well i'm a good law abidingcitizen [sm=americanasmiley.gif]!!!!
except for the spasms i have in my right foot sometimes, but that's a medical issue!!

 

A fewquestions...

- Don't police officers have quota's, like X number of speeding tickets issued each month, X number of this and that per month?
- What is the limit of cars that ONE officer can pull over. I have seen close to my house this downhill with a bridge above it, that changes from 55 to 45mph and officers love to frequent the location, to the point that they should setup a station there, but anyways, the question is I have seen one cop pull over 4 cars at once, and trust me 4 different people, all speeding. Basically he walks out into the middle of the road, standing in the lane of the car in coming, and points to one person, they pull over and he stands there in the street still, and snags another 3 people, and issues them all citations I assume, or at least makes them sit for 30+ minutes or more because he has pulled over so many people. It would seem logical that there should be a limit, one car per officer, because otherwise, the officer is sort of wasting peoples time, but more importantlyhas lost control of the sitation. Here is my logic,if the officer pulls one car, and then another, and then goes for a third, and that guy decides not to stop, then what is he to do? Leave the other two cars that he has not issued tickets too, to persue the car that continued driving? I personally don't think that I would stick around if the officer left..?
-In the above scenerio, could an officer order you to stay put until he comes back?

Thanks

 

Some departments, like state police, do have quotas, mine does not =) Once you join a traffic unit you may get quotas but patrol usually does not.

There is no limit, I personally never do more than one car at once because you never know what awaits in any one of those cars. There is no time limit but we like to think on our department that for a normal traffic stop where they are getting one or two tickets, once you go past 20 minutes it is getting a bit unreasonable, but again is not unacceptable. Example I stopped someone yesterday because he stopped in traffic trying to merge into a turn lane at the intersection, this held up traffic. He then cut into the lane abruptly nearly causing 2 accidents. He did all this with a marked cruiser a few cars behind him. I stopped him, had no license. Wrote him 6 tickets and had him call a licensed person to drive his car away. All that and it took me approximately 20 minutes. Some may think this was harsh, but consider this I easily could have taken him to jail and towed the car. Why didn't I, he was just a guy trying to get to work and he had a valid ID. Why take him to jail when I know who he is and why wait for a tow and put me out of service for an hour?

Yes if you leave once you are stopped you're in big trouble. You have been stopped because you have broken the law, traffic law in this case, and it is our job to cite or warn you for it. Same principle as we are citing you for drinking in public and you decide to try and walk away.

 

I am from MD, and sometimes, I end up travelling on I270/495 at 1:00 AM or later. There is very light traffic, and sometimes, just end up going above 75 or may be 80 max... how bad is that, especially, at that hour.... I mean if it is not raining or snow...and there is no car in front or in rear view mirror, it just gets very irritating to continue at 60mph. I know MD laws are strict, but what are the chances an officer might take 15/20 over the limit at that hour very seriously.. what will you do? Thanks.

 

I would be careful because state troopers hawk that area. I would imagine that they will ticket you once you hit 15 over, but again I can't say they may even do 10. Troopers are NOT likely to cut you a break either. If you are going 15 over he/she will likely write you for 15 over. Troopers in that area generally don't have calls for service to answer to aside from accidents so their job is to watch the highways, IE you speeding down them. The other thing that stinks is they are pretty likely to be in court, soooooooooo SLOW IT DOWN SON! cuz thats what they will tell ya.

 

i understand the logic, but ifthe officerpulls you over and can't tend to you, and decides to run of because someone else has decided to avoid the law, it seems like there should be an out. Like, the officerleft the scene, type of thing. I mean, if what your saying is "written in stone", then I would personally become an officer, and pull people over, write down their tags, LEAVE... come back 6 hours later, and if they are not there, go to their jobs and arrest them just for the heck of it. (I'm beingsilly) But you see how this could spiral out of control, there has to be a point... like in college, if the teacher didn't show up in 15 minutes, the class was cancelled, type of thing. or perhaps a better example, in regards to the law, if the officer loses sight of the vehicle between the point of the offence, and when the ticket is issued, the ticket is invalid, and will be thrown out in court.

 

I believe I've already conceeded that this is impractical. I was referring to stopping aSINGLE vehicle when I was making comparisons to leaving that traffic stopand leaving an alcohol / criminal citation stop (non traffic). I should have been more specific. Once an officer pulls over multiple vehicles it gets a bit tricky in whether or not it is wrong for you to leave. A hard question for me to answer, but a good one. One option is to stay and when you go to court mention how long you had to wait. You "could" leave, NOT SAYING THAT IS LEGAL OR RIGHT, then go to court and explain that he left you for a long time. I HIGHLY recommend that you do not leave as it is very likely he would let everyone else go and nail you with multiple infractions.

AGAIN NOT SAYING THIS IS RIGHT, THIS IS ALL HYPOTHETICAL

Had to be careful with this answer.

 

yeah, it's one of those... certainly not a win-win situation, sort of like a lose-lose situation.

haha...

 

Say i was going 145 (cant cuz sold car) but i was racing another car. what would happen and why is street racing so illegal when its one of americas past times. my parents did it and there parents did it and most parents have done it but now cops are doing things to end it.

 

cops have ALWAYS done things to end it. They did it to your parents, and their parents... I imagine if some town had a speed limit for stagecoaches, back in the way back time, and some driver went too fast, there was a sheriff on a horse running him down, just to cite him and maybe haul his azz to jail if his horse-regiatration wasn't up to date.

Traffic's just much more dense, nowadays, so it looks more like they're doing it more because there are more cars and more people to speed, so more people do, and, more poeple get caught.

did that make any sense?