Using the old "you catch more bees with honey than vinegar" theory works, too. Being respectful to the police officer who stops you goes a l-o-n-g way, as my son learned last summer.
My son, a friend of his and I were riding home from the Carlisle Bike Fest and Jason and his buddy took off on a hilly, twisty back road at a clip a little too hot for these old bones, so I had a front-row seat for the festivities to follow. A township police car was parked in a driveway and had VASCAR set up. My son and his buddy were clocked at 96.7 MPH in a 35 zone. My son, who was leading, did not see the police car come out and start chasing them, but his buddy did. He passed my son in a no-passing zone and Jason took off after him, thinking they were just horsing around. About three miles later, the other guy pulled a square turn right in front of Jason and took off on a side road. Jason went about a half-mile farther, pulled into a farmhouse driveway to turn around and was awaiting for traffic to clear when the police car showed up.
But he treated the female officer with respect and courtesy and she returned the favor, telling him the highest she had ever clocked a vehicle in that spot was 72 MPH. She was frankly blown away with his speed and was concerned for his safety. She wrote him up for the speeding violation as well as passing in a no-passing zone and failure to heed an officer's signal. In Pennsylvania, those violations will set you back over $500 and give you enough points to insure you'll be walking for about a year.
A week or so later, I called the officer and explained that Jason's record to that point was clean and that he normally doesn't ride that crazily and asked her if she could "adjust" some of her citations. She made no promises but instructed me to have Jason plead "Not Guilty" and request a hearing.
On the day before the hearing, she called asking that Jason arrive about a half-hour early. She took him into a conference room and spent perhaps 20 minutes talking with him. In the courtroom, she dropped the passing and failure to stop violations and reduced his speed to 64 MPH. Less than 30-over in PA does not carry an automatic suspension and, of course, his fine was a LOT lower.
All that because he was nice to her!
Ed
