Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
So, last week I was driving to pick up my son from summer camp and was pulled over for speeding. Yes, I hate to admit it, but truth be told it has happened three times in the past. In fact, every ten years of my driving record: 1980, 1990, 2000. This year the state trooper who pulled me over just didn't realize he was six months ahead of schedule.
I saw it coming and shouldn't have been speeding. The road was a local one that twists and turns and has some small hills in it. The speed limit fluctuates from 30 MPH to 45 MPH and back several times in about a three mile stretch. I was doing about 45 or 46 when the tropper pulled me over. Low and behold I had pulled into the area that the speed limit was 30 MPH and through inattention hadn't slowed down. As I said: I saw it coming. I crested a small hill, saw the trooper and looked for a section of road immediately past his position where it would be safe for
HIM for me to pull over.
He didn't even turn on his emergency lights to signal me to stop until I was already on the shoulder and he knew that I knew. It was a confession of sorts from me.
Yes, Trooper. I know I was speeding. No need for a charade. I've pulled over. Additionally I put on my emergency flashers, put down both my driver's and passenger's side windows and had my license and registration ready. As things turn out, I wasn't carrying a gun with me to pick up my son so I didn't have my retired ID either. I don't know what impact my Fraternal Order of Police license plates may have had on his perception of the stop, but at the very minimum he knew I wasn't going to give him a hard time. I had voluntarily stopped before he even indicated he wanted me to.
He asked me did I know why he stopped me.
Yes, sir. For speeding. He was polite. I was polite. Hell, I was smiling with chagrine. I couldn't believe I was dumb enough to speed simply because I hadn't been paying attention. He asked about my previous driving record and I enlightened him about the fact that he was six months ahead of schedule in giving me my next speeding citation. But I joked that this was fine since it would get it over with and I could relax about it for the coming decade. He asked about my tags. I told him about being retired and not being armed at the moment. He was glad to hear that, since I didn't have my ID and LEOSA card with me, I wasn't armed (that would have been illegal). He told me to sit tight; that he'd be right back.
Was he going to write me a ticket? If he did, I couldn't hardly complain. I had been speeding. Would he be kind enough to write me a warning? Hopefully, and if he did I'd be sure to express my appreciation. Would I pay better attention on that stretch of road from then on? You bet your backside I would.
He re-approached and handed me my documentation along with a warning for the speed. I glanced at it and noted that I had been doing the 46 MPH that I thought. I may not have paid attention to the actual speed limit but I HAD known how fast I was going. As I put away my license he saw my wallet - which happens to be a nylon tri-fold with the Army's ACU digital camo pattern. He asked about my military service. We discovered we are both Army vets. I asked about his glasses - as they looked like sport frames with corrective lenses, but somehow ballistic as well. He explained that he had received them during his most recent tour overseas. We talked about MOSs and jobs we'd done.
During part of the conversation I wanted to make sure that he'd get a "stat" for the warning he'd written me. I think he initially thought I was upset I'd gotten it. He said something about having to justify his time spent on the road. I quickly explained that I wasn't upset at all; that I wanted to be sure that by his doing me a favor in giving me the warning he hadn't hurt his own performance record with his agency. He assured me that he was good to go. As we parted I told him to stay safe. He told me to have a safe day.
My wife and my son both got a good laugh out of this. I'll save the warning he wrote me as a reminder to pay more attention.
The whole purpose of this blog is to describe the situation and then pose one question:
If everyone you ever pulled over was as knowledgeable about your safety concerns as I was and acted as I did, wouldn't it make your patrol time less stressful? The obvious answer is yes.
That leads me to this question: then why don't we invest any time teaching the public we serve in how to interact with us on traffic stops? We don't have to tell them all of the
tricks of the trade where officer safety or officer survival are concerned, but if they knew not to do the things that would make us nervous, and how far plain courtesy can go, don't you think it would be a good thing?
What do you think?
