I know bro, but the way you worded it I could picture you, when ever getting pulled over getting out and tripping on the steps, thinking to yourself (damn here we go again)…

 

In Canada, If a police officer pulls you over, you have the right to ask why you were stopped and he must tell you...

 

 

When I was 15 I used to work with one of my uncles and we never got off until after 11 pm. I had to ride with him since I wasn't old enough to drive. We were coming home one night and all the sudden there were about 10 police cars pulling us over. I know my uncle wasn't speeding, because I don't think I have ever seen him drive over 45 mph. Well he had a White F150 and there had been a kidnapping earlier that evening and his truck matched the description of the kidnapper. Well it wasn't an exact match but at 11 pm I am think they were pulling over every white F150. The cops came and asked me a bunch of questions and was this who I was supposed to be with and things like that.

So they may have just had a report of a vehicle that matched yours and they just wanted to check everything out. Like in my story, they were stopping every white F150 that had two people in the truck. They will pull you over if your vehicle matches a description of a vehicle used in a crime because they usually want to catch the person.

That F150 my uncle had was probably the nicest F150 I have ever seen. It was like a 93 or 94, but I would give up my truck to have that one. It was a regular cab truck but looked like the one of hte Mark III trucks but it wasn't. I think it was repo'ed or something, but it was a sweet truck.

 

<rant>
Well, I lost my house a while back and had to move to another town, so on the weekends when I am not working, I go back and visit with friends. We ride around on the country roads and go up in the mountains and go through mud and stuff like that. Well, 5 out of the last 6 times I have driven through there, I have got pulled over and searched, and I mean searched, like taking the seats out of my truck and ripping up my carpet and the like, and it even happens when I am riding with friends, they just pull over every single vehicle that they see in the area and search them all. Not a whole lot of traffic, but they all get pulled over. Last time I got pulled over in my Grandmother's driveway, and he advised me that the street that I was on had at least one break in every night for the last two months. Well, needless to say, the cop found nothing in my truck, just like the same cop didn't find anything the last 2 times that he searched my truck (and this is all within a two-week period), then he starts getting rude with me and accusing me of being a druggie or a drug dealer or being drunk. He makes me stand in the snow with no jacket or toboggan on for two hours and it was about 1 degree outside while his friend searched my truck, he wouldn't let me smoke, wouldn't let me put my jacket back on and sat there in his car (with all of my stuff on his hood) and kept his searchlight on me standing about 20 feet off to the side of his car while another officer tore my truck apart. Last weekend, on my way to the mountains, I saw two Deputies sitting ina parking lot, and I pulled over there and got out, then I told them that if they wanted to search me or anything to go ahead and do it, because the next time that I was pulled over and searched and didn't get a ticket or didn't get arrested, I was suing for harrassment. They haven't pulled me over again yet, but I have always just done what said and complied with whatever they wanted me to do, and I tried to keep in mind that they are doing this to protect other Americans and people that live in the area, but I flat out have no respect for them now, because they act like everyone is a criminal and they just don't have enough evidence to take them in. Even after they told me that I had done nothing wrong and I could go, the smart-assed on was like `You watch yourself, kid.` I graduated high school with this S.O.B., and he acted like he didn't even know who I was. Also, my Grandmother said that no house on her entire block had been broken into in years, it's a quiet neighborhood, mostly old people, but everyone knows everyone and she would have heard of a break in, especially one every night for two months. I thank police, but I hate people who abuse their authority because they're not good enough to know the difference between who is breaking the law and who isn't. I mean, they knew what I was doing, they followed me to the mountain trail and they saw me pull back out of it like 5 hours later, the truck covered in mud, and they pulled me over. That was fine. The second time was fine, but after five times it started getting ridiculous, especially when they gave me the same B.S. story every single time. I can't respect that. I called my Sherriff and told him about it, and I told him that they had better worry about stopping criminals before they worried about pulling over the same vehicle three nights in a row.
</rant>

 

Thanks guys.

By the way, I was in my girlfriends car. (i was driving, she was the passenger) And, I was not speeding. It was a straight road, so no use for turn signals, and no stop signs. I guess they were going for the vehicle look-a-like theory. I mean come on, its a green jeep cherokee.

 

Probable cause is not always necessary for a peace officer to stop a vehicle on a public road.

The SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the U.S.) has ruled that for reasons of public safety, police can pull over vehicles with no probable cause whatsoever. I remember well standing on the main drag in Carlsbad, California many years ago with two attorneys, watching in dismay as the cops stopped cars at a "drunk stop". If you had the bad luck to get caught in it, you were going to be hassled, delayed, annoyed, etc. even if totally innocent.

Here in Santa Barbara, they pull some really questionable stuff. They throw up a roadblock on a residential street in one of the "pocket ghettos" near the railroad tracks where lots of Hispanics live. They put a sign up that says "safety stop - seat belt and driver's license check". About 10 cops standing there joking around and shooting the bull. They're not after white folk like me, they're after illegal aliens apparently. I asked them how many cops it took to check a driver's license and got some wiseass response. Here in California it is now legal to use no seatbelt as probable cause. But the SCOTUS intended the stops for drunk checks, not seatbelts, and what they do here is an abuse if not outright illegal IMHO.

I've noticed that cophood (i.e. police work) often attracts some of the very people that shouldn't be cops. When I think back on high school classmates I knew that became LAPD, I shudder - they were some borderline folks.

I have been underwhelmed by most of the cops here in SB. Overpaid, underworked - they mostly roust bums off of State Street so they don't freak the tourists. Some are clearly bullies who like the idea of having a badge and a 9mm.

When I was a teenager, I'd get pulled over essentially for having long hair in the wrong town. Santa Monica and El Segundo in particular were well known for this.

I've noticed that my F-150 XLT is almost like a "don't pull this guy over" pass. In my VW GTi it was a way different story.

 

Freedom is only an illusion. When or if i am ever stopped by the fuzz i am as respectful to them as they are to me. If they are ****** then so am i to them. Why should i have to bend over for them just to apease them. Get real!. I mean if i did something wrong fine i derserve what i get but having to lower myself to a different level for them is unacceptable to me. I did my time for our country and it cost me big but i don't degrade myself for no man..

Example: I was home on leave once and went fishing at night ~12:30am perfectly legal, cop pulls up and asks questions like why are you here? I answer i am fishing"sir". he says i don't like your answer to my question. I said you asked and i told you what i am doing here. what's next more cops come and interragate me to no end. Why? i just got home from 2 years of living hell overseas and just wanted to fish. well i lost it and went to jail. Well when i got there a captain came in and i told him my story, he freaked took me out of the station and i met him the next day and we both went fishing. Go figure...

 

Guys... there's good cops... and then there's the occasional bad cop.

The bottom line is this.

BE THANKFUL WE HAVE PEOPLE THAT WILL DO THE JOB!!!

It's a generally thankless job that people constantly bitch and moan about...

Get over it people. You might get pulled over for nothing more than suspecion of weaving a basket with the wrong type of vine... if you're innocent, you will generall drive on and have nothing to worry about except for your heart in your throat when you saw the lights and maybe 10 minutes of your time once he runs your ID / Plates.

I have no compassion for someone that gripes about public service... your taxes pay for what they are doing. Generally speaking again, they're doing it because they had a reason.

Yes it's a hassle... no arguements there but, life, in general, is a hassle. It's just part of it...

What if they had pulled over a guy/gal that was drunk out of his/her gourd? Would it have been a bad thing then?

Next time you see a cop, member of the military, EMT, Fireman, Coast Guard, game warden etc... etc.... etc... stop and shake their hand and thank them for their public service. They do a service that is necessary in this thing that we call America.

No one claimed that Democracy was perfect. It never will be... but, on the flip side of that coin, in my opinion, it's just as damn close to perfect as we'll come.

 

THANKS Rockpick.

I wanted to avoid getting into this discussion to avoid the us vs. them arguments.

 

Thanx from me 2 RP. Glad to see some of us respect the public service people. Can you imagine going for one week without any law enforcement whatsoever? Boy, would these crybabies have something to cry about for real.

 

You do not need probable cause to pull someone over. You only need Reasonable Suspicion. Probable cause is defined as "something more likely than not has occured." Reasonable suspicion is when a police officer has "specific articulable indicators that criminal activity is afoot."
Granted, neither have to be 100% correct at all times. A lot of it is in the grace of the officer's hands of whether he is correct in his accusation or not. Im guessing in the above situation you had to have done something that made the officer believe you might have been intoxicated, when he pulled you over he must have seen that you were not at that point. Granted Im taking a guess here.
I will agree that he was kind of a **** head in not apologizing for the stop. At the point I would have realized that you were not intoxicated I would have told you what you did that aroused my suspicion that you might have been intoxicated. I would have then cut you loose, and maybe even apologized.
Sorry for you bad run in.

 

They can claim you crossed the center line or made some other minor display of lack of control....and pull you over for suspision of DUI.........they just want to look into your eyes ,...so dont cop a attitude, be polite and you will be on your way..

thats what they look for at night.

 

Word of advice,

Never tell the Border Patrol Agent whose looking under your hood at the checkpoint........ " While your under there, can you check the oil?"

That will guarantee your vehicle will be dismantled and YOU put it all back together when they are through.

I didn't do it, but my BIL's high school buddy did it while he was with him back in the 70's and it wasn't a pretty sight.

 

I totally agree with MENCHAR, i too, have long hair. its always the hair that gets me in trouble......i knew it.