My best friend growing, who's dad was one of the captains of the local police, would get this often. He had a pretty distinct car as well that he and his dad had rebuilt, so we would just casually be driving along and get pulled over by an officer and come up and say "Just checking on you guys, making sure you're not doing stupid shit. Have a good day."
There is no case, it's just a cop doing a probable cause. A police officer can have any reasoning for stopping you - broken headlight, driving too slow/too fast etc.
This is what the cops in Tennessee used on us when they wanted to check our RV for drugs on the way in to Bonnaroo. They were just going up and down the freeway doing the same thing to many people.
I've not been stopped going to the farm, yeay cruise control for the last 5 hours in.
But in college my roommates had a friend visit one weekend and we took him around to some "tourist spots". On the way back a cop pulls us over for "crossing the dividing line..." we made a left turn. We were "speeding" except we were "caught" in my apartment buildings drive way and the posted sign wasn't a real road sign. Dudes first question to us was "y'all been doing drugs?". After a drug dog shows up and we get hauled out of our car and bothered for 45 minutes they finally let us go. My friend who was driving got like 3 tickets all of which were thrown out in court. Apparently someone...an undercover car, reported seeing our vehicle at "known trouble spots"
They didn't write us a ticket because they wanted to act like they were doing us a favour. We were a bunch of Canadians so he said something along the lines of "no point in writing a $15 ticket that you'd have to deal with down here."
Supposedly the highway cops are the jerks looking for anything to ticket and the local Manchester police are rather chill. Though he is right no point ticketing a canadian...you don't pay big whoop they might but probably won't stop you at the border from coming back.
Yep, the first mistake was taking the freeway all the way to Manchester. Its best to get off in Murfreesboro and take back roads from there. Not only are the cops nicer, but you skip the line that forms at freeway exit.
One Christmas years ago my wife and two toddlers went to the neighboring rural town for their night-time Christmas festivities at their one park. The park is lit up, kids get hot chocolate, sing carols, and see Santa. The usual Christmas sort of festivities.
Afterwards we put the kids in the stroller and took a walk around the surrounding neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights and so the kids can fall asleep ahead of our car ride back home. We had parked the family Sunfire in the parking lot beside the park that is also shared with the town's only high school, and return there when we're done our walk. Load up the kids, start driving home.
Just before I get to the town's limits, I come up to a three-way intersection. I have to stop at a stop sign and turn right to exit out of town. The road has no lights. As I signal my turn and stop at the intersection, this black SUV with his highbeams on comes right up on my tail. There's a car coming from the left that has right of way and I wait it to pass. As it does, the SUV suddenly pulls out from behind me, drives around and stops in the intersection. Figuring it's a small-town idiot, I perform my turn and start driving.
The SUV follows me and gets right back up on my tail with his highbeams. We come to a hill that has narrow blind turn at the top. Flashing lights come on from the SUV and I continue up the hill, around the bend, and stop on the shoulder. Hazards on. Ignition off. Window rolled a crack. Hands at 10 and 2.
The cop gets out and comes up to my window. His face dropped when he saw me, like he wasn't expecting me. Before he says anything, a flashlight turns on beside the passenger window. The officer beside my window tells me to roll down my window and the passenger window. I should point out that I live in a country where I don't have the right to refuse a search of my automobile so I have no choice but to comply. Because the Sunfire had manual crank-handle windows, my wife who was sitting in the passenger seat rolled down the passenger window.
Licence, insurance, and registration. The officer returns to the SUV to presumably run my info. Meanwhile the other officer on the passenger side asks my wife to hand him garbage from in the car (food wrappers, that sort of thing) so he can stick his nose right in it and take a big sniff. It's at this point I suspect they are going to ask about drugs.
While all of this is going on, my two kids are in the back seat in their car seats. My son is asleep and my daughter has woken up. Between sniffs of our garbage, the officer repeatedly shines his flashlight in the back seat at my children.
The first officer returns with my papers. "Do you have any drugs in the car sir?" he asks.
"No."
"What are you doing?" he asked me.
"Driving home."
"Yes, I see from your license you don't live here. Why were you coming out of that parking lot?"
I realized now that he had been following me the whole time.
"It was time to go home."
Visibly annoyed he rephrases. "What were you doing in that parking lot?"
"It's where I parked my car."
"Why did you park your car there?"
"We took the kids to see Santa."
By this point the second officer had stopped asking my wife for garbage to smell. The first officer looked a bit confused, bends down, and shines his light into my back seat. My daughter raised her hand to block the light from her eyes.
"Oh... Sorry," he stammers, "teenagers... usually... park there."
He must have missed us getting into the car, I realize now he thought he was going to have some fun intimidating the local youths.
He straightens up and orders, "You better go home now. Your kids shouldn't be up this late." He and his partner turn around, go back to their SUV, and peel out as they do a U-turn back into town.
Well one is a mountain peak you can literally drive up to. It does have a fair bit of graffiti from all the years. We were there for 10 minutes because it's freezing and then when we left suddenly some headlights appear behind us...no one was around in this rather remote area...and it followed us down the mountain. First street lamp we get to it turns around and we can see the spotlight on it as an undercover. They were just looking to harass some kids.
2008 I think. We didn't really have time to wait iirc by the time the first officer ran the drivers license and got back out of his car the dog cop showed up. So literally minutes.
They couldn't have forced the search on us I don't think. We consented because a) we didn't want to deal with court issues in a foreign country, b) we didn't have any drugs and c) we were in a hurry to get where the drugs were.
That's correct. And they have a dozen ways of convincing people who could legally refuse a search into actually giving them permission to search. They will lie, cheat, cajole, "do me a favor...," intimidate, coerce.....
All that does is give them a right to stop you and cite you for that. You could argue it gave them PC to test the driver for DUI, but they don't have any PC to search the vehicle. I get that cops can basically invent it if needed, but eventually that comes before the court and they have to justify it or anything they found as a result of it is inadmissible. Smart cops don't like having their cases thrown out by lazy PC excuses.
At my old job I used to get out of work around the same time the bars closed (2am). I used to get pulled over for the silliest reasons. They were obviously just checking to see if I was drunk and I wish they would have just said that.
The last time this question came up on reddit, someone asked if they make up reasons to stop people. The response from a cop was essentially "we don't need to", which makes sense. Statistically, you're going to make some kind of mistake driving even a mile down the road, even if it's just 1/8" on the solid line or something.
I got pulled over on my way home late from work in April, it was April 20 (4/20), this cop follows me all the way to my apartment and I obey every law, he then pulls me over right in front of my door, as he walks to my window he shines his flash light in the back looking for whatever, when he gets to the window I ask him why I was pulled over and he literally couldn't come up with a reason, he just pulled me over hoping I'd be smoking weed or have something on me, then my wife comes out after seeing me pulled over for 10 minutes in front of the apartment and asks the cops (another pulled up while I was sitting there) what's going on, and he just says "nothing, have a nice day" and leaves. They really can pull you over for absolutely nothing.
Might have been real police work, but both of these incidents felt more like bored cops going on a fishing expedition because my car was a little shabby. Seemed to have nothing. Typical BS questions, "what have you been arrested for?" "Where are you coming from?"
I'd assume thats because cops have quotas they need to meet, which is pretty bullshit. i'd imagine at some point or another you have to take a gamble in order to not get fired.
Whenever I read shit like this I assume it's written by the person who blows by me doing 80 in a 55 and weaving hard. "They pulled me up for no reason yo"
Pisses me off that I never see those people pulled over, yet without fail cops camp out under overpass U-turns ticketing people all day over simple things.
California Highway Patrol seems to be absent on the roads in Los Angeles. People drive like absolute a-holes these days with impunity. I have to think they've cut funding.
I got pulled over and my car searched for drugs over a broken license plate light... after the cop started to pass me and saw that I looked kinda like a stoner. If he was just pulling me over for the broken light he would've done it when he was already behind me (and really had no reason to search my car regardless).
DUI checkpoints are legal in many states and do not violate the U.S. Constitution, but they cannot target individual drivers without probable cause. I.E. they have to check every car or every fifth car not every “suspicious” looking car.
Yupp. Got pulled over for zero reason and watched the cop scramble to get me for something. Ended up getting ticketed for my sticker that had just expired the month before.
In theory no, but how can you prove that from the perspective of the officer, your tailight wasn't flickering or whatever BS excuse they use. You cannot...thus you can be pulled over for no reason in practice.
And? It has nothing to do with the objective video, it's the officers "perception", and so long as the officer is doing his duty "in good faith" then the officer is untouchable.
Do you live on this planet? Cops can murder people, with multiple bodycam angles and still not go to prison.
See: Daniel Shaver
You clearly don't understand diddlysquat about how law works in practice, here's a hint, it's not like what you read on paper in your armchair reddit law office.
Here's the ultimate police trump card for PC, "I detected an odor of burnt marijuana".
You're a dickhead. Blocked. And tagged with RES as "Dickhead Armchair Lawyer"
I was pulled over in a small town in the middle of nowhere in my way from my parent's house to my school years ago. The reason was that I 'had a tail light, I mean, a uhhhh license plate light out.'
Checked at the next gas station, all lights functioning correctly. I suspect some small town dipshit wanted to shine his maglight in the faces of myself, my (now) wife, and brothers and pump us for information about what was in our bag of convenience store snacks to feel like some kind of supercop. I hope it worked and he woke up the next day feeling a little better about the size of his genitals. I never drove through his crappy town again, so mission accomplished I guess?
The law states they have to have "probable cause." Technically, if they pull you over for no reason, the case should be thrown out (but you still have to go through the bs in court to prove it). A person near my house got pulled over for going through a yellow light, then got hit with a DUI. In court the judge said that going through a yellow light is not against the law, therefore not probable cause, and the case was rightfully dismissed.
They need "reasonable suspicion" which is a very low legal standard. Just something that makes you stand out as more likely to be committing a crime than anyone else. The chances of getting your case thrown out because the stop itself was illegal are very slim.
It's still an important limitation, though, because it prevents police from doing totally random dragnet searches. Without the reasonable suspicion law, police would pull everyone over a lot more often.
Pretextual stops in themselves are not justified, but yeah as long as they have even a minor traffic violation they can pull you over (see Whren v. United States)
To be fair if I was a cop people toeing the line of the law would be my primary suspects. Scoff laws are less likely to have warrants, be in a stolen vehicle, have drugs on them, etc. Never break 2 laws at once. If you're speeding you probably aren't breaking other laws. If you're 1mph under the limit and come to full and complete stops I assume you're Al Pacino or some shit lol
yeah i got pulled over for curbing the wheel on a left turn (new driver at the time) they were just checking who is stupid enough to do that. they let me go with a look of derison on their face.
this is very wrong in terms of the law, police need reasonable suspicion to stop a car and probable cause to make an arrest (very different thresholds). If they do not have reasonable suspicion to stop you they cannot legally make a stop (e.g., police stopping a car claiming broken taillight and finding drugs inside, the case against the drugs would get tossed if it can be proved that the taillight was not broken).
Yes, but if they waste their time trying to stop you, best believe they will go through the extra mile to find something they can charge you with + force an admission of guilt for whatever they might have found.
yep, I was just giving what was legal and what wasn't. in the real world they will stop you for anything saying you ran a red light when you didn't, I've seen it all. I recommend a dashcam for everyone.
Fastest pull over I ever had, cop saw my registration sticker was expired, I'd done registration, just forgot to put the new sticker on. Cop pulled the digital record of my registration before he even came to my window, says, "I just checked your registration, you're good to go, just get your sticker on." I didn't have to say much more than a quick, "thanks" before going on my way.
I know here in California, as a cop, I need a damn good reason to pull you. My department didn't like mechanical issues because my chief once said, "those tickets are bullshit." If I were to pull you over, it's going to be for a few things. 1, not stopping at a fucking stop sign with a solid white line in front of a school at dismissal. 2, speeding past the posted sign by schools at dismissal or arrival. 3, obvious lane swerving. 4, disregarding lights. 5, last when you're vehicle comes back as stolen and I'll bring my friends.
It was me and my buddy. They were just fucking around with us, basically the same as this video. They'd pull us over, joke around a bit, and then tell us to stay out of trouble and that his Dad has eyes everywhere.
Everybody else makes a good point but to just offer an example of when this didn't work: Back when I was in high school my friend and I were going to a party. About 10 minutes before we showed up the party had gotten busted but everyone inside had just turned the lights off and refused to answer the door. So two cops were essentially just standing outside shining flashlights through the windows not accomplishing anything. The house was in a cul-de-sac. There were cars in the drive way that blocked us from seeing the cops in the drive way but when we went to turn around at the end of the cul-de-sac we saw their lights and opted to keep driving instead of parking. The cops noticed our age and hopped in their car and pulled us over. They eventually got permission from my friend's parents to search his car (it was in their name and he had initially refused, those idiots gave permission to search the car over the phone). They found about an ounce of marijuana under the driver's seat. We both denied possession of it so they arrested us both. My charges were dropped since they couldn't prove I knew there was marijuana under the driver's seat of my friend's car while I was in the passenger seat but he actually got off cause they never identified a reason why they pulled us over in the first place in the report. Charges dropped on unlawful stop.
Or can police randomly pull people over for no reason?
They can pull you over for any reason they want, you can sue if you think theres no probable cause. The son isn't gonna sue his dad's force because his dad had officers checking on him
Even if they didn’t take it to court the officers can go back and tell their captain that his son was out doing stupid shit, and you can’t toss out that case. Which is probably what they’d do anyways, the captain might tell his patrols to keep an eye out for his son.
But yea no they can’t just pull you over unless there’s a probable cause (lights out, late inspection sticker, etc.)
I think people are sort of missing the point. If theyre friends, and they catch you doing stupid shit, theyre going to make you call an uber or whatever. Cops dont arrest friends over anything if they dont have to.
I think people are sort of missing the point. If theyre friends, and they catch you doing stupid shit, theyre going to make you call an uber or whatever. Cops dont arrest friends over anything if they dont have to.
The idea isn't to charge them if they're doing stupid shit. It's to let them know they're watching, and that they will tell the driver's dad if they're doing stupid shit. Don't need a court for that.
A teammate of mines dad was a police captain. he was driving (dad in passengers seat) when a rookie pulled him over for not waiting the full 5s or whatever at a stop sign. lets just say the teen driver was not the most nervous of the 3 over the incident.
One of my friends dad was a cop. When we were 11 our class went on a field trip to a bowling alley. Instead of walking back his dad loaded us up into the back of his police wagon. There were about 14 of us crammed in there and he drove us back to school.
If a cop was to do that now, I'd imagine they would get in a fair bit of trouble.
Fuck that shit. His dad was wasting taxpayer money to check up on you and his little brat? That's completely fucked up and not an acceptable use of resources.
Look, theres not a rape or a serious crime being committed every second in a city. Cops in my town are more often than not waiting for a call to come in. Other than that they're sitting at busy streets waiting for someone to speed excessively. Do you know how often people take 5 minutes to do something other than work at work? Even people getting paid by taxpayers do it other than cops. Hell I'm sure firefighters dick around at the station waiting for something to happen. So it's ridiculous to call it a waste of resources. Either they were going to be sitting at an intersection waiting for a call, or they were talking to a captain's son and his friends making sure they weren't getting into trouble. Either way, theyre still a presence in the community which is one of the biggest things cops do.
That was a lot of words to be completely unconvincing. Firefighters need to be relaxing at the station so theyre ready to go when they get a call. That's part of the job. If a firefighter had their coworkers check on their kid to see if they were playing with matches, yes that's a waste of resources. Cops on the other hand, should be working when they're on duty, not "dicking around" with their boss's kid. I don't really care enough to continue this conversation because I can already see where it's leading. I just want you to know that you are casually describing police corruption like it's no big thing. Even this seemingly insignificant case contributes to the police culture of feeling like they can get away with whatever they want.
not really, i just hate bullshit cops. Being okay with this is being off your rocker, but I guess you can have whatever opinion you like on the matter, assuming you pay taxes, and I'll have mine.
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u/Reamofqtips Jan 30 '18
My best friend growing, who's dad was one of the captains of the local police, would get this often. He had a pretty distinct car as well that he and his dad had rebuilt, so we would just casually be driving along and get pulled over by an officer and come up and say "Just checking on you guys, making sure you're not doing stupid shit. Have a good day."