Getting pulled over for no reason

[sophie]

My car, parents car they are letting me borrow anyway, is from a different state than where I live currently (we''re moving back soon ). In that state you don't have front license plates, so the car has a novelty euro plate. I got pulled over this morning because.... A cop ran the front novelty plate and got nothing back. European plates look nothing like US plates, and it's obvious my car is out of state by where the registration stickers are. She had seen my rear plate and ran that too and still pulled me over.

The cop ignored the speeders and the scary hitchhiker and pulled me over .

[crashhelmet]

The Henderson (a suburb of Las Vegas) Police are like this. I've been pulled over for speeding simply because I passed a cop that was driving slower than the speed limit. I've been pulled over for faulty blinkers and/or brake lights that weren't faulty.

Each and every single fracking time I was pulled over, I was put through a full field sobriety test. It's as if they made up a bullshit reason to stop me so that they could hope to catch me impaired enough to be hauled away.

One other thing. I have never been issued a ticket in any of the times they stopped me.

[HYHYBT]

So why do they do this?

[crashhelmet]

I've heard police officers says "If I follow you long enough, I'll find something I can cite you for."

Given my experience with the field sobriety tests, I'm assuming the Henderson Police are trying to pop people for DUIs and collect the fines that go along with it.

In other jurisdictions, it could be the fines for speeding and/or other moving violations. Very few people take the time to fight them and just pay their fines so that they're not inconvenienced.

As much as they deny it, there are "unwritten" quotas they are asked to meet each month

[Rageaholic]

I once got pulled over because my back headlights were apparently too bright. Cop was nice enough and didn't give me any hell or any ticket, but it was still weird.

[patiokitty]

I once had a motorcycle cop give me shit for stopping too close behind him...even though there was enough space for 2-3 cars between us. We were in the turn lane waiting for the light to change, and I guess he didn't like the look of me and my friend in the passenger seat so he climbed off his bike and walked up to my window. He banged on it AS I WAS ROLLING IT DOWN and tried to give me the third degree over how close I was to him.

I told him to back off, that there was clearly more than enough space between the front of my van and the back of his bike that he had no leg to stand on. My friend was almost pissing himself because he thought for sure that we were both going to get hauled in because I had the guts to call the cop out on his bullshit. I also told the cop that if he kept it up I'd be reporting his behaviour to his chief - a man my mother used to date!

The cop took off and I never had another problem with the cops in that town.

I know most people would just back down when a cop is throwing their weight around, but I knew just as well as he did that he was dead wrong. And I tend to get my back up when I know I'm right about something...even if it's an authority figure trying to get me to back down.

[protege]

So why do they do this?

It's either one of two things. Either the cop is an asshole on a power trip...or it's because he/she has nothing better to do.

[Kheldarson]

So why do they do this?

Sometimes they misjudge because they're human.

I got pulled over once while driving to my student teaching position. I was driving this old Front Royale Oldsmobile at the time. Since this was right off the intersection to the interstate, I thought maybe he had me on speeding or something, although I'd swear I wasn't.

He looked surprised to see me. Ran my info and then told me I couldn't have my rosary hanging from my rearview mirror.

My supervising teacher told me that the cops were trying to bust a drug ring. Who drove old tanks of cars, like mine.

[Sarah Valentine]

I once got pulled over and given a warning for going 2 miles over the speed limit.

[wolfie]

Many years ago, when I worked in a machine shop, I was pulled over shortly after leaving work. I can understand the cop's viewpoint - 3 guys in a car, pulling out of an industrial area at night. All 3 of us had our company ID badges/timeclock swipe cards - 2 of my co-workers didn't have cars, bus service in the area is TERRIBLE at night, and we were just getting off from the night shift. Once the cop realized WHY we were in the area at 4 in the morning, no problem.

[blas87]

A couple of weeks ago, our designated driver got pulled over for having a headlight out.

Sure, a legit reason to do a routine traffic stop.

But this is a small town, she's lived here her entire life and she's well known for being a DD for all of her friends (she's a little younger than my parents, she only drinks at home, and she's the type of person that has friends who are all in my age group). Among other things that she does for the community.

So, as all the drunks are peeling away at the road, they go after the one car with the sober driver.

And this is one reason lots of people in Wisconsin are still driving with multiple OWIs and revoked licenses.

[protege]

So, as all the drunks are peeling away at the road, they go after the one car with the sober driver.

Some years back, I had a state trooper pull me over for not having current inspection stickers on my windshield. This guy, was on the opposite side of the highway when he passed me. Imagine my surprise, when after stopping at the light to turn left, and then into the gas station...I have a state trooper pulling up at the pump behind me to bust my balls about those stickers. Seems he not only made an illegal U-turn, drove over the highway median, but blew through the red light, in an attempt to issue a ticket.

He wasn't too amused when I told him that some crackhead had thrown a rock at me some days prior, cracking the glass. When the windshield was replaced, the shop handed me the piece with my stickers on it. Since that thing tended to slide around, I kept it on the passenger seat.

When I presented him with the glass with the still-valid stickers on it, I got told that it wasn't "good enough" and that I had to get them replaced. Never mind that I had to get the car tested again in a month. No, it was more important to fork over $50 for new stickers. Sorry, but fuck that.

Some of those guys go out of their way looking to bust people for things. I mean, there were (and still are) people in that county that don't maintain their vehicles at all, nor do they bother to get them inspected. I mean, I've seen pickup trucks with fenders that flap in the breeze Yet, I maintain my cars, and I get interrogated

[sophie]

The cop actually hid behind a starbucks at waited for me to get gas before pulling me over. I must have looks so suspicious, nothing says a threat to society like a housewife in yoga pants.

[Greenday]

The cop actually hid behind a starbucks at waited for me to get gas before pulling me over. I must have looks so suspicious, nothing says a threat to society like a housewife in yoga pants.

We're on to you! We know women are wearing yoga pants to distract us as they take over the world.

[blas87]

My friend got pulled over again driving me home last Saturday night.

Young cop was about to go through a light, but backed up and waited in a parking lot for us to go by.

Found out my driver was DD....and the cop actually felt like a jerk about it, too! Imagine that!