When you live in or near a small rural town (like I do), the cops pull people over for every damn thing, because they have nothing better to do. I got pulled over for not using my signal lights when pulling out of a gas station. I said to the cop "are you serious, I never heard of that being required." He just said it's a good idea to do.... I agreed, even though I was thinking "what an asshole". Then I got pulled over for having my brights on in town. Yea, I normally turn them off, but no one is perfect and I come into town from the country so they are usually on when I get there. I thought that was another stupid reason to be pulled over.
I also got pulled over for a GOOD reason. My brake lights stopped working. (Blown fuse). That I appreciated knowing, and I thanked the cop. He didn't ticket me, he just told me to fix it, which I did the next day.
I've seen a few and I think they would be illegal if the cops ticketed them and the judge had any sense. But it might be a close call. Any normal person perceives them as blue, and in AZ showing blue lights in any direction is illegal. But it's a paler blue then what is usually used on police cars so a judge conceivable could say they "aren't blue enough to count". In my mind they clearly aren't white so they fail the test of "any color between white and amber" which is what's legal in the front as the general rule for lights. Amber might not be allowed for the mandatory headlights though even though it's ok for other lamps.
I grew up in a small town in the sixties/early seventies and I worked at a service station in town. On Good Friday I was trhere working on my '35 Chevy when one of the town cops dropped by with his OHC Firebird and wanted to buy gas. I told him the pumps were closed and locked and I didn't have the key. He got "pissy" about it and left in a huff. (squealing the tires and spitting gravel stones everywhere) From that day on I had nothing but trouble from the prick. My little Valiant had a healthy note to the exhaust - even through the 100% stock brand new exhaust I had installed, and he took exception to it. He pulled me over and said I better get a new muffler. I told him it was a brand new system from front to back, and offered to take it to the shop and put it up in the air so he could see - and if he found anything that was not right he could charge me - otherwise he could forget it.
This was after he pulled me over and told me to get my license light replaced before he saw me again. I went straight to the shop and without even checking the bulb put on a complete brand new license light assembly and checked to make sure IT was working. On my way home from work that night he pulled me over and said "I thought I told you to get your licence plate light fixed." I told him "I just replaced it
- isn't it working?" and pushed the door open to get out and checking. He rubbed his shin and jumped in the cruiser and took off - it was working. Just before that I was dropping a friend off in front of his house which was just past an intersection on the main street. When I was about 10 feet from the intersection I put on my right signat to pull over, and this big green Pontiac pulled right out in front of me. I locked up the brakes ans stopped inches from the cruiser door. He hollered "arren't you going to turn?" and I told him I'd turn when he got the cruiser out of my way.
A few of the other cops were "friends" who I could talk with - one in particular - and as I was getting ready to leave town with my friend ( the one I was dropping off in the previous case) one night I saw the cruiser and figured I'd see if he was on duty, so I followed the cruiser for about 3 blocks until I saw it was the "prick" on duty. He hadn't stopped for 2 stop signs and had not used his signal to turn - but when I saw who it was I just turned at the light and left town as I had planned. When I came back into town about 2 1/2 hours later, the cruiser was parked at the side of the road at the entrance to town, and when I passed he pulled right out behind me and followed me with his brights on for a few blocks, then put on the "cherries" and pulled me over. I rolled the window down about 1/4 way and he yelled at me something about "why was I following him?" and a bunch of other crap - He was like a mad dog ready to crawl through the window. I told him I thought Gordie was on duty and wanted to talk to him. He stalked back to the cruiser and let me go.
I had had enough so at noon the next day I went into the police station and said I wanted to lodge a complaint against the officer who was on duty last night for harrassment - and said even IF I was speeding or broke the law in any way, if it was HIM who charged me I'd fight it and beat him if it broke me paying for the best lawyer I could get. I also said I preferred if the report on the blotter did not say who lodged the complaint - he'd know who it was anyway.
From that day on if he was walking the beat and we met - even on the other side of the street he'd wave - and I NEVER had a problem with him again.. If he was in the cruiser he'd tip his hat if he saw me.
I guess he never knew EXACTLY what I had told the sargeant, and wasn't taking any chances finding out.
Because folks put their hazzards on WHILE driving. And, if driving slow, virtually indistinguishable from stopped. So, see flashing (brake) lights and it is just as likely to be someone creeping along IN THE LANE as it is someone stopped roadside. I.e., no way to know if you want to be "behind them" or not.
More because traffic fines make up a significant portion of the revenues of many local governments. Even in large cities, much of traffic enforcement is now more about money than safety.
We have a cop like that here, and that asshole is the one that pulled me over for the stupid reasons. Everyone complains about him. I'm surprised he has not yet lost his job. Another cop who eveyone likes, is the one who pulled me over about my non-working brake lights, and he was decent about it, just told me to fix it. I like that guy!
snipped-for-privacy@unlisted.moo posted for all of us...
Fog lights should turn on with low beams only. We used to check this during inspection and some DIY's had them wired incorrectly which meant a phone call as to whom did they want to fix it-us or them. Also had to be mounted a certain height above the road surface.
We had another one ninknamed "supercop" on the Regional force a few years back who held the record for the number of citations in a month
- and surprizingly EVERY one of them was "clean". He just had the eyes of an eagle and the memory of an elephant. He would catch more "driving under suspension" offenders, and "DUI"s than any 3 other cops, and very seldom pulled someone over on suspicion without being able to lay a solid choice.
He'd remember every DUI he had layed in the last year, and exactly what the guy looked like, what he drove, where he lived, and where he liked to drink, so if he saw a slightly balding guy with black glasses driving a beige Citation with a blue sticker on the corner of the windsheild between the Lancaster Hotel and the east end of Kitchener he knew it was "steady eddie" who had pulled over and charged 11 months ago for DUI and he was driving again a month early. On come the lights, over he goes, and back to court. Another DWD, anothe DUI, and an uninsured motorist at the same time - and possibly another open bottle, or posession of weed, or whatever on top of it.
Almost correct. With single headlights it was legal to run fogs or driving lights with high beam, The law limited you to a total of 4 projecting beams facing forward.
With cars with quad headlights, the fogs were only allowed on low beam
- and if you wanted to run driving lights you needed to switch off the inner high beam only units to turn on the drivers. Or do like we did on the Rallye Renault R12 and the gold Cricket - one big mother of a driving light, and one high beem sealed beam removed and the hole repurposed as a cold air intake for the carbs. On the cricket it also had a fog light.
Both of them were like turning on the sun when you turned on that big bad Cibie blasting down a back rallye road!!!
snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca posted for all of us...
It just gives LEO's probable cause to stop them. Then they complain the PD is picking on them. In PA they issue a FEC (Faulty Equipment Card) and 10 days or so to get it fixed and signed off by an inspection mechanic or if they repair it themselves they can have an LEO sign off but it does get sent in to PennDot.
snipped-for-privacy@unlisted.moo posted for all of us...
Good reasons for stops. Things that drunks do. You should be glad they are on the job. Maybe later on they'll be pulling a dead body out of car as a result of a DUI. They are not assholes, they are good people doing the job the best they can for little money and especially no respect from you.
snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca posted for all of us...
That was a good dept. Not that they had this guy but they corrected the problem. He probably had a history of this crap. Now the cams would show it all.
One would think so, but when I asked the chief he had no idea and we went to see the township manager who gave us the figure. It was surprising small as the fines are shared among several entities.
I once got pulled over for having by brights on. The cop told me that drunks often don't lower them. I was on my way in 30 seconds. He was just keeping the road safe. I try to avoid driving the hour after the bars close too.
Aroung here all the "small towns" are policed either by the "regional" or "provincial" police departments Not many small town departments any more.
Region of Waterloo police covers the entire region - Kitchener, Waterloo, Elmira, New Hamburg, St Jacobs, Conestogo, Baden and all the little burgs in between. In other counties or regions the Ontario Provincial Police cover the smaller towns
I got pulled over a couple nights ago. I practiced Chris Rock's "how not to get you ahh kicked by the PO leeze." And was on my way about a minute later.
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