorously tested and certified(as are the speedometers in our cars for pace tickets). Lawyers always talk their clients into downgrade pleas instead of fighting speeding tickets, because it is rare that a speeding ticket is lost based on improper operation or equipment malfunction. If I saw your trailer coming at 75 mph, and I had insured 1st that my radar was functioning properly, I wouldnt hesitate to stop you.

A confession really seals the deal by the way. I have never seen a lawyer even begin to argue a ticket when his client already admitted to the speed. Like I said before, thats the chance you take in being honest I guess.

There are no hard and fast rules for getting out of tickets. Excuses may or may not work. The key is honesty, but even then not everyone is going to cut you a break(and to be honest, there are some nutty cops who live to write tickets to satisfy ego problems. Few and far between but they are out there for sure and you wont have much of a chance one way or another with them). Cops are pretty good human lie detectors after a few years on the job.

Of course, somebody else posted the best advice which is simply dont speed. Mind you,Im not chasing after you if you are going 5 or 10 mph over the speed limit but use your judgement and dont exceed the speed limit as much as possible.

25

JD I don’t think you’d fit into the force where I live. You actually don’t sound like a cocksucker who would lie on the stand or give tickets out of spite. Also speed limits have been raised in some places where they recognized it’s generally not statistically any more dangerous to go a little faster, but I don’t know if it’s because of better cars, and they usually don’t raise it much.

26

JD340 -

Yes, most often it if you state you were driving the speed limit, when you were clearly tearing down the highway, will result in a ticket. However, the goal here is to not admit guilt. This makes your (my) attorneys job much easier. See, it is only necessary to beat the ticket on a technicality. Rather than to beat the ticket on a technicality and do a song and dance when it comes time to explain why you agreed with the officer that you were speeding.

Those are my rules. You don’t need to follow them and you are free to roll the dice when you get pulled over and the officer tries to trick you into admitting guilt. 9 times out of 10, you’ll get a ticket.

My recenty ticket (we go to court on August 5th), I didn’t even have a chance to say boo.

Officer: “Going a little fast there today. Can I see your drivers license and registration?”

BrentM: “Here you go.”

Officer: “I’ll be right back”

BrentM: notices he’s writing on his pad

Officer: “Please sign this form, by doing so you are not admitting guilt”

BrentM: signs form, returns pad to officer

Officer: “BrentM, don’t forget that your drivers license expires on your birthday next week. Have a nice day.”

BrentM: “Thanks for that, Officer.”

Anyway, 72MPH in a 60MPH got me 157 dollars worth of a ticket. With people on my tail behind me while I’m heading to Olympia. I hardly call that tearing down the highway.

However, that’s what you get when you live in the Peoples Republic of Washington.

I’d rather support my attorneys lifestyle than give money to the State.

-Brent

27

I just hate the profiling that goes on. Back up north I lived in a small town where most of the cops were just ball busters. I’m white, but two of my best friends were minorities and I can’t even begin to count how many times we’ve gotten pulled over and been given some bullshit excuse about “a car with the same description and same description of passangers had been called in”.

28

BrentM,

My suggestions about being honest and admitting guilt are only that…suggestions. Nothing is foolproof, I’m just saying what works with me and many of my buddies on the job. Even if you get a ticket and were pleasant and honest, you have a much better chance of a favorable downgrade later(thats just human nature).

I’m not arguing that the never admit guilt approach is legally sound…it is. But like I said, when we’re dealing with speeding tickets, I have never seen a lawyer successfully beat one in my neck of the woods(NJ). And we write a lot of speeding tickets. It really takes for the officer to not have covered his bases, which rarely happens as this isn’t rocket science. Of course, other states may be different based on the training the cops receive, the equipment they use and the case law that sets speeding summons guidelines.

29

I’ve been pulled over a few times, but I’ve never got a ticket. I think a lot of people let their attitude get in the way and force the officer to give them a ticket.

For example, if pulled over at night I’d immediately turn on the interior light so the officer could easily see my actions.

Don’t give attitude, the guy is usually just doing his job as well. If daytime, take off the shades. Say “sir” when you answer. It costs you nothing to humble yourself/show respect and it can save you a bundle.

I speed all the time (but not THAT much), whenever there isn’t some slowass in front of me to hold me back. In the city, on the highway. Just keep your eyes open, don’t drive dangerously and obey the rules of the road.

I think sometimes when they are thinking of nabbing you for speeding they will follow or observe you in order to see if you do anything stupid. When they see you anticipating other drivers, slowing down around other drivers, signalling, shoulder checking, noticing them sneaking up… and so on… they know you aren’t a terror and will cut you slack if you haven’t gone over that invisible line.

Just my thought since I’ve never been given a ticket, I could be kidding myself that they notice anything other than the radar reading. If it is just the radar gun – let someone else go a bit faster and get nabbed.

Heh, reminds me of one time I zoomed by a police car (hard to notice until you did). They only have a couple seconds to notice you as well as you fly by. So, seeing the car after the fact, I immediately slowed and merged with traffic. Several minutes later this cop is inching up beside me in the fast lane. I’ve got my hands at 10 and 2 doing a couple miles an hour over the limit and he’s going by giving everyone the eyeball trying to see who flinches.

Anyhow, just something to talk about. Drive safely over the holiday weekend!

30

Similar to the topic and very entertaining. Just listen to what this guy rambles on about.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/irocspeeding.html

31

BrentM

Did they nail you on the downhill run to the Nisqually Bridge on I5? They work that spot a lot with as many as six cars.

There are some spots that are good revenue generators and that’s one. The other is between Fife and the Federal Way truck scales.

Here’s my biggest tip to avoid speeding tickets. Watch the other cars ahead of you. If you’re moving in light traffic and the cars 1/4 mile or more ahead start hitting the brakes they are likely seeing a radar operation in progress. If you see that then slow down until you know you’re safe. Looking a good ways down the road keeps you alert anyway so it’s just a good thing to do.

If you’re alone on a seemingly deserted road even a radar detector won’t help you. Those instant on guns peg you before you can react.

Also there are terrain features that provide good ambush spots. If you know the spot is a good hiding spot don’t speed by it. Think like a predator and you’ll avoid being prey.

I might have mislead a bit on that last post. I didn’t admit to speeding. In fact when he stated I was going 87 MPH I said, “No way!”. I admitted to having had beer. If the guy can smell it and you deny it you aren’t doing anyone any favors, especially yourself.

32

Racial profiling, while not socially excepted, is statistically supported.

33

Yeah and it is people like you who make our insirance rates go up when you crash with no belt or helmet so stuff your sophmoric unaware of the facts bullshit. And you are the typical asshole that I used to love giving tickets to and locking them up so kiss my BLUE ASS!

34

A friend of mine told me a story not long ago. It’s kind of long so I’ll hit the high points. Cops blaze by them on the left on the way to a call. Last cop car slows and then paces them alongside for a few seconds. Over the PA, “The blowjob is OK, but the beer has to go” and then they zoomed off to catch the other cars.

35

I’ve been hit by the one that sits on the overpass nailing people last year. This year it was in Thurston County, by a motorcycle cop. They’re hardly noticable sitting on the side of the highway. I was just the leader of the pack, there were several cars next to me and behind me. I just was the guy in the front.

They really seem to be working that stretch of highway lately. My annual ticket raises my awareness of my speed, so I’ve been playing it safe. Just got to get out of this last one. I’m confident my boy will take care of me.

-Brent

36

I think you should have said,“kiss my thin blue ass”, that would have been funnier. Or, “kiss my thin blueveiner”, that would’ve been a real snappy retort. I don’t know much about insurance(I don’t have any, just kidding) but I know that crashes in general cause rate increases, and I don’t see how wearing a seatbelt would keep you from crashing. Maybe medical bills would be lower? I know in my state they took out medical coverage so you have to have your own.

37

Hey guys i reckon u should probably consider urselves lucky. Over here in Australia its far worse. We get a licence with 12 points on it, lose any and u dont get em back for 3 years, lose all 12 in a 3 year period and kiss ur licence goodbye for a set period depending upon the offence.

We measure speed in kmh not mph but its about 1.6km to a mile. If u exceed limit by 30kmh, instant 1 month suspension, 4 points and $550. 45kmh, 6 points 3 months suspension and $1000. In the last 3 years the amount of speed and red light cameras has doubled and the revenue in some states has more than tripled. Some state govts have forecast in their budgets for this to double again so showing the people that in reality they are just revenue raising.

Other charges like street racing, time trialling, dangerous driving, burnouts in my state carry fines of at least $400 and 3 points and first offence gets ur car impounded for 3 months. Second offence the vehicle is forfeited to the state.

Then on long weekends and holiday periods we have double demerit points. Say u speed at 15-30kmh (normally 3 points now 6) and arent wearing a seat belt ( normally 3 now 6) or happen to be on the mobile phone (normally 3 now 6) there goes ur licence. End of ur career and social life asnd essentially having the potential to wreck ur life.

As far as i am concerned the whole place is turning into a nanny state where revenue is the driving factor behind “road safety”. Everywhere speed limits are being lowered despite the roads and the cars getting better.

the enforcement by the cops is slightly dubious as well, hiding in bushes and such has long been part of the practice especially is places where the road is good 6lanes wide and very little chance of accidents. Yup its revenue raising!!!

38

There goes that fantasy of moving to Australia when I retire…