First time pulled over in the Z

Jasonle

Total B.S.

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axmea?

This is unheard of. It seemed like the officer was trying to get you to do something stupid. Good that you held your composure. If that were me, I'd do a brake check first to get him to stay back. If that does not work, downshift and stay away. Probably get stopped at that point. There was a time when I was stopped by an officer for my exhaust and he complimented me, asked where I got it from, said he was a car guy too, exchanged business cards, shook hands, and let me off.

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alcheng

I'm gonna slowly brake to a dead stop and turn on the emergency signal and sit in the car.

If he comes up and ask why am I doing that, I will just simply tell him 1) he was following too closely and freak me out 2) because he's following too closely thus his lights blind my eyes and I couldn't drive.

If he wants to called EMS, I'll let him and when the medics come I gonna tell the medics the same thing and have them file a report for me.

ZeroZeta

So I am assuming that Super Werty was driving in AZ (per his sig.)

According to the Arizona Department of Public Safety - the officer was about to site him for "aggressive driving" which in AZ is:

defined as a progression of unlawful driving actions such as:
speeding -- exceeding the posted limit or driving too fast for conditions; improper or excessive lane changing: failing to signal intent, failing to see that movement can be made safely, or improper passing -- failing to signal intent, using an emergency lane to pass, or passing on the shoulder.

So they first list "excessive lane changing" under aggressive driving.

They later go into a little more detail about it:

"Making Frequent Lane Changes - If you whip in and out of lanes to advance ahead, you can be a danger to other motorists."

So if Super Werty were changing lanes from side to side - while maintaining his original constant speed and "not changing lanes to advance ahead." That shouldn't even count as "frequent/excessive" lane changing.


Now the officer in question was instigating Super's need to change lanes. Per the original post he was "right on my bumper"

Which makes the officer guilty of:

Tailgating - "This is a major cause of crashes that can result in serious injury or death." - (I am glad nothing bad occurred to anyone. )

This makes the officer in question the "aggressive driver."

So What to Do if Confronted by an Aggressive Driver?

Get Out of the Way - First and foremost, make every attempt to get out of their way.
Put Your Pride Aside - Do not challenge them by speeding up or attempting to hold-your-own in your travel lane.
Avoid Eye Contact - Eye contact can sometimes enrage an aggressive driver.
Ignore gestures and refuse to return them.
Report Serious Aggressive Driving - You or a passenger may call the police. But, if you use a cell phone, pull over to a safe location.

So we all know that SW would have won if this had been challenged in court.

1325 - Thank you for your input regarding the challenge of reading the plate numbers. (I never considered this before.) I don't think anyone is making a judgement call against people in uniform. I have met a number of good and bad apples. i don't assume that all Z owners are the best humans on the planet simply because I made the same purchasing decision they did.

I think much of what this comes down to is the inherent "grey area" of the law and the fact that in many instances the interpretation of these laws are subject to many factors including: the person tasked with enforcing it as well as any jurisdictional differences/mandates.

So my understanding is if there was no probable cause to run Super's plates in the first place, the office wouldn't need to get closer/follow to read the plates and run them through the system etc.

Therefore, unless Super was throwing bags of crack out the window, speeding, or doing something else to attract the officer's attention, the whole scenario shouldn't have happened.

But this was that officer's judgement call - and not representative of how anyone else would have handled the situation.

I think most people likely have some assumptions regarding sports car drivers. This was just one instance where it was not warranted.

If the OP had been going all "fast and furious" with his NOS tank causing his exhaust to spew fire like a flamethrower - Then he would deserve to be pulled over.

Ha Ha.

scope22

I'm pretty sure this is common, they will follow you closely at night to see if you'll take off or break the law some other way, blinding on purpose so you can't see that its a cop.

1slow370

I was pulled over by the swat team once when i lived in wi in a previous car, it was murican with a blower sticking out the hood(i was 16) and, then kinda walked around the car looking at it, one of comes up and goes so where'd you get the blower, and i told him i machined and welded the manifold and kit myself and it was a highschool shop project, he said right on glad to see kids these days are still into this stuff, and they let me go, didn't even tell me why i got pulled over or anything. now i experience the joy of owning an import...

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Z1NONLY

I think it's just a way for the LEO to go fishing.

He simply created an excuse to pull you over, so that he could question you and maybe find something important....If not, he still gets to put a moving violation toward his quota.

I really wish more people in the general public had a means of making life miserable for LEO's that abuse their badge like this.

With the Supreme Court telling LEO's that they can stop/detain people with ZERO probable cause as long as they call it a "DUI checkpoint", I think probable cause has been a running joke with them for a long time.

This tailgate/harass tactic is just an extension of the "public interest" ends-justify-the-means mindset.

Duc_Z09

The sad part is 90% or more of LEOs are actually pretty decent. It's just the 10% that have to compensate for always being picked last at dodgeball or having a small weiner or whatever that make the rest look bad. Like the douche CHP officer that arrested the firefighter who was trying to do his job at an accident scene. Hopefully that little skidmark isn't a cop anymore.

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ShutokuZ

Being a past LEO, I can say that officer was totally unjustified in his actions any way you look at it. If he suspected you of something, then he should have just pulled you over and if not, quit fishing for something to find. Like someone said earlier, it is extremely hard to tell the differences in some digits on plates at night. In that case, I would flash a LED flashlight on the plate if I thought something of the car. Another thing is boredom. Some cops will just pick random people to follow and keep doing it for as long as it takes for them to do something. I have heard others say they do it at night for entertainment. You did good by keeping your cool and there is no way that ticket would have stuck in court.....

vividracing

I've always adjusted my mirrors to reflect the blinding headlights back at the driver, typically it annoys them to the point of speeding around you. Otherwise, it would take a lot of restraint to not downshift and get a speeding ticket. Nice job keeping your temper in line. Undercover cars are plentiful in AZ so you really have to cross your fingers before you do anything slightly aggressive here.

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Mt Tam I am

Here is where my auto dimming rear view pays off.

When the police ask for the publics help, yet treat this man the way they did, I do not want to help.

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Apoc370z

It is also the auto dimming mirrors that made it close to impossible to identify a LEO vehicle tailing you.

kittens

Throw rusty nails out your window

But seriously when I was 17 and stupid me and my friends were going to the beach taking two cars... One of my friends in the other car was tailgating me so I tossed my full water bottle out the window and hit him in the windshield lol luckily nothing worse than him getting pissed happened

I wouldn't dare have done it to a cop or a random person though lol but I can't stand when cops go fishing

Magic Bus

This happened to me in Anaheim, CA this past Dec. I just finished a business meeting at about 8 pm, went to my rental car in the restaurant parking lot and proceeded to drive back to my hotel approx 11 miles away.

As I pulled onto the street, I noticed (in my rear view mirror) a car catch up to me very quickly and then follow me constantly about 2-3 car lengths behind. I could see the silhoutte of police lights on his roof, so I proceeded to drive back to my hotel like I was on my drivers license exam. Exactly at the speed limit, right lane when there were two lanes (he still followed me) and signaling well in advance for a turn. He never left my tail for approx 10 minutes.

Being a little unsettled, I decided to pull into a large well lit gas station. As I was turning right into the gas station, he overtook me quickly and sped off. I guess that he didn't want me to see his license plate, but it was definitely a CA police car.

Tigger

sounds like one night a cop followed me into a parking lot. Never turned on her lights. She said I was doing over 35. I was like, I never got over 29 (in a 25). She started arguing with me and I was like, whatever. If you actually had a case you would have pulled me over right away. She never asked for my license or even got out of her car. I was going to report it but in the end I was like, **** it. Not worth my time. She had no case. Not gonna worry about it. But I did want to bitch slap her.