{"id":568,"date":"2018-11-17T21:40:47","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T03:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/?p=568"},"modified":"2018-11-17T21:45:53","modified_gmt":"2018-11-18T03:45:53","slug":"how-to-handle-a-traffic-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/2018\/11\/17\/how-to-handle-a-traffic-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Handle a Traffic Stop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

\"\"In The Grump’s never-ending quest to enlighten the masses, I am going to help y’all out and offer some suggestions on how to handle yourself when pulled over for a traffic stop.\u00a0 Please keep the following in mind:\u00a0 I am not a lawyer.\u00a0 This is not legal advice.\u00a0 This is just what I generally do, your mileage may vary, so take these with a grain of salt.<\/p>\n

So, like I said, here\u2019s what I do. I\u2019ll admit it\u2019s been hit-and-miss as far as success in avoiding a ticket. I am very testy and annoyed in situations like this, surprise!, so it takes effort on my part to keep that in check.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I pull over immediately. Turn the car off, etc.<\/li>\n
  2. I wait until requested to get my paperwork. I do not warn them where it is. I figure they made the request so they know what I\u2019m doing.<\/li>\n
  3. I generally do not talk, except for answering questions, and those I try to keep short and simple… and polite.<\/li>\n
  4. I do not keep my hands on the wheel, but I do keep them in plain sight.<\/li>\n
  5. I do not refer to the officer as \u201cOfficer\u201d.\u00a0 It’s not, “Yes\/No, Officer.”, it’s, “Yes\/No.”<\/li>\n
  6. Basically, I am very polite, but I will not boot lick. (I\u2019ve always thought if I were an officer that would annoy me. I\u2019d think they\u2019re just sucking up.)<\/li>\n
  7. If they ask if I know why I was pulled over I say \u201cNo.\u201d, even if I do know, which is usually the case.\u00a0 Though one time I tried the honesty strategy and got off with a warning, so go figure.<\/li>\n
  8. I hate Hate HATE when they ask where I\u2019m going or where I\u2019m coming from. It\u2019s none of their damn business. But, I have not figured out how to not answer without annoying them, which I believe will increase the chance of them turning into a jerk, which will just make my life more difficult. I want a drama free traffic stop.\u00a0 I generally know where I am so I usually give generic answers like I\u2019m going home (if I really am pointed in that general direction), or coming from some local business behind me.\u00a0 I always suspect that, “Oh, I’m just out for a random drive.”, which is something I legitimately do often, would earn me more scrutiny than is justified and more than I want.<\/li>\n
  9. I do not argue the ticket. I wait for court to do that (don\u2019t always take it to court, but sometimes will). One time, though, the officer asked me afterward why I didn\u2019t argue at the time instead of wasting his time making him go to court. I just shrugged. I didn\u2019t really have an answer and didn\u2019t want to say I didn\u2019t just as a matter of personal policy.<\/li>\n
  10. I do not thank them for giving me a ticket… why would anyone do that, seriously!… but I do thank them if they let me off with a warning.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    I have found that I\u2019m let off more as I get older. I have a pretty clean driving record. I figure that must have something to do with it, but I don\u2019t know that for sure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In The Grump’s never-ending quest to enlighten the masses, I am going to help y’all out and offer some suggestions on how to handle yourself when pulled over for a traffic stop.\u00a0 Please keep the following in mind:\u00a0 I am not a lawyer.\u00a0 This is not legal advice.\u00a0 This is just what I generally do, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-driving","category-observations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":573,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568\/revisions\/573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kurmudgeon.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}