Have you ever been pulled over by a cop?

Speeding. Turning left under a sign that said, “No Left Turn”. Turning right without a “Right on Red” sign.

It’s been a while, though. Twenty years, I think.

Though now we have red light cameras and speeding cameras. I received one of those in 2011 and one in 2014. They give you a link to online video to watch your transgression.

I’ll be two years, ticket-free in April. Woo hoo!

Once for speeding. Fair cop.

Twice for a breathalyser test. It was a routine situation with police randomly pulling people in to test.

I don’t think I’ve been pulled other than these times.

Yes, and since I’m a nice white kid I’ve avoided any consequences when, honestly, I should have been hauled off to jail.

Oh Yeah! Speeding, Passing in a no passing zone, driving too slow. I am a regular terror on the road!
OH Yeah! Welcome aboard!

Yeah, for speeding, one that bugged me the most was pulled over for doing and I will say this in MPH so you all understand and was in my big truck ,for doing 38mph in a 30mph ,I was just burning the road.
$135 fine.

Up through my 30s it was incessant. But that was a different era, when cops could basically hassle you and everyone took it for granted.

Only once, when I was 18 and it was a doozy. lol
I am now 56 and have never had a moving violation, no tickets other than one parking ticket and one, minor rear ender accident. That said, the one time I was pulled over I was 18, back in 1977 and everyone had vans of one sort or another. My boyfriend at the time was driving his Chevy van, I was the passenger.

We were driving somewhere one afternoon when, all of a sudden, out of nowhere we were being pulled over by several police cars, sirens blaring. We pulled off the road and another like 3 or 4 cop cars surrounded us with guns drawn! We were carefully ordered out of the van and frisked and kept waiting with no idea what was going on. Let me tell you I was scared to death!

Turns out our van matched the description of a van that was involved in some sort of robbery the night before. It took about 30 minutes to clear us but I will never forget that moment! Good thing we complied or we might have been shot had we protested in any way.
Hippie kids were not treated nicely by cops back then.

Yes. The first time for “going faster than” the police officer who was next to me at the red light. He was young. We were there teenage girls. I was unimpressed. He, unsurprisingly, let me go, as he was too brain dead to trump up a reason to write a ticket.

Second was running a red light. I hydroplaned through the intersection. Got a warning.

Pulled over so they could check to see I wasn’t my husband, whose license was suspended.

Pulled over for yielding at a yield sign. Let go after explaining the definition of “yield” to the cop.

Running a red light. This was caused by an undercover cop who has been harassing a honest deliberately diving in front of my car. I missed the yellow light while swerving to not get a vehicular homicide charge. Got a ticket.

Speeding: going 33 in a 30. He raised it to 40 because speed trap. Brooksville.

@Coloma My boyfriend at the time was driving his Chevy van, I was the passenger.

Laying there, moonlight dancing off your hair?

♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

More times then I can count. I’ve only gotten a few tickets in my life time. Majority of the time I’ve been pulled over has been for speeding.

Now I have cards that I show and they let me go.

Many times. Speeding usually.

However the last time was about a year ago. I was pulled over on the parkway because the automatic license plate reader could not read my plate due to snow cover.
“Do you know why I pulled you over?” “I have no idea. It wasn’t speeding because I saw you way up there.” “I stopped you because your plate is covered.” “What?! That’s a new one on me. It’s snowing! ”
The trooper wrote me a “Fix-it” ticket for tinted side windows. No charge if it is fixed in X days. I got it fixed. No charge.

(If I were black would I say I was pulled over for being black?)

Let’s see, life time that I can remember:
• Once speeding,
• Once driving too slow
• Once having a poorly lit license plate.
• Twice for too much emissions.
• 7+ time DWB (Driving While Black).

@jaytkay LOL..that’s about right, those 70;s vans, a party and sex cave on wheels. haha

Oh, holy moly I forgot a good one. I had a slightly expired plate. Two weeks. Stupid me, no good excuse, I failed.

“Do you know why I pulled you over?”

“Yeah, I forgot to renew my plate.”

“Your car hasn’t been registered for two years.”

”???? WHAT!!!?”

“Get out of the car, we have to confiscate.”

”???? WHAT!!!?”

”“Get out of the car.”

They towed my car away.

I had “renewed” my registration at the California AAA. It was a nice service they offered.

But AAA botched the paperwork and never registered my car with the state.

I moved out of state shortly afterward and didn’t bother to get reimbursed.

Several times. Speeding. Ticketed only once. I’ve been fortunate to talk my way out of tickets. Once I told the policeman that I was going to gave to pass all those semis again because I was so terrified to drive anywhere near them. He let me go… I didn’t think of it as white privelege but maybe that was what it was.

Once, and it was very mundane. I was in high school, driving from my dance studio back to my house (maybe three miles), and it had been some sort of meeting, so my mom was driving behind me (busy schedules, we met at the studio). A cop pulled in between us, flashed his lights, and I pulled into a nearby parking lot (it was a commercial road). My mom followed into the lot and explained who she was. I found out later she was very angry—I didn’t see her during the actual event, since we both stayed in our cars. I was shaking, which I knew was an absurd response, but I couldn’t help it. He looked very uncomfortable about the whole situation. He looked young. I felt bad that I couldn’t stop shaking. My license plate lights had burnt out, that was all.

My dad has a story more like some of the ones you guys have shared—he was pulled over one night because his car matched a stolen car that had been used in a robbery. Four cops were yelling at him. They cuffed him and pushed him down on the curb, standing over him, shining their flashlights into his eyes. “If you just confess, things will go a whole lot easier for you,” etc., trying to get a confession out of him. “We’ve got forensics on the way. We’ll be able to match the tire treads.” To their consternation, he would only reply, “good. The sooner we get the evidence the sooner you’ll be able to clear my name.” They kept him there for thirty/forty minutes, becoming more frustrated with his lack of “cooperation” until they got some call that he wasn’t their guy. They let him go.

Three times for speeding. Was ticketed two of those three times. Two of the cops were nice enough about it. The other one made me nervous, and I was glad I was not alone.

Several times. Nothing exciting to report other than I almost got shot one time, when I was young and foolish, trying to find the handle to roll down the window. It was an old car with a myriad of problems.

Helpful Hint: Don’t be caught not paying attention and pushing you hand down between the seat and chair back when the officer walks up, they are very suspicious and quick to draw their sidearm.

Since them I am very aware of the situation and try very hard not to make it confrontational.
Said attitude has gotten me a warning instead of the ticket I deserved about half the time so even when I do get one I feel like I am still ahead.

Once, because it was around 1am (when my sleep schedule is reversed I often drive around and listen to music or just enjoy the quiet), and I was driving around with my spotlights up, he thought I was planning on using them, I explained that I knew the laws in regarding to their use, and that I was just driving around since I slept all day.

He had a bit of a dick-ish attitude, didn’t seem too fond of my plate, and got my phone number, but let me go. Still annoying, since they pulled over to let me pass just to pull me over 10 or 15 blocks later.

Only time it’s ever happened though.

This is my car

What I have found is that you have a better chance of not getting a ticket if you’re nice to the cop and treat him like a human being, instead of having an attitude and acting like you have rights and entitlements. Of course we all have rights and entitlements, and cops can definitely be assholes (even when you’re nice to them) but you have a better chance of being let go when you’re nice to them. Not directed at anyone or any post above, just my general little hunk of knowledge I’ve learned over the decades.

@jca I agree completely.

@XOIIO Nice! I have a 1992 Crown Vic. “Cop tires,.... ” It was an ambulance service fly car so it has the rubber interior that can be hosed out if it gets covered in blood.

Handy.

Thanks, this was a police one but I’m not sure what it did specifically since there’s no trace of a lightbar, cage, or much other police equipment lol, just the spotlights and holes from strobes in the lights, so it’s a bit of an odd ball. The 92’s are pretty nice. this is the plate I put on it lol

Many, many times.

The legally worst was 98 in a 65 on a two-lane highway. The cops, the prosecutor and the judge were all very nice, as there were ‘circumstances’.

The most harrowing was being stopped on the interstate in St. Louis for crossing more than one lane of traffic (in the afternoon of a weekday on an 8 lane highway) and being accused of being a drug dealer because there was a handprint in the dust on my trunk from closing it.

I’ve had such poor experience with law enforcement, that I count myself lucky if they just write me a ticket and send me on my way.

Probably going on 10 years since I was last pulled over.

I was a ridiculous kid in my early twenties. I used to drive between Richmond and DC pretty regularly (to see my parents—what a good kid!)—speeding and blasting out my speakers with Nine Inch Nails or My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult. There were several times I SHOULD have gotten pulled over and didn’t. I always blush recalling one incident speeding (then sliding) in heavy snow.

Yet for all that tough grrrl act, every time I was actually pulled over, I burst into tears. Not cute, oh-officer-you-wouldn’t-ticket-a-girl-who’s-weeping tears, but big messy tears of shame and humiliation. And those tears didn’t get me out of my tickets even once.

After a ticket I would sloooow down for a few months (and visit my parents less: a win-win for society and me), but put half a year between me and that cop, and I’d be back at it again. Happily, I live in Brooklyn now and have a kid to stay alive for. And no car.

@XOIIO Yours is gorgeous! Mine sill has the antennas, high output alternator, wiring for dual batteries, strobes mounted in the headlight housings – it even as the original wide green and red reflective stripes down te side.
Unfortunately squirrels got to it and made a real mess. It has been sitting outside in the back for 5+ years.

Thanks, I have 3 holes in the middle of the roof that were probably for antennas. Needs a bit of paint touch up here and there, but it runs great, and the police equipment was removed perfectly, no mess of wires (of course that means no goodies to play with either lol). Shame that squirrels got inside, hopefully they didn’t tear up the seats.

Here’s an album with a bunch more pictures, and here is when I took it out on the circle track. (the seagull was from a go later in the year, ended up costing me a tire but the shop took care of it since our family all goes there)

Oh yeah, didn’t come with the pushbar on it, we don’t use em here, but I figured it makes them nice and aggressive lol

5 times in one month with my first and only sports car. I sold it and got an SUV and a motorcycle. I still get pulled over, but not as often. I have a need for speed.

@AdventureElephants That is what we told my Brother In Law. He had a Challenger and got three tickets in one week, the last one he was in a pack of six cars all driving down the highway at the same speed and he was the one who got pulled over and ticketed.

We told him to sell his Challenger, buy a station wagon and put the biggest fucking engine in it he could find, that way he could satisfy his needs and get a lot fewer tickets.

I totally agree @jca ,I treat a cop that pulls me over like God,I may think he is a butt hole but never say or act like it.