The basic point that PDBuse originally brought up and which WillieG later echoed is the same, your best bet once caught fuggin up is to be honest. Now I know that a few, maybe a lot reading this will have all sorts of things to say to the contrary, BUT, before you do, consider these points.
The basic premise to traffic enforcement, or any law enforcement for that matter, is to gain compliance by the public to follow the laws which the representatives that THEY voted into office enacted. An individual officer who stops you has various means in which to accomplish that goal, such as a verbal warning, a written warning, a citation, or for serious offenses, arrest. In certain jurisdictions some of those options may be mandated for various reason, such as high fatality rates or specialized enforcement campaigns, etc.
When the officer makes contact with you, he has a very brief period of time to make an assessment in which to figure out which of the available courses to take in order to gain compliance from you for that particular offense. The absolute worst thing a person could do is to deny the obvious. If you just ran a red light and saw the patrol car sitting there, get pulled over and then tell the officer “Why did you pull me over, I did not do anything wrong, you must have gotten the wrong car!†you have pretty much sealed your own fate. This is not meant to sound condescending, but think of how you as a parent would respond if you caught your kid blatantly violating one of the household rules and then in essence telling you that you were full of shid, that they did not do what you clearly saw them do…..What would be your option??
With an officer who is doing his job in a fair manner, you being up front and at least stating the obvious is your best chance. This does not mean an automatic verbal warning. But the point to consider here, if you do what is right, you are not giving up anything because if the officer is the type who is on a mission to write tickets, you admitting it or denying it will not sway the outcome anyway.
Yes, there are SOME officers out there who are on a mission to write tickets, but they really are the exception. Regardless of that fact, if you do break that law, it is not the officers fault that you got the citation, it is your decision to violate or disregard that law, or your inattention that created the ENTIRE event.
When I was in law enforcement I had countless times of going to some social event and have someone come up and tell me how fugged up some cop was because they got a citation or infraction notice for something and they would swear on their mothers eyes that they did not do it and blah blah blah. My response was “Well let’s say for the sake of argument that you really were not speeding when you got pulled over, ok? Are there any other times in your life when you clearly were, but did not get caught? Well then why not consider the score as even then?â€
The truth in this, if we are real honest, is that we ALL fug up occasionally, when we do, there is nobody to blame except US, if it works out that the planets are lined up with Youranus and there happens to be an authority figure there to witness our splendid event.
The basic premise to traffic enforcement, or any law enforcement for that matter, is to gain compliance by the public to follow the laws which the representatives that THEY voted into office enacted. An individual officer who stops you has various means in which to accomplish that goal, such as a verbal warning, a written warning, a citation, or for serious offenses, arrest. In certain jurisdictions some of those options may be mandated for various reason, such as high fatality rates or specialized enforcement campaigns, etc.
When the officer makes contact with you, he has a very brief period of time to make an assessment in which to figure out which of the available courses to take in order to gain compliance from you for that particular offense. The absolute worst thing a person could do is to deny the obvious. If you just ran a red light and saw the patrol car sitting there, get pulled over and then tell the officer “Why did you pull me over, I did not do anything wrong, you must have gotten the wrong car!†you have pretty much sealed your own fate. This is not meant to sound condescending, but think of how you as a parent would respond if you caught your kid blatantly violating one of the household rules and then in essence telling you that you were full of shid, that they did not do what you clearly saw them do…..What would be your option??
With an officer who is doing his job in a fair manner, you being up front and at least stating the obvious is your best chance. This does not mean an automatic verbal warning. But the point to consider here, if you do what is right, you are not giving up anything because if the officer is the type who is on a mission to write tickets, you admitting it or denying it will not sway the outcome anyway.
Yes, there are SOME officers out there who are on a mission to write tickets, but they really are the exception. Regardless of that fact, if you do break that law, it is not the officers fault that you got the citation, it is your decision to violate or disregard that law, or your inattention that created the ENTIRE event.
When I was in law enforcement I had countless times of going to some social event and have someone come up and tell me how fugged up some cop was because they got a citation or infraction notice for something and they would swear on their mothers eyes that they did not do it and blah blah blah. My response was “Well let’s say for the sake of argument that you really were not speeding when you got pulled over, ok? Are there any other times in your life when you clearly were, but did not get caught? Well then why not consider the score as even then?â€
The truth in this, if we are real honest, is that we ALL fug up occasionally, when we do, there is nobody to blame except US, if it works out that the planets are lined up with Youranus and there happens to be an authority figure there to witness our splendid event.
