This is why you should NEVER NEVER Talk To police....

Oh...must be different in Canada. We don't need lawyers - we just appeal and wait a year as the courts are backed up. If the officer doesn't show up (and he doesn't get paid to do so), then you're off the hook.

If he does show up, you gotta make a case for reasonable doubt. I was wondering how I'd go about doing that - finding a fault in the radar gun or the way it was tuned. If the police officer doesn't know how the radar gun was calibrated, would there be enough "doubt" that it was tuned incorrectly?

The day I got my ticket, there were over 300 tickets given at that one stop (it was all over the news)...I'm sure I could argue how it was statistically extremely high and therefore there must have been a problem with the tuning instrument.

 

If I get a speeding ticket, but don't pay it right away will the amount I have to pay increase?

 

If you miss the date for a court date, then yeah. You'd incur court fees, failure to appear penalty, etc.

 

What you need to do is to make sure to invite me.

I still got it.

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I get VERY nervous when I get pulled over, not because of any laws I have ever broken, but because where I grew up, police just harassed and bullied us. A family member of mine was killed by police. So, I am real freaking nervous when I get pulled over.

What if I ask why? What if when I get out of the car, I close the door and refuse to answer your questions?

And when my passenger refuses to talk to you as well?

And then I say no. Are you really going to call out a dog because I have refused to talk to you?

So if I am visiting grandma in Pasadena and I live in Magnolia, who decides if I have a legit reason for being somewhere? You?

You can see why I don't trust cops.

 

I recall one time, I was driving around just because I like to drive around because it helps me relax and it helps me think. I got pulled over by an officer in the city in which I was living. He made a big point about asking where I was going, where I had been, etc. I told him where I had been and that I was just driving around aimlessly.

That answer didn't seem to satisfy him, and he asked again. I told him the same thing at which point he started shining his flashlight in every window of the car. He held me there for nearly 30 minutes basically because I had the gall to actually drive around aimlessly.

He didn't ask to search my car (it wouldn't have mattered if he did since there was nothing to find), and he eventually let me go. I thought it was something of a waste of resources to keep somebody who wasn't doing anything (I wasn't even speeding and hadn't committed any traffic violations, at least none that he ever mentioned in all our time together).

 

My parents got pulled over once because they were circling a subdivision looking at Christmas lights. The cop let them go when they saw my sister and her little friend in the backseat... crying.

Edit: and the thread is still in the hangout! Color me suprised.

 

So, those are the responsibilities of the JOB you have taken. And if you violate those, then you get fired and prosecuted just like anyone else.

There are lots of people in similiar positions of responsibility, bank executives, credit card executives, Military personel, tons.......everyone has their own standards in which they have to adhere to.....police are no different....

It is a job that you chose, and you know the responsibilities associated with that job. However to say you are held to a higher standard than other people in sensitive jobs seems to be a bit conceited to me.

I think the police force is littered with people like that.....not you per se, but lots of people who overstep their bounds and think they are self important. Your salary is paid for by the public, you are a public servant, no more important than anyone else, IMHO.

Are you saying that getting into the police force is hard? Are they now requiring college degrees? Because I know several officers in Houston and in Austin that are friends of mine, that got onto the force with just a high school diploma, and a couple of them have developed serious attitudes now that they are on the force.

It is mind boggling to watch them now as they have a massive inflated sense of worth. Maybe it is part of the job and dealing with the muck and mire of society that creates this attitude, I don't know, but it is disturbing to say the least. And they are not the sharpest tools in the shed if you know what I mean.

But they are licensed to carry a gun.

Authority to uphold the law, yes.

Wow, so now you are judge as well.


DD

 

I also do not find the requirements to be a police officer to be very stringent. There are a lot of idiot cops, not all, but a lot.

 

My entire point is that police are just as corruptable as the next guy...maybe not you WWR....you may be tried and true, but there are plenty of examples of cops gone bad.

And to say that they are held to a higher standard and then only require a HS diploma to get in, seems a bit silly to me.

DD

 

I expect everyone to obey the law, but if a regular citizen runs a red light and an off-duty police officer runs a red light, I am more disappointed in the police officer. In that respect, I hold them to a higher standard than the average citizen.

Folks with varying degrees of responsibility are almost always held to a higher standard. The CEO is expected to behave better than a mail-room clerk. They both have to follow the same rules and laws, but if the CEO gets caught with a hooker it's news. If the mail-room clerk gets caught with a hooker - so what.

If you can't see that, then take your head out of the sand.

 

In my attempt to get this thread to the D&D, I will say that what is annoying to me is when the few officers who push the boundaries or outright break them get caught, they seem to seldom be punished.

There was a whole big brou-ha-ha a few years ago in Dallas about police officers arresting minorities and other people they were annoyed with on the charge of "Failure to ID". The problem was that "Failure to ID" was not actually against the law at the time, and the city attorney had issued multiple opinions to the police department telling them that "Failure to ID" was not a crime and they should stop arresting people for it.

Instead of simply following the legal opinion of the city attorney, they would start adding throw-down charges for everyone they arrested on the charge they knew wasn't against the law.

So, a man who was arrested for "Failure to ID" was also charged with "Fleeing the scene of an arrest", completely ignoring the obvious question of "Fleeing the scene of an arrest for what?" (not to mention that the officer's own report fails to note when the man ever fled after being notified that he was being placed under arrest). The guy spent two nights in jail based on an arrest for something that the city itself continually said wasn't against the law.

Despite the fact that the officer knowingly pushed the boundaries of the law, he received no punishment.

Or a similar case where an officer arrested a man for "Failure to ID" and in the course of the arrest used what the Dallas Citizen's Review Board called "excessive and unnecessary force". Punishment? Nothing.

Those are relatively minor violations of law or civil rights, but there was no attempt made to correct the action of the arresting officers. Such lack of punishment might lead some officers to believe that they are free to push the boundaries in order to get what they want.

And there are even cases of officers who did much worse (Sgt. Mark Gottlieb and Inv. Ben Himan in Durham, N.C. who admitted to committing perjury, falsified evidence, attempted to intimidate alibi witnesses, entered into a conspiracy to withhold exculpatory evidence, admitted to lying in sworn court documents, conducted a "no wrong answers" line-up and much, much more but have failed to receive any punishment specific to these actions. And also: most of the officers involved in the fake drug scandal in Dallas, officers who abused the "at large" ticket system in Dallas, etc. and a whole bunch of others).

I know the vast majority of police officers do their jobs with the utmost professionalism and respect for the law they're sworn to uphold. But the few who do step over the line or outright obliterate it should be held accountable for their actions. And it seems like too often, those responsible for holding the police responsible turn the other way.

 

Yes, I see that but to me Police are not unique in the responsibilty department, there are several occupations which have the same or higher authority than a police officer.

And taking your example above, if you get pulled over for running a red light you get a ticket, but if a police officer (even off duty) gets pulled over for running a red light, they get a wink and a nod, and they are on their way.

I don't hate police, I just think that a good number of them have an overinflated sense of worth...and forget that they are working for John Q public...

DD

 

I also think the "if a person is acting nervous" excuse is also ignorant. There are many people who get nervous when pulled over for a number of reasons. What did I get pulled over for? Am I going to get a ticket? Is this going to be on my record? Etc. Just because a person is acting nervous doesn't mean they're hiding anything.

 

Police officers generally aren't stupid either. For the most part, they are calm and respectful when they approach your cars and very professional. They understand you aren't in a very comfortable spot. There is a difference though between the "Damn I'm getting a ticket" nervous and the "Oh man, I hope he doesn't look in the back" nervous.

 

How do you distinguish between nervousnesses?

 

Not always.

Some people are just generally nervous or like Lil Pun said have had a history of being harrased by cops.



Agreed about the respectful manner of most officers, I have found almost all of them I have met to be that way, but there are a few buttheads that think they are the law.

IMHO, respect has to be given to have it received.

DD

 

And that difference is sometimes determined by the color of the driver's skin.

I'm just kidding, but I truthfully don't believe that all officers (or even most of them) could be able to accurately identify the source of a person's nervousness based on simple, brief observation/interaction. I doubt trained psychologists or psychiatrists could, either.

We've seen multiple cases were experienced detectives believed a suspect to be guilty based on their observation of the suspect's behavior only to later have physical or other evidence conclusively prove that the detective's opinion was flat out wrong.

People have myriad ways of expressing their nervousness and have myriad reasons for being nervous that the officer couldn't possibly be aware of. It's never as simple as this level of nervousness expressed in this particular way is because of the ticket and this level of nervousness expressed in this particular way is because he's got something to hide.

 

True and I don't believe all cops are bad as I have had one or two treat me with some level of respect. I've just had a majority treat me without respect and dignity that I consider mandatory from public servants.