When Police Pull Over A Veteran

[Rex G]

I was never a ticket-writin’ machine. I always reckoned that it was a plus, if the result of the traffic stop was a verbal warning, as part of an overall positive conversation. An indication that someone was a veteran would be one of several mitigating factors I would consider.

[LittleLebowski]

I don't get pulled over while driving very often, but when I have, I almost always have gotten a warning rather than a ticket. I've attributed that partially to having veteran's license plates on the car — thinking that many police officers are also veterans, and maybe they were giving me a break for that reason, but I'm also very polite and compliant, so maybe it's more because of that.

Anyway, for my next extremely fast car, I'm considering NOT getting veteran's plates, but I don't want to lose any benefits they may provide. There is a very small "Veteran" symbol on my driver's license. For officers and others who have first-hand knowledge, when looking at someone's driver's license, does whether or not they're a veteran come into play when deciding your course of action, and is it standard practice to look for a Veterans symbol on the license?

I sure as fuck didn't get a warning the last time I was busted for doing 8mph over because my young children's bus was early and my wife got detained at work. Got the ticket right in front of the bus and the cop kindly took over half an hour. That was about 6 years ago and it was my first ticket in over 10 years. Haven't gotten a ticket since then. I have Marine Corps plates, but it didn't matter.

[LittleLebowski]

I just expect my Raptor to afford me no leeway and take it easy accordingly.

[Welder]

I used to get warnings when I was younger and more innocent -looking 😇

[DDTSGM]

I sure as fuck didn't get a warning the last time I was busted for doing 8mph over because my young children's bus was early and my wife got detained at work. Got the ticket right in front of the bus and the cop kindly took over half an hour. That was about 6 years ago and it was my first ticket in over 10 years. Haven't gotten a ticket since then. I have Marine Corps plates, but it didn't matter.

Maybe the officer was Army or Navy?

[uechibear]

I just expect my Raptor to afford me no leeway and take it easy accordingly.

I see what you did there!

[BehindBlueI's]

I sure as fuck didn't get a warning the last time I was busted for doing 8mph over because my young children's bus was early and my wife got detained at work. Got the ticket right in front of the bus and the cop kindly took over half an hour. That was about 6 years ago and it was my first ticket in over 10 years. Haven't gotten a ticket since then. I have Marine Corps plates, but it didn't matter.

[Coyotesfan97]

I sure as fuck didn't get a warning the last time I was busted for doing 8mph over because my young children's bus was early and my wife got detained at work. Got the ticket right in front of the bus and the cop kindly took over half an hour. That was about 6 years ago and it was my first ticket in over 10 years. Haven't gotten a ticket since then. I have Marine Corps plates, but it didn't matter.

My department had a policy that we didn’t write speeding tickets for ten or under unless it was a special zone like a school. Arizona speed violation is speed not reasonable or prudent so you have to be able to show in court why it wasn’t. Generally I didn’t consider stopping violated unless they were 15+ over the limit. I know there are states, Oklahoma comes to mind, where if you 66 in a 65 they’ll write you. Is VA like that?

Yeah that’s just someone being a dick. 30 minutes to cut a speeding ticket is purposefully being slow. Hell I knew traffic motors who’d hand write speeding tickets in five minutes. They’d prewrite a book of tickets with all the date/times, violation, and their signature. They just had to write the driver and vehicle info in. Half the time they didn’t run checks on the driver. Then off to the next.

There were several times I arrested guys on warrants that had a new cite from a motor in their pocket. They never ran him or told him to take care of it.

15 minutes was probably my average from first contact to the driver signing the cite and that included all the checks. I never had the automated cite machine with a printer. That really cut down the time needed.

Sorry you ran into a jerk.

[RoyGBiv]

My department had a policy that we didn’t write speeding tickets for ten or under unless it was a special zone like a school.

At our local citizens academy class we were told the same... as well as that the local PD did not enforce stop signs in parking lots and a few other things. The best laugh of that class was the 70+ lady who said aloud "So, you're telling me that I've been driving too slow!"..

[DDTSGM]

My department had a policy that we didn’t write speeding tickets for ten or under unless it was a special zone like a school. Arizona speed violation is speed not reasonable or prudent so you have to be able to show in court why it wasn’t. Generally I didn’t consider stopping violated unless they were 15+ over the limit. I know there are states, Oklahoma comes to mind, where if you 66 in a 65 they’ll write you. Is VA like that?

Yeah that’s just someone being a dick. 30 minutes to cut a speeding ticket is purposefully being slow. Hell I knew traffic motors who’d hand write speeding tickets in five minutes. They’d prewrite a book of tickets with all the date/times, violation, and their signature. They just had to write the driver and vehicle info in. Half the time they didn’t run checks on the driver. Then off to the next.

There were several times I arrested guys on warrants that had a new cite from a motor in their pocket. They never ran him or told him to take care of it.

15 minutes was probably my average from first contact to the driver signing the cite and that included all the checks. I never had the automated cite machine with a printer. That really cut down the time needed.

Sorry you ran into a jerk.

George Thompson (Verbal Judo) told the story of a California motorcycle officer who pulled over a guy for speeding shortly after the guy had done an armed robbery. The motor officer had just attended VJ and tried the 8-step vehicle stop patter on the violator. Wrote the ticket and turned the violator loose.

Story is that the robber was later arrested in Oregon (I believe) after he had killed an officer on a traffic stop. The robber/murderer still had the cite from the other stop in his possession.

When questioned about the citation the bad guy told the officers that he had his pistol/revolver laying under his thigh but the way the officer approached the car gave him hope the officer hadn't heard about the robbery, this was confirmed when the officer told him right away why he had stopped him - illegal crossing of the median. Bad guy decided to wait and watched the officer write the citation in his rear view mirror. When the officer finished the cite and it didn't appear the officer knew of the warrant the bad guy took the ticket and drove off.

As Thompson told it the other officer had not told his murder the reason for the stop and was shot as a result.

Of course, Thompson was selling a program and spun stories like that to his best use. What I took from that was that moreso than the 8-step what saved the traffic officer was the usual non-tactical approach that many traffic officers adopt after a whole bunch of stops, and probably most importantly he didn't run a record check.