So, I’ve been pulled over a few times in my life. Not many, but a few. And I’ve also been in a couple of cars that got pulled over. And let me tell you, if you were actually doing something wrong, the officer doesn’t make any small talk, just straight into “I clocked you doing 70 in a 55.” The only time I’ve ever gotten the “do you know why I pulled you over?” was the time when I wasn’t doing anything wrong, and I got let go even though he insisted to the end that I was doing 87 in a 70 (white privilege at work).
“Do you know why I pulled you over?” is a trap. It means there’s a good chance the officer doesn’t actually have a good reason to ticket you, and is trying to get you to waive your 5th Amendment rights and incriminate yourself. If you make a guess, that’s a confession of guilt.
But there’s another trap, that I’ve heard of but haven’t yet experienced. It’s “do you know how fast you were going?” With that one, they’re hoping you’ll say no, because then they can name whatever speed they want – you just said you didn’t know how fast you were going, if you deny the speed they name then you’re lying to them.
Oh, I’ve had that one. Go with “yes.” Don’t give them a number, just say “Yes.” Then they still have to offer a number and you can deny it without contradicting yourself. They could just ask you, at that point, but that’s suspiciously similar to saying they don’t know, and they tend to avoid doing that.
Reblog to save a life
if you scroll past this just because it doesn’t affect you personally, i see you.
Also, you can always go to court and contest a ticket, and a lot of times you’ll win. Or if the cop thinks you’ll win they won’t even show up and you’ll win by default.
They like to target out of state plates because anyone who would be majorly inconvenienced by a court date two months away is a lot more likely to just pay it.
Also READ YOUR TICKET
I had a cop try to claim I’d turned left on red on an unprotected light while texting and that was why I got T-boned.
I had my dad drive me through the intersection where I got hit and took photos of the (very much protected) light, then got them printed.
When the judge asked me to plead I said not guilty and that I’d like to present evidence, if I could come up to the bench. He agreed.
I walked up, set down my photos, put my flip phone on top of them, and said “Your Honor, I’ll plead guilty as soon as the officer can explain how I was texting on this.”
(Note for younger folks, this was 2010. Some flip phones and phone plans supported texting. Mine was not one of them.)
The whole ticket was a lie. I was in fact considered at fault for the wreck–if you’re turning left in Arizona you’re automatically at fault–but the ticket was dismissed because it was a protected light and I had a phone that physically could not text.
Cops lie on tickets. All the time.
Read the whole thing. Don’t dispute it with the cop. Dispute it in court.
Once they really did catch me speeding and they gave me a court date on Memorial Day, when city hall was closed. So I came in the next day and filled out a piece of paper and they dismissed the ticket because it had been impossible to show up for the court date.
Another time they gave me a parking ticket because I forgot to move my car to the other side of the street on the evening of Yom Kippur, so I came in on the court date and filled out a piece of paper explaining what Yom Kippur was and why it distracted me from moving the car, and they dismissed the ticket.
