Bankrate has listed 8 myths about traffic tickets and we like it! Spending money on traffic tickets is a huge waste.
Our favorite myth?
Myth No. 6: You can make up an excuse to get out of the ticket.
Most police officers aren’t interested in excuses. When an officer pulls you over, he already suspects you of an infraction. You’ll have your day in court and many ways to fight the ticket. Remember: Any explanation you give about why you were speeding is an admission that you were speeding. If an officer logs those explanations in his notes, the statements could later be used against you in court. That’s why, whenever an officer asks if you know why you’ve been pulled over, always answer “no” and just take the ticket.“Never admit to speeding in the process of talking,” says Aaron Quinn, communications director for the National Motorists Association. “I would say just to be polite with the officer. Reasoning with the officer is something that might help you out if you actually are on your way to the hospital. You can try talking, just don’t admit guilt.”
This is good advice. Be as polite and nice to the police officer as possible, and they just might feel bad for you and let you go with a warning. It happens.
Read the rest of the myths at Bankrate. Oh, and if you get pulled over by the “GPD,” that’s the Gotham Police Department. They’re not real. Just cool.
8 top traffic ticket myths [Bankrate]
(Photo:Zesmerelda)
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@enm4r: That can backfire too. I lived in TN for a little bit, and to renew my plates there, if I sent anything but the exact amount my check was returned and registration was not renewed. Not the same thing, but some states may have this rule.
@brennie: Macphisto’s seems like pretty good advice for everyone, regardless of sex. Just keep driving to a well lit area after putting on dome.
) but law enforcement is still heavily influenced by hotness.
Your advice is a guaranteed ticket unless you have one hell of a rack, and the LEO is interested in women. If you’re going to go your route, then make sure you have your breasts pressed firmly against the window when you ask for ID. It’s sad (especially for us guys…
@brennie: you’re right. definitely want to make sure you’re safe, so crack ingthe window a bit (instead of all the way down) & driving to a more public place is definitely good advice. much better to get a ticket than to get carjacked, robbed, assaulted or worse.
i remember reading about a woman that called 911 from her cell when she was getting pulled over b/c something didn’t seem right. turns out the man who was trying to pull her over was impersonating an officer & her call enabled police to dispatch an officer to the scene to arrest him.
so, if in doubt, call 911.
I also just assume that I am going to get the ticket no matter what and then, as nicely as possible, proceed to waste as much of the officer’s time as I humanly can manage. My personal best a full half hour with a cop who was running a speed trap during rush hour.
I take forever to find everything, ask for directions, and my favorite, about halfway through the ‘what I can do about the ticket’ spiel I get all wide eyed and say, wow! that’s a lot of information I need to write this down.” I get out a notebook and transcribe everything the cop says like a freshman on the first day of class. And when they finally go back to the cruiser, don’t budge. Wait for them to go first. The confusion with that alone eats up 3-4 minutes.
My favorite was the cop I asked to help me spell ‘citation’ — and he couldn’t do it. It’s all Totally worth it to get to see the look on his face as hundreds of fish sped past him over the thirty minutes.
As the son of an ex-cop, I always keep in mind that the cop pulling me over may have a family, and just wants to get home safe and alive. When I pull over, I activate my 4 ways, turn off the stereo, roll down my window, put my hands and 10 and 2, and look straight ahead until the officer walks up and has a chance to check out the interior. I also announce EVERY move I make. When I open the glove box, I open it with one hand, let the cop see inside, then reach in slowly. Same goes for reaching into my pockets, jacket, etc. Don’t fumble inside the car before the cop comes up to your car. If he’s less on edge, he’ll be nicer. I also make sure to be polite, and respectful to the cop. Almost all cars nowadays have video and audio, and if you’re being respectful, and you happen to catch the 1 in 100 jerk cop, it could help you out later.
I could fill a column a mile with stories of how I got screwed or got screwed by the traffic court system in various states in the union. The only real point I wanted to add was on the discussion of breathalizer vs other tests. When I lived in CA, I was told by several DUI attorneys to refuse all tests but the blood test. This was in the 70′s and 80′s. If you got pulled over for a suspected DUI, a breath, blood or urine test was mandatory. The reason the lawyers recommended blood was that the police would have to call a lab tech to draw the blood, this was more time and effort and if it took long enough your BAL might fall below 1.0 which was the legal limit at the time.
oops, meant to say “how I screwed or got screwed by”
Here is one you can use to win in court, BUT if you appear for yourself at the initial trial court you will probably loose as these misdemeanor judges kiss cop ass whenever possible, so you will probably have to appeal to get before a district court judge who won’t give a damn about offending the cops.
The cop writes you a ticket out ‘in the field’ and you and he sign it, you get a copy for your information. Cop then takes the ticket, which is actually a criminal complaint, back to the station and at the end of the shift a supervisor notarizes his signature. The cop is swearing that his signature was subscribed and sworn to before the notary.
However, he actually signed it ‘in the field’ and not before the notary. How can you prove this? Easy, your copy is not notarized but it has his and your signature on it. Plus only a real stupid cop would lie about when it was notarized as it is too easy to disprove. So the complaint is invalid on its face as the jurat says he signed it before the notary and clearly he presented it to the notary already signed.
So a clear win for the motorist. Been there, done that. BUT the initial trial court will almost certainly go for the cop the exception would be if you hire an attorney to appear. Judges are more careful not to screw around with an attorney than if you just bring it up by yourself. Expect to loose the first time but you will win on appeal.
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@Sudonum: I believe they have a formula of time vs BAC level to figure out if you were intoxicated during the stop compared to when they actually took it.
Or you could do what I do, I live in the Chicago region, have a fairly famous last name, a family involved in politics, I have a F.O.P Medalion on my car, the Police & Fire Memorial license plates. The only thing remotely offensive is 1-20-09, The end of an Error. and Support our Military, bring them home!. The rest of the stickers always make cops laugh. “I want to be just like barbie, that bitch has everything” has gotten me out of more tickets than I care to remember. If I’m getting pulled over in an area that’s not close to home, which is normal, because my listed home address isn’t even my home anymore, my parents live there, and it’s cheaper car insurance, I always ask for directions to something super touristy, and recamendations on good food. And yes, I’ve taken out the notebook to write everything down they tell me, even when they tell me it’s all written on the back of the ticket to explain how.
I had one cop bluntly ask what my excuse was. I said the condom broke 25 years ago, and here I am. After he composed himself, or attempted to, because once I had him laughing, I knew I was home free. Cops also question why I have police issue handcuffs hanging from my rearview mirror. My reply is typically X-Rated, and involves a bit of betting with how I can get out of any pair. One cop in town who arrested me for a domestic situation said I had to at least walk to the car wearing them before I popped my wrist and handed them back to him. Strangely I was arrested for my own safety. At that time domestic laws didn’t exist between same sex couples, So seeing as there was less of a chance of me comming home and destroying the house after being arrested, it was decided I would go to the station to cool off for the night. He never booked me in, just felt that we both needed time appart from each other.
I was riding with my friend in his Honda prelude going about 140 in a 65 on the highway. A cop saw us, but he didn’t radar us I don’t think. After a few minutes of hiding in traffic the cop pulled over to the side before the exit and waited for us to pass by then pulled us over. My friend Chris just through his license on the dash as was sure we were all going to jail. We had a lot of contraband in the car. The cop took all of our licenses and when he came back he just gave us a warning quickly. He ran back to his car and speed off. To this day I have no idea how we got out of that one.
@CDE
Well since there isn’t any formula they can use to determine how drunk you are, I doubt there is a formula they could use to determine how much you sobered up. I’m pretty sure that would all vary by body weight, metabolism, food consumption and other variables.
If you take a breathalyzer, subpoena the source code. for the device.
[news.com.com]
Glad to see that taking personal responsibility for breaking the law is alive and well at the Consumerist.
@Buran: I asked him that a LOT. I think he mostly just objected to the government in general and to not being able to drive as fast as he wanted in particular.
@all: Another thing I heard (aside from the 10-and-2, no sudden moves, ultra-polite) is to “accidentally” promote the officer to the next rank up to flatter him and put him in a good mood. This would require knowing the difference, which I don’t, and I don’t get pulled over often enough to have tried it. Has anyone else?
I have a perfect driving record at age 60. No, I am not a perfect driver. I have avoided three potential traffic tickets for many mph over the limit by doing one thing: If I see a trooper that has a view of my speeding, I pull over, put on my flashers, and wait.
Three times: two “have a nice day, and check your speed” and one “sorry to issue you a warning, have a nice day”. One of the first was a trooper going off shift, and he didn’t want to take the time to issue the ticket.
My time must be coming up soon!
My wife and adult son, on the other hand… My wife was pulled over in Oklahoma and the trooper had his weapon drawn, the flood lights on, speaking through the car’s bullhorn. She fainted when she got out of the car with her hands on her head. Trooper: Sorry, your car looked like a BOLO stolen car. She shook for three days.
@Sudonum: Yes there is. When you are stopped for a dui, and fail the field breathalyzer, you are given a second breathalyzer or blood test later on at the station to confirm the fieldtest. The formula is then used to verify the original breathalyer, to prevent false convictions.
The best advice ive been given about stuff like this is the following.
1. Pull over as far as possible (or to a side street if possible) so the cop isn’t on a busy street standing there.
2. Turn off your engine, roll down your window (if its dark out, turn on your dome light)
3. Put both hands on the steering wheel and don’t say anything except for answering the police officers questions (and asking your own once hes done explaining)
4. When reaching for anything (wallet, reg. insurance, etc) say “is it OK if I reach for my X its in my Y”
The reason for all of this is because when a cop pulls you over, he has to worry about his safety, the more comfortable they are, the nicer they are. All this makes them more comfortable and feel safer than if they are standing on a busy street and some guy is fidgeting around in a dark car. My uncle (a police officer) gave me this advice. Ive been pulled over at least 6 times in the last 3 years for various things and got 1 ticket (I was speeding and it was puring rain out so it was really dumb of me) Every other time, i’ve gotten a verbal warning. My own little thing that I do if im missing a document (i.e. safety check) or a tail light is out, is I pull out my PDA and take a note to get it fixed. I then reconfrim the details of the problem “ok, you said it was the drivers tail light?” then write it down. works every time.
@enm4r: or you could just not drink and drive…
my favorite myth, having a military id is a get out of ticket card! Two pullover 2 warnings.
You gotta be polite. was pulled over going 80 in a 40 mph, at 2am, with a provisional license, and I’d even lost my license a few days earlier. I was real nice to the cop, told him I lost my license and he let me go. Cool guy! He could have had my car impounded.
@cde:
Can you send me a link? I believe in the instance you cite, they already have your first breathalyzer as a baseline, and are using the second as confirmation that you failed. With a blood test they have no baseline.
@cde:
Is this what you’re referring to?
From Wikipedia
“The breathalyzer test is usually administered at a police station, commonly an hour or so after the arrest. Although this gives the BAC at the time of testing, it does not by itself answer the question of what it was at the time of driving. The prosecution typically provides evidence of this in the form of retrograde extrapolation. Usually presented in the form of an expert opinion, this involves projecting the BAC backwards in time-that is, estimating the probable BAC at the time of driving by applying mathematical formula, commonly the Widmark factor. This process, however, has been the subject of considerable criticism.”
And after reading the whole entry on Breathalyzers if I am ever stupid or drunk enough to DWI, I’ll stick with the blood test.
@Sudonum: Yes. And with the blood test, they do it twice within a span of one hour. If your BAC rises in that span, most likely you were not intoxicated while driving, atleast not past the limit. If it falls, it is used as a basis for a possible intoxication level, which the prosicution will try to establish was your BAC while you were driving.
I was raised by a cop, and most of the things he taught me have cropped up here:
-Hands at 10 and 2 from the second you pull over. The ONLY thing I take the time to do first is turn off the radio.
-Announce every move you’re making. “My license is in my purse, hold on one moment…” “The registration is the glove box…”
-Be as polite as possible at ALL TIMES. Even if they are rude to you, be polite back to them. No jokes, no BS. Yes Sir, No Ma’am, the whole nine yards. If you don’t get them them a reason, anything they do to you is then their fault.
The biggest thing my parents taught me: if you’re speeding, you are breaking the law. Getting out of tickets is trying to get away with illegal actions. If you’re speeding, you accept your ticket and your consequences. If you weren’t doing anything wrong, then you can fight it. I’ve never once been pulled over that I didn’t deserve it.
I got pulled over most recently not a half hour after a neighbor made a joke about how we must have gotten a ton of tickets in our hot new roadster.
I get pulled over, and at one point the officer looks at the emblem on the back and says, “This is a Pontiac?”
“Yes sir.”
“I called in and told them I was pulling over a Corvette…oops.”
I can’t help but feel better that after he gave me a ticket he’d have to call back and make the correction. I’m sure they teased him for that.
Number 1 Best Tip: Slow down, asshole
There are just some places that are a veritable no-man’s land. Like the Interstates in and around Dallas. The Speed limit is 60mph on I-35E. Well, speeding 10mph over the limit and cars still fly past you like you’re standing still. I mean EVERYBODY is doing 80, semis, 80′s Mack dump trucks, got passed by a Geo Metro on my last trip even. The Police won’t pull you over either, my guess is due to the ultra-crowded highway and no safe place to pull you over at.
Now I-40 through the Texas Panhandle, you better keep your cruise at 67mph because the Texas Highway Patrol will put one trooper every 5 miles.
Oh, and Military ID does nothing for Texas state troopers, they will still give you the ticket. I’m just happy I don’t speed and know all the troopers that work out of the Amarillo office (I’ve fixed nearly all of their laptops).