First time pulled over in the Z
 

Well it happened tonight after only 6 months of owning the Z.

I was driving home at 7pm minding my own business, driving like a sane person and going the speed limit. Traffic is about a 6 out of 10, so not too crazy.

I make a turn onto a 3 lane road and suddenly some jerk in a truck is behind me with his brights on. So I hit the blinker and changed lanes. He matches my lane change and gets closer...real close! Like right on my bumper. Now Im practically being blinded.

So I changed back to my original lane and he matches again....I changed lanes 5 times in 3 miles and this jerk is right on me. I was actually starting to get worried this person was actually going to follow me home.

Then he turns on his red and blue lights....:mad:

I pulled over immediately and he walks up to my window and asks for my license. I handed it to him and said "you know I was changing lanes because your brights were on and I was being blinded" by the way he was driving a Chevy Tahoe and my Z is lowered.

He says "yea but you cant change lanes that quickly"

I said "sir, again you were blinding me and following me"

He says nothing and asks for my registration and insurance...walks back to truck.

As he is taking my info a huge car accident happens about 200 yards behind us. He walks up gives me a warning and say "if we catch you changing lanes like that again we will give you a ticket. Doesnt matter if you use your indicators or not"

I said "ok" and he speeds off to go back to the crash behind us.

lol. Im glad I didnt get any ticket but what total BS reason to pull someone over. Im going the speed limit, using indicators, and changing lanes normally..what else do you want?! 90% of people on the road cant even do that, and he singles me out. end rant

Wow, glad you didn't get a ticket, TOTAL BS. If I think someone is following me, I pull over.

Yeah that's crazy. Probably fishing for tickets for his "monthly goal". He would've definitely gave you a ticket if that accident didn't happen.

....******* ********.
TOTAL ******* BULL *****ing SH*it.
I've heard of stuff like this happening before.
Like they start to really tailgate you etc..
Should have gotten name and report him.

He was pissed because he's paying child support on three kids and forking over alimony to a wife that had been cheating on him with a guy who owns a new Z. Yep, you were gonna get a ticket.:bowrofl:

wow, changing lanes too quickly....first time i heard that one.

I change lanes and then brake hard. Tailgaters can kiss my @ss! And 90% of the time it's some POS slow car (1990s Civic, jalopy Buick, rusty Grand Am, lowered Jetta, etc.) with a jackass behind the wheel.:mad:

Next time brake-check him and let him explain to his superior why he rear-ended a civilian with the department's vehicle. Legally his fault no matter what...

I'd have gotten his badge number and reported him. Not that it may do much....

You are in AZ...no way I got pulled over for that too. In the FRS late afternoon on a Sunday. I was coming back from a long trip in Vegas. And it was a white pick up truck. He was on my *** and so I moved over. (Unlike most people from AZ that dont get the concept to move over if the person behind is going faster) I did. Always using my blinker. And I thought it was some *** in a white construction truck or something. Then I changed again a couple times back and forth. He turned on his lights and basically said I cant change lanes that many times within 100 yards. Got a warning but its such bs!!!! I get pulled over for actually being respectful of others and always using my blinkers. Now im from WI and its totally different there. And as much as I love AZ weather their drivers suck...no blinkers. Everyday there is an accident in the carpool lane. Seriously a lane that doesnt get any mergers and is all the way left gets the most accidents. People dont pay attention at all and being rear ended is just a way of life here. No concept of fast lane. Basically AZ drivers dont do a single thing right. Hence why insurance triples from WI to AZ and WI has mother nature to drive in like real rain storms not 5 min showers and not to mention at least 10 inches of snow.

What a hassle. Glad you avoided the ticket SW.

So I am curious what the desired course of action would be in this scenario. Do you do nothing and get blinded? Changing lanes to let another driver pass seems like normal protocol if not simple common sense.

Something tells me when an officer decides to play this game with drivers that it is pretty much a no win for the driver. Likely they would site another arbitrary rule about not yielding to a driver behind you fast enough.

I know we have some LEOs on the forum and would like to know what they would recommend in these scenarios.

I've actually had a 5-0 Crown Vic follow myself and a buddy for a couple of miles at 4am. My friend got so pissed, he actually called 911 and reported the harassment complaining this cop was just looking for something to get us for. About 2 minutes later, he floors it passed us. I absolutely hate police harassment/brutality. I'm sorry that happened OP. Bullies with a badge.

I'd like someone with some hard evidence from a dashboard cam to report these douchebag cops looking to hit their quotas or just flexing their power.

I agree with Elan. We have *HP here which I would've called and asked for assistance from someone aggressively driving. If in a populated area, I might pull into a gas station...the Z always needs gas anyway.



I think the guy is a db and shouldn't be a LEO. Harassment plain and simple.


Sent from my Lumia 1020 using Tapatalk

He would lose in court.Did you get his badge number and talk to the District Attorney?? Id like to see what is codified in your state about lane changing. No judge would let a ticket stand if you are not speeding and simply change lanes. If thats all the officer has he has NO CASE. He basically forced you to avoid him at speed. He never early on, showed he was law enforcement. Harrassment plain and simple. I bet you will find him on the same road again. Id get his badge and file a complaint. I wouldnt at all be surprised he has other complaints. People are creatures of habit. He is no different. Law enforcement gets my full respect but if this is true he needs some serious retraining. NO excuse.

Well you've all seem as if you've been exposed to the bad apples which in turn, make the rest look just as bad. I can give insight as to why some (including myself) follow closely for brief (or extended) amount of time especially during night time when it's that much harder to see license plate numbers. 0's look like Q's, D's look like 0's, etc. If I don't have probable cause, I don't have it and I move on. No way I'd ever make something up to jeopardize public trust.

As far as changing lanes fast, every state/country is different so I can't speak for all of them, but the way I see it is that if you're doing no harm, I don't foresee an issue. Definitely don't recommended on busy roads, though. Just be careful on the roadways because it doesn't have to be you driving recklessly, but the inattentive, distracted momo beside you. :ugh2:

Total B.S.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.:shakes head:

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.....

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.

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.

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

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

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. :shakes head:

This is why I know what police headlights look like at night! I know the 3 main types: Crown vic, Impala, and Charger (Charger and Impala are the same when the Charger does not have foglights on). The ones that still scare me are any SUV/Pick-up cops and the new Caprice (I think it's similar to the Impala setup but haven't verified yet). The day Police cruisers come standard with HID/Xenon lights, well we are all effed.

For the Crown Vic, look for rectangular headlights with a small rectangular yellow lights in the center.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v159/Ebpilot3/168.jpg
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_...0014_large.jpg

The Impala/Charger IMO is the easiest to spot. If you have Impala Police in your area (I do), treat the oval lights with two little orange circles in the middle in your mirror as one. The Honda Accord has slightly similar headlights.
http://articles.dashzracing.com/wp-c...cfl-halo-5.jpg

Car racism!!!:shakes head: I get a speeding ticket for going the same speed as all other cars around me but im the one who gets a ticket because my car is a 2 seater and its black..LOL!:shakes head::confused::shakes head:

Thanks Man! i never thought of doing this. I get tailed every day no matter what time of day it is. What they try first is run my plate, my history is clean and the car is not stolen, since step one did not work they tail me for a good three miles and watch my driving habits. I see them before they see me so i know not to change lanes or even go one mile over the speed limit knowing they are itching for reason to pull my a$$ over!

I love my car but ******** like this and jealous jackass drivers makes me reconsider my vehicle decision..That is until I see me car or drive my car!:excited::driving::excited::ugh2:

What scares me about court is when the judge sees what type of vehicle the forum member was driving and automatically assumes the officer was right due to the fact the vehicle is a high performance sports car. That is what i will probably have to deal with in my trial for speeding.:shakes head::confused::shakes head:

THANK YOU!!!:tup::tiphat::tup:

:icon18::icon18::icon18:

Driving what we drive makes us very easy targets for traffic stops! I am shopping for a radar detector asap!!!:ugh2:

I have been followed a few times in my Z, but was followed much more in my louder Evo IX. I see them in my rear view looking down running my plates on their computer. However, my plates are blocked and come back blank, so once they see that they pass me by looking for someone else to tail.....

Something for you all to think about. A good friend of mine is a cop. She tells me she or other officers won't pull over a high-end sports car unless they're doing something crazy. They know that if you have $100K to spend on a car, you're going to fight the ticket.

Perhaps they know you only spent $40K?

You'll spot 95% of them by shape and headlight design, but my wife once got pulled over by a Mustang GT. How the hell do you hide from that?:eek: