anyone subject of a fishing traffic stop before?

think this will be unusual anymore, on one of my trips from iowa to utah I was pulled over, the questions asked had nothing to do with traffic, sounded more like TSA from the airports

Must be Obama care!

You left out the most important information, Where??? The corrupt cops in Louisiana are famous for this (and worse). They really like to ticket out-of-state drivers and rental cars (who they figure are likely to be out-of-state people who flew in and then rented). 60 Minutes even did a piece on this many years back where they drove their car down a highway and kept a camera on the speedometer all along to show that they stayed under the speed limit, but none the less they were repeatedly stopped by cops (who didn't ticket them while the cameras were running).

P.S. I've driven longer routes to avoid that state.

My musician friends were zipping along I-40, going to a gig in Nashville. A trooper pulled them over saying he wanted to look in the bass & banjo cases. They said, "Go ahead" He opened up the rear hatch, took a look at the bass and then said, "Get out of here."
Misty said she felt like he was profiling bluegrass musicians. LOL

My experiences have been quite the opposite when I've been stopped. One night an empty road I did pull myself over before a state trooper had the chance to pull me over for speeding. He was sitting under a bridge using radar, so I just stopped myself. When he approached me as I was stopped on the side of the road, he asked for my license/registration/insurance. I gave it to him, answered a few questions about where I was coming from and going to, and he said have a good night and watch my speed. I found out a few months later when I passed through the area again that the limit was 55 and I was traveling ~30 over.

Possibly a BOLO out for a similar car. Happens frequently.

My daddy was stopped for no reason about the time of the 60 minute report. They said people were doing drug runs on the highway through Louisiana in cars like his.

I think mgarledge may have given the reason. There are routes that are used regularly by those who transport drugs for others. Often, there will be unmarked cars along the side of the road doing nothing but looking for a particular type/year vehicle. Maybe you happened to fit the description that night.

I am an advocate of having cameras in police vehicles that record traffic stops. That is protection for both the driver and the officer.

his badge was a bit heavy for him!

possibly, and I agree with you about having cameras to record all police actions to prevent bad apples entrapping innocent motorists / public while he/she's on a power trip.

It seems like more and more we live in a police state: http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/12/opinion/leon-ice-raid/index.ht...

It's quite scary how many people are willing to accept being terrorized by government.

Driving east through Tennessee coming back from a cross country (because it's there) 2 week trip. I was watching my speed because I already had a nastygram behind me, and was way more aware of getting another. The posted limit was 65. I roll over the crest of a hill at 68, and see a trooper on the center median waiting for a NYer like myself to come cruising by. I watch the rear view, and like clockwork as I'm about a mile down the road, he pulls out. I watch as he creeps closer and eventually pulls me over. I ask why, he tells me I was speeding. 68 in a 65 zone. I look at him, judge my options, then ask WHAT? How about the local that blew past me at 75 not too long before I hit that spot? He skips that inquiry and starts asking me have I been drinking? Do I have any drugs in the car? Do I have any large amounts of cash? (to this I answered yes! Just won $1500 at poker in Vegas and another $500 in West Memphis, Arkansas the night before, again at poker. ) I show him along with the Cesears Palace $1 poker chips I had as souvenirs. After about 20 minutes of this line of BS, I just asked him to get the dog out of his car and have him search already. I have nothing to hide, and just want to get the hell outta the state. After that admission he let me go. If I was running drugs, it wouldn't be in a 1998 Honda Civic with 250k miles on it...

I must strongly disagree that we are being "terrorized" by government. Even though one can find myriad articles, blogs, etc. that rant against government, I do not believe by any stretch of the imagination that the bad/stupid/misconceived actions of some government employees (federal, state, or local) can be categorized as terrorizing.

What is scary to me is that too many people are ranting about their rights and get involved with like minded people and then go out and murder law enforcement officials (read white supremacists groups).

I had an experience with a highway patrol at night, doing 4 - 5 over the posted speed limit on 4 lane highway, a car came up on me so fast from the rear, and tailgated me to where I couldn't see the headlights at times, then the car backs off, then speeds up again, after a good 10 minutes of this, the car passed on the left lane and it was a police car, I think the police was trying to push me more over the speed limit to pull me over.

... on my way home from work for doing 114 mph in a 55 ...

trouble was, I was driving a mid-1980's Dodge Omni that was barely able to do 55 in a 55 ...

after making me wait almost 15 minutes along the side of the freeway at one o'clock in the morning, he let me go ... without a ticket.

must not have been any REAL crime happening in Ann Arbor that night.

--

it's the dog's fault

I was traveiling though Louisiana on I-10 around Crowley. Was in a pack of other cars all traveling about the same speed. Troopper was waiting on the other side of an overpass with a radar gun. Picked me out and had me pulled over. The only reason he get me was I had an out of state license. I found out later from my brother that travelers was avoiding driving in South Louisiana on I-10 if they were from out of state.

Some years back my wife got a ticket for turning right at a red light that had apparently been set to never turn green. The good news was that the judge figured out it was a setup. The bad news was that the judge could not prove it.

A few years back I was driving from Colorado back to NC in a rental mini-van, hauling loaner mirrors and cells for our telescope in crates in the back (we were having another mirror made after FedEx managed to break ours, hence the reason I was personally hauling the loaner).

Anyway, somewhere about the middle of Kansas, a trooper started following me. I was perhaps going 5 over the limit when I first passed him. He followed me for 10 or so miles, then went off an exit ramp, then back up onto the interstate (the infamous "Texas Two-Step" LOL). Once he caught up with me, he pulled me over. I showed him my papers. His reason for pulling me over? "There was snow blocking part of your license plate". Which was a BS reason, because there wasn't snow blocking any part of my plate. He then let me go merrily on my way. I asked my dad (who was a truck driver for over 40 years before retiring) about this, and he said "Relax, Lee, cops get bored just like anyone else. He probably just pulled you over to have something to do. Nothing to worry about." I still think it was crazy for the guy to pull me over, but I guess I can see Dad's point too.

Cheers,
--Lee

PS--That was the second time I was pulled on that trip. A cop in eastern Colorado pulled me for doing 80 in a 75. No ticket, just a warning. I concluded from this that once the limit gets past 70, there is less "allowance" given for being over the limit.

We were on the freeway near the Eastern edge of Oklahoma and a Oklahoma highway patrol going the opposite way turned into the grassy center divider as he went buy us and made a u turn and came up behind us and pulled us over.

We were driving a Mustang that was an Arizona car and there is no front plate issued in Arizona so probably what caught is attention. He took me back to his car and said he stopped us because the year tag on the license plate was the wrong color. Kind of hard to understand why he would have seen that being he was going the opposite way about 200' from the road I was on. I explained that the state of AZ issues the year tag and the color changes every year and the year sticker has the license plate number shown on it to verify that it is current. He checked my license and screwed around for a few more minutes before letting us go after inquiring where we were going too and why we were in Oklahoma. We were both in our 50's and to this day cannot figure out what his game was.

I was on the midnight shift. Just as I finished a call I got another from a hospital. The office was 2 exits from where I was so me and my 73 Camaro 350 got on the beltway, I punched it up to 65-70 and took the 2nd exit. As I got out of the car a state trooper was blocking my car. He called me over to his car and asked me to show proof that I worked at this now closed building. I said "I repair computers and stopped here for some parts and if I don't get to the hospital ASAP people could die." He looked at me and said BS and laughed. He said it's 3am and the only idiots out here are drunks going home and you and I so keep it under 70mph. Cool Cop !

Sorry, but when you c*** your pants because someone busts into your house armed and without a warrant of any kind, that's domestic terrorism. The thinking here is that you have to keep the proles in line somehow.

People in positions of authority routinely abuse that authority, because there is little to no oversight. That lack of oversight is often because their superiors condone or encourage such abuses simply because they are flush with power. What is being described here is but the smallest taste of it, and it only gets worse the higher you go.

However, to stop it would require the average people to wake up from their lethargy and take action. Unfortunately, most people think the same way you do and will go about their lives, not caring that their rights are gone.

A few years ago my truck pulling a 5th wheel trailer broke down on I-40 about 30 miles west of Nashville, TN. I tried my Canadian cell phone to call the Good Same Club for help but of course it didn't work. A state trooper stopped and let me use his cell phone to make the call. There are still some Good Samaritans out there.

I have said several times on this site in the past that I respected your insights. However, such exaggeration as this seems beneath you.

You must of been pulled over for driving a car that can barely do the speed limit going downhill

Driving at (or below) the speed limit are classic giveaways of being under the influence - adding a new vehicle (or rental) and on the interstate (like I95 North bound) fits the profile for drug trafficing. Agree that it's not fair - but face it profilling works.

I-80 in western Illinois: A trooper pulls over a car for some trivial reason. If they refuse to allow a search, he says he will unload his dog. The mules then co-operate. We wonder how that stretch of road has so many busts.
A trucker friend told us that he has observed a older couple walking their dog at the rest stop in Eastern Iowa. He thinks it is a drug dog. A phone call to a troopers cell phone is all it takes.

Strephon_Alkhalikoi wrote:

...
People in positions of authority routinely abuse that authority, because there is little to no oversight. That lack of oversight is often because their superiors condone or encourage such abuses simply because they are flush with power. What is being described here is but the smallest taste of it, and it only gets worse the higher you go.

...

I have said several times on this site in the past that I respected your insights. However, such exaggeration as this seems beneath you.

...

He has his opinion and you have yours. I personally agree with his and have a lot of nationwide travel in cars and airplanes that support it. It is my opinion and is not open for debate. Wait until you have walked in ones shoes before you judge.
White supremacist groups have nothing to do with it. Just a fishing expedition I think..

I don't exaggerate. It is simply human nature to abuse power when granted it. It's a story that repeats incessantly throughout history, and will continue to repeat long after you and I are dust.

I came out of order. I agree with Strephon!

Not with jgermann.

I guess he hasn't met his monthly quota.

Has to do with GPS. This is a GPS Forum not a Ticket Forum. Correct me if I am wrong on this.

It's posted in Open Talk, therefore it doesn't have to be GPS related.

This is in the "Open Talk" section, which I understand as anything other than GPS related topics.

--I had a fairly unique and pricey (yet NOT exactly one of a kind) car which, I would at times drive through a very small town, where by some kind of fluke another car identical to mine was owned by one of the residents there. The other car was reportedly garaged most (or all?) of the time, while I normally drove mine fairly often, yet only occasionally through that town.

One day on such a trip through said town, and while driving very safe, sane, and legal, a local policeman saw me and quickly pulled me over, and told me that he saw me cross over the center-line of the road a couple of times. I knew that this was complete B.S. Then he took my license and registration, etc, and spent some time back in his car on his radio. He eventually returned with my paperwork and told me to drive more carefully from now on, and oh yea "have a real-nice day!!!".

--Looking back, he probably wanted to know what I was doing driving his friend's collection-car... but then found out that this one really was mine, after all.

When your not feeling well and go see a doctor they will start by asking you questions and then order a series of tests (blood test, x-ray etc) in an attempt to find the reason your not feeling well.

When your car hesitates and doesn't run properly the mechanic will start by asking you questions and then do various tests (check spark plugs, gas pump etc.) to locate the problem in order to fix it.

In both above examples nothing at first is certain and the person must start doing various checks in an attempt to obtain a positive end result.

I believe a law enforcement officer does the same in his line of profession. If it's a known fact that on a certain highway there are alot of drug smugglers then I would expect them to be proactive and initiate stops in an attempt to protect society and our children from these scum bags.

Should they wait for a kilo of coke to accidently fall out of the rear doors of their van before pulling them over ?

In an industrial area at 0400am, I would expect and hope that a cop will pull over a car who was driving 5mph and question the occupants. Of course they might be lost but they might also be the thieves who have been doing the numeroeus break-ins over the last weeks. They must initiate things if we want some results.

Folks there's good and bad in every single profession. There are doctors who cannot practice anymore because they issued false prescriptions, lawyers who have been disbar, priests who are pedophiles and yes cops who have committed crimes.

We all have rules and regulations we must follow and obey as do law enforcement officers, and I fully expect them to follow these rules in protecting us.

I've been pulled over several times both in Canada and the U.S. over the last 25 years and never encountered any problem whatsoever with any of the officers. Maybe it's my attitude but I see a law enforcement officer as someone out there risking his/her life in an attempt to protect law obiding citizens such as you and I.

P.S.
I might not agree with your views but will respect them so please do the same with mine.

Cheers

Sometimes it's because they have quotas to hit, other times it's because they want to make busts to make themselves appear more useful for promotion purposes.

It used to be that the government only bothered with serious crimes, but those days are long gone.
Now, everyone's got an angle they have to work in our criminal justice system.

I have a dashboard camera too. Just in case I need it to protect my rights. It works both ways.

In Illinois you can still be arrested for video recording police. Google Tiawanda Moore. (Another case was dismissed and Illinois appealed the decision.) The police do record you but when you supoena the recording in court, the police can claim it was accidently destroyed.

Really? OK then.

I was pulled over in Salt Lake City, while I was on vacation, driving a car registered in Indiana. After taking the registration back to his car the officer came back and told me that the "computer" did not show the registration as up to date.

The proper date sticker was on the plate, in the proper place, and the registration paperwork was current, so I was told me to check with Indiana when I got home. No ticket or warning was issued.

Checked when I got home and Indiana BMV said there was no problem with the computer system and the registration was valid. When I explained why I was concerned, they said that they had no idea why the officer would have claimed it was shown as expired.

Never figured out what they were looking for in stopping us.

One time driving in the winter through a more wealthy neighborhood while wearing winter hats, I was pulled over. They didnt give me a ticket but I think they were looking for drug dealers going thru the neighborhood, since the rich neighborhood bordered a poorer neighborhood.

Nope -- Always a reason for stopping me. Hasn't happened for a long while - must be getting older...

As should sop the LEO's mentioned in some of these posts.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Amendment_to_the_Unite...

Maybe your car matched a wanted felon, or the officer thought you were cute.

Maybe I missed it, but I do not remember anyone posting above mentioning a "search".

I would call the post commander of the post where the incident took place. When I worked with the OSP in Ohio, we had people calling all of the time asking about stops that were performed by troopers. The post commander would always give a reason. If he didn't know why, he would call in the trooper and find out the reason. He would then contact the person lodging the complaint and explain the reason to them. This actually happens more than you would expect.

yes there was no "search", however, the patrolman asked for my passenger's ID and took an awful long time in his car. What a passenger's ID has to do with a traffic stop I'll never figure out. Just more gradual reduction of our rights to travel freely about the country.

If he had information that there may be felons driving that type of car, he is justified.

I would not mind being stopped like this, even if only 1 in 100 stops caught a bad guy.

I was stopped twice in one evening in Louisiana. The first local officer said I was swerving and thought I might have been drunk. He was soon joined by two other local officers and a state highway patrol officer. The two other locals had a completely different story: They said they were looking for a vehicle matching mine that was transporting drugs. I guess the first cop used the swerving claim to cover his butt for probable cause.

The state highway officer saw my Ham Radio license plate and was chatting with me about Ham Radio (he was a Ham), while the local cops looked over my vehicle. The whole process was rather unnerving, as I had never been stopped before for anything. After several minutes and a bunch of questions, they sent me on my way.

About an hour later, I was stopped again, this time by another highway patrol officer. I told him what I had just been through, he laughed and also sent me on my way. Strange night...

Don't you feel safer knowing that our officers are looking for bad guys? I would.

If I was followed, after 5-10 minutes I would stop, come to his car and ask him why he is following me, and if there's no reason, then please stop doing it, because it makes me nervous and thus unsafe. Which is 100% truth.

I realize that for many people this will sounds like crazy advise, but in fact I already did exactly this and similar proactive things more than once, and the result has always been the same: they apologize and leave. They are bullies, and like all bullies they are cowards.

But that aside, you don't have to produce your DL if there was no violation. So, your first question is, why am I stopped. If for weaving, then the next question: "is that a violation?" if not, no DL.

Definitely, the passenger should refuse to produce her ID. At this point the cop would probably threaten with arrest for interference. Answer: "go ahead".

Don't be afraid to use aggressive and profane language, don't be afraid to intimidate him. This is not a violation of anything. Don't listen to those who teach to "always respect the officer". This respect does nothing except providing extra means for the officer to engage a conversation that, hopefully, will produce probable cause for the arrest.

Don't support any small talk, not a single word other than legally necessary. "No comment" should be the only answer to anything, from "how you are doing" to "where are you going" to "are you not cooperating". You don't have to cooperate (cooperate on what - finding the reason for your arrest?), and you don't have to explain why. Remember, every single word coming from officer's mouth is with one and only purpose, to mount probable cause for the arrest. He is at work, he is professional, and he does not care how you are doing or where you are going if it does not advance the goal of making the arrest.

If you have a camera, start recording and immediately inform him that the incident is being recorded.

Don't allow any search. If you are pulled, don't stop at the side of the road; find the place little farther, so you can safely exit from the vehicle. As soon as you stopped, take your papers, exit the vehicle, roll up the windows, lock the vehicle and put the key in your pocket. This is in order to block cop's attempts to "smell marijuana".

Don't buy any threats "if you... than I...". If he already has probable cause, he will arrest you without any warnings or conditions. If he has not, then he does not have it. Keep your mouth shut and don't give it to him.

All the above applies only if you see that he is looking to intimidate you, which is usually pretty obvious right from the beginning. Very often this is not the case, so there's no reason to be hostile and escalate the situation. Smile, look in the eye, shake his hand, and maybe he will forgive you even a real violation. I've done that as well. Most important, don't be afraid. But you have to be prepared for the worst, and if you see that he is looking to create trouble, then these are the best tactics.