You're driving along a dreary, windswept desert highway at a brisk pace, letting the horses under the hood out for a good run, your favorite tunes blasting from your speakers at a pleasantly ear-shattering high volume, one hand on the wheel and the other tap-tap-tapping your knee in time with the music. There is only the occasional rolling hill, tumbleweed, mesquite bush and billboard decorating the roadside... Billboard. Uh oh. You zoom by the billboard, and your fears are confirmed when you see the red-and-blue lights flashing in your rear view mirror as the patrolman pulls out from behind it. You pull over, and he pulls over behind you. You turn the engine off and look in your rear view mirror. You see a corpulent and rather smug-looking officer don his "Smokey" hat and trudge towards your vehicle. He walks up alongside your door and signals for you to lower your window, which you do. "License and registration," he grumbles, a dour look on his face. You comply. He trudges back to (almost WADDLES - this guy clearly loves hisself some breakfast pastries) his vehicle, and returns after a few minutes. He looks at you with a self-satisfied smile just starting to curl the ends of his mouth as if he was about to trounce you in a game of chess. He rumbles in an unmistakably condescending tone, "Son, do you know how fast you were going?" He punctuates the end of the sentence with a smirk. You know that it would probably be best to play to this guy's obviously enormous ego to minimize the amount of shit Officer Piggy will give you, but this guy is really rubbing you the wrong way, and before you even realize you've opened your mouth, you say something that will almost certainly piss this cop off - and yet you can't help but grin and feel rather satisfied with yourself afterwards even as he furiously scribbles the ticket. WHAT did you say when he asked his question?
Actually, it's pretty wise to not admit to knowing the speed at which you were traveling. It's a loaded question that makes it easier for you to be found guilty in court. Talk about the flow of traffic, ot how you're paying attention to the road around you, instead. Google up advice, it may save you thousands of dollars. Sorry for the boring straight answer, but I think people should be informed. Cops are NOT like your parents; it NEVER behooves you to "just be honest" or admit your mistakes to them until AFTER you've been offered concessions, or better yet spoken with a lawyer. The 5th is not there just for fun; cops have a lot of power and the right to remain silent is one of few table-equalizing factors. More on topic: "Oh gee, officer. How fast was I going? In miles per hour? Well, uh..." *mumbles something so he leans in closer* "FASTER THAN A COP ON FOOT! OINKOINKOINK!" *tires screech as I rocket off into the distance on my lamborghini with obscured plates*
Agreed on the need for more people to be informed. Police like being bullies in my experience (much more so the local sheriff's deputies than the state patrol here though) Relevant post time: "I don't know, Officer, weren't you paying attention? That's your damn job, isn't it?"
"Son, do you know how fast you were going?" "Of course I do. I also know the condition of the road, which is pristine, and the amount of traffic, which is none. Now let me ask you something: Do you think rules should trump personal human insight? If you say yes, you're wrong. At all times personal judgement should be used above rules. Else you get stuff like a child crossing the road while not on a pedestrian crossing and you killing it. Or things like not giving way because you have the right of way, and thereby ramming into a little car. Or stuff like police wasting their time sitting around a lone desert road catching someone for not adhering to a silly rule that is very wise somewhere else just because the bureaucracy is too lazy, or they think the general public too stupid, to make intelligent changing sets of guidelines that apply at certain moments and certain places and not others instead of dumb static general indiscriminate regulations."
Also helpfully relevantish info regarding seeming eagerness to give out tickets: http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/20/t/000628/p/1.html#000003 Drive extra careful near the end of the month.
"Son, do you know how fast you were going?" " Jeez ! Wait a sec', I'm on the phone goddammit !" (Hold the phone between your shoulder and chin and hold a beer in your free hand for added effect)
This is a true story, but it wasn't so much a question as a conversation. Keep in mind I was very quick with my replies. Cop: Why are you so nervious? Me: I'm on 5 medications that normally give me the jitters and you just pulled me over. Cop: Your shaking like a leaf. Me: Yeah. When you run me, you will see I don't have problems with the police and I'm nervous. While this was happening I had 2 IDs out, DL and Vetran's ID (Gotta try to use it to my advantage with 5 0). I should have been arrested for a DUI. Lets just say the aroma in the cab of the truck couldn't not be not noticed. He never gave any indication of noticing. Ran me and let me go. I actually stuck around a few min and shot the sh*t with him about my tinted windows, which was the reason he pulled me over. I'm one lucky SOB.
"I invoke my Constitutional right to not say anything that my incriminate me regarding this and all future questions you may ask me." <sit in silence>
If you are picked up by the police for questioning about something more serious, it's often better to wait for a lawyer than to talk -- lying is not good either. Just claim your right to remain silent and ask for a lawyer. It doesn't matter if you know anything or not. The reason is that A) you don't necessarily know the motives behind the questioning (do you fit some unknown description, for example?). A former friend of mine was once picked up because his name matched a suspect in a violent assault, but it was the wrong person. Don't assume just because you are innocent that you can convince the cops of that by talking. And your lawyer will nearly always understand your rights better than you do. That said, for a speeding ticket, if you say you don't know, you are still definitely getting a ticket. On the other hand, I've heard of one or two cases of people being totally honest and actually getting out of the ticket with a warning (true stories). Also, I had a co-worker who is deaf --- horrible (fast) driver, but he always got out of tickets because the cops never wanted to actually have to deal with communicating with him. That said. "How much do I win if I guess correctly?"
Or that you don't speak the same language. Though it's always possible to prove otherwise if they care any (and they probably do), unless you are really good at it. Thus, playing the "deaf" card is preferable.
One or more of the following statements by me, got me out of a ticket last Sunday. I got him to laugh 4x! FTW. I had passed someone and exceeded the speed limit by 5mph. This town is a training hub for new hire state police. - <Asked what I do for a living & I ended with> "How about yourself?" - Yeah... a mix of impatience and a "Blue Hair". - <asked what brought me to move to this town> "Cheap dirt." - "While I'm thinking about it, how is Debbie's Cafe? <across the street from where I was pulled over> He said it was good and a local retiree hang out.
