What Would You Do If Pulled Over?

Been pulled over 3 times in my life. Engine off, hands on wheel. Announce if I need to reach for something. My car has a little compartment near the drivers side where I keep registration, but my license is in my wallet. 1st time was a speeding ticket. 3rd time was running a stop sign. 2nd time was during the holidays and we had a lot of snow on the ground. I had stopped at a store out of my normal way and was going home on roads I wasn't 100 % familiar with. The snow was piled high on the corners so even though I had the right of way, I had no idea if another car was going to come out as I couldn't see the side roads. I was going slow, withing the speed limit because the road was a little icy for my taste. Because of that and the fact that I tapped the breaks as I went through a green light he pulled me over to see if I might have been being overly careful because I was drinking. I was not. No breathalyzer. He talked to me a moment, very polite and sent me on my way. I thanked him and went along my merry way.

Does that time I got stopped by park cops count?

I'm pretty sure they weren't real cops.

I don't want to think about it.....I'm about to go on an errand...

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Vince524 said:

Have you ever failed and been offered a breath mint?

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I'm tempted to say "No but your mum has." It's the 12-year-old in my head...

kuwisdelu said:

Does that time I got stopped by park cops count?

I'm pretty sure they weren't real cops.

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Did they have guns?

Vince524 said:

Did they have guns?

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Too dark to tell.

They had flashlights.

Where are teenagers these days supposed to park if not a public park at night?

Noooo, these days you get mistaken for drug dealers instead of horny high schoolers.

Try a golf course. They're not all that well-lit.

Karen Junker said:

Try a golf course. They're not all that well-lit.

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Neither was the park.

Not that it matters anymore.

Oh, right. I forgot you are no longer a teenager

Karen Junker said:

Oh, right. I forgot you are no longer a teenager

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Not for half a decade.

When I've been stopped, I pull over, switch off the engine and wind down the window. I don't recall ever announcing that I'm about to do something, but loaded firearms in the car is not a normal thing here. (Uniformed police carry handguns.)

Since moving to a rural area, I haven't been stopped by cops. They even wave me on past RBTs. I think they're mostly looking for blokes in utes and not middle-aged white women in small cars.

Before that, I've been through numerous RBTs in Melbourne and had been pulled over by cops twice -- one for a non-working brake light and one for speeding. The taillight, I suspect, was a chance to check whether the car was stolen. It was late at night on the outskirts of town and the car was of a sort easy to nick and often used for joyriding. The cop who did all the talking in that case seemed a bit pissed off that it wasn't stolen. I wasn't too happy with him, but his mate seemed sensible. I got a warning for the brake light and went on my way.

The cop who pulled me over for speeding was utterly charming.

The RBT cops obviously get a bit bored. The routine is fairly basic "Have you had any alcoholic drinks today?" --> breath test --> show result --> on your way. Years and years ago, one breath-tested me when I on the way home from work at the museum. I hadn't had anything to drink, but the cop was shaking his head at the meter. At this point, I was wondering how I might have triggered it. I was working in a natural history museum with specimens preserved in ethanol, but it's not as if I'd been swigging from the jars. Then, after a dramatic pause, the cop showed me the meter, which said 00.00. I called him a rotten something or other and we both laughed. I think he was probably smart enough to choose who he wound up.

Helix said:

RBT

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Google gave me nothing.

Da rules:

1. Roll down your driver's side window, get out your driver's license, vehicle registration and insurance card (preferably current), place your hands on the steering wheel, plainly visible, and wait for the officer to approach.

2. When the officer asks for the documents, which is the first thing he or she should do, you hand them to over without doing anything odd or unusual.

3. If you have a firearm in your car, you tell the officer that, and where it is. At no point do you volunteer to get it for him.

4. Anything else the officer tells you to do, you do, calmly and without doing anything weird.

It's a form of theater, and you need to understand your role.

So does the officer. 99+% of the time, that happens. It's that leetle fraction of instance when it doesn't that causes the uproar.

caw

kuwisdelu said:

Google gave me nothing.

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Oh, bless. Random Breath Test. Looking for drunk drivers.

mccardey said:

Oh, bless. Random Breath Test. Looking for drunk drivers.

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Ah. We just call them checkpoints.

Sigh.

We don't have them here, because even though we are fairly liberal, we still have a lot of libertarians.

Karen Junker said:

We don't have them here, because even though we are fairly liberal, we still have a lot of libertarians.

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Libertarians can be useful for some things.

Just don't do what one of my college friends did. He got so nervous when the cops pulled him over he urped down his front.

Roxxsmom said:

Just don't do what one of my college friends did. He got so nervous when the cops pulled him over he urped down his front.

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My nervousness tends to manifest more in uncontrollable shaking, blacking out, heavy drinking, and sometimes aimless punching.

Usually in that order.

I think I'm good.

kuwisdelu said:

Google gave me nothing.

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Sorry, Kuwi. I think I'd put it in then edited it out.

Random breath test (for alcohol, not halitosis as Vince suggested upthread!). Police patrol vehicles carry portable breath testing machines for testing motorists pulled over for various reasons, but in this case I meant the booze buses.

In this case, a booze bus (usually is set up by the roadside and vehicles are pulled over so the drivers can be tested. If a driver tests positive for alcohol, they are taken aside and given a second test with a different machine in the bus. I think a driver can request a blood alcohol test to check the results, but that's administered at a hospital.

(Would have replied sooner, but I went out to buy chocolate.)

Helix said:

booze buses

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If you hadn't explained it, I would have said that sounds awesome.

kuwisdelu said:

If you hadn't explained it, I would have said that sounds awesome.

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It does. I think the cops have adopted the term too.

My school had drunk buses but they were definitely more fun than that...

Helix said:

It does. I think the cops have adopted the term too.

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More importantly, did you bring me any chocolate, and does the chocolate have any booze inside?

I discovered that, if you are short and don't like the seatbelt across you neck every time you turn your head, it is still not okay to keep the top part of your seatbelt under your arm.

If I ever get beheaded because of this, I will sue and it won't be pretty.