So I got pulled over by the Police...

[Stylo]

So I went down the pub last night through to this morning with some of my good buds.

Now, thing is, I drove there and so I agreed to be the designated driver (i.e. no getting pissed for me).

As I was leaving the pub I was taking my mates back home to my village and realised I was being followed... by a cop car. So I thought nothing of it, basically I was not driving under the influence and so they had no reason to pull me up. Anyway, I'd just reached my village when I see the lights start to flash. All of my mates started to shit themselves naturally so I thought, well, nobody else on the road, it must be me they want and I had better pull over.

I got out of the car and said "Is everything alright?" to the Police Officers. "Yeah if you'd just get into the back of the car, that'll be fine" was the answer, so at this point I was thinking, right something's obviously got them suspicious of me but I'm not an idiot so I thought it best not to ask or argue and just comply with them, after all, they were the law. So I get into the back of this car and the first question is "Been down the pub then have you?" and that's when I caught on.

If they'd pulled me over for driving badly they would have likely said "Have you had anything to drink tonight?" or "Do you know how fast you were going?" or something similar, but no, it was straight to "Been down the pub then have you?" so basically I thought, right, these guys have seen me leave the pub and thought they'd trail me all the way here and try and do me for DUI when really they had nothing to go on but that, because I was driving as I usually drive which is nothing out of the ordinary, I don't speed or cut people up or make any dangerous moves.

So anyway, I was pretty relaxed in the back knowing I'd done nothing wrong so I answered everything honestly and directly. Yes, I've been down the pub, no, I've not been drinking. Obviously your word is not enough though so then they got the Breath Test kit out. They were pretty decent and calm with me and told me basically if I failed this test I'd be up for arrest, of course I knew that and that I wasn't going to fail. Anyway, the inevitable happened, just like on those cop shows you see, I had to take a deep breath and blow into this tube attached to an electronic device until the Officer said stop.

I did so and obviously I passed. Basically after that it was an "Okay be careful and you can go now" not that I felt I had to be careful as I'd done nothing wrong but I wasn't about to start making any comments like that in the back of a Police car.

So what I'd like to know from you guys is this: Bearing in mind, in my local area people are being stabbed, shot and assaulted left right and centre, should they really have wasted their time following a car from a pub which showed no signs of DUI driving (Seriously, I was stone cold sober and well... I try to be a good driver and like to think that I am) when they could have been doing better things? Trust me, there is always something better the Police COULD be doing around my neck of the woods, it's a shit hole full of criminals, drug dealers and general anti-social behaviour.

I'm not saying I'm right here but if you can see where I'm coming from - If I had left the pub swerving all over the road and speeding then they would have had cause but as far as I can tell, the only reason they pulled me over is because they saw me leaving an establishment that sells alcohol. Is it really that hard to believe that people would have a designated driver like myself and my friends do? For all they know, I could have just popped in to say "Right guys, I'm here, ready to give you a lift back now" and could've just been there for transport.

Also, I get that people may call bullshit on this story so to hopefully give a little bit of proof, the officers let me keep the tube that I blew into from the Breath Test so here is me with it:

Spoiler

Also, just as a note, don't take this as a "LOL LOOK GUYS I GOT PULLED OVER BY THE COPS F*CK DA POLICE" thread. I'm genuinely interested in what people think.

 

[Ennui]

Haha. Yes, it'd be great if cops were always doing REAL policework like catching criminals and murderers and violent ragamuffins, I agree.

However, IMO keeping drunk drivers off the road is an extremely legitimate use of police resources. As far as I'm concerned people who make a habit of driving drunk deserve to be arrested and sentenced to be used as crash test dummies for the rest of their short lives.

Sounds like they just were camping out waiting for a big group of (presumably) drunk young people to leave the bar in a vehicle - they do that here too. Probably 3 out of 5 times they get a DUI out of it too... so while it was certainly inconvenient for you, I don't really have much of an issue with it.

 

[StarBob]

Cops have to have probable cause to pull you over in the US. Like a brake light or running a stop sign or anything they can come up with. Also here they give you a field sobriety test before they give you a breathalyzer for some reason. At the bar I used to go to they would hang out in the parking lots around the place and pull people over the moment they got on to the street. Probably a good move considering how often drunk people run straight out the bar and into their cars.

 

[Raziaar]

Your first glaring mistake was getting out of the car after being pulled over. How do you not know that when you're pulled over by a police officer you're supposed to put your hands on the steering wheel and wait until they come to the driver side door and instruct you further?

Like cops or not, it's as much for your safety as it is for theirs. Cops don't like it when you get out of a vehicle when you're pulled over unless they ask you to... and they don't like your hands where they can't see them because they never know if someone is going to reach for a weapon.


Anyway... I don't know their reasons to pull you over, but let me tell you this. Drunk drivers kill way more people than all the murderers out there, and I believe it's completely legitimate that officers are out there trying to see who is under the influence. I'm glad to hear that they're actually taking their duties seriously in that regard, and I do wish there were more of them to simply do that role. I see far too many drunk drivers out there swerving around and being a danger to everyone around them, and there aren't any cops in sight.

As long as it doesn't get to the point that it's a complete nuisance that cops are pulling people over left and right to check for DUI, I have no issue with people being pulled over to be tested if the cops have suspicion.

Seriously though I have to ask, is it really that big of a deal that you get pulled over by a police officer and have to go through that? At least you have a story to tell. That's how I view the one time our family vehicle got pulled over by about 100 cops all aiming guns at the vehicle. I could be annoyed and pissed off like some of my other family members who were in the vehicle, but I just look at it like this, "everybody ended up fine, the cops were doing their jobs, and now I have an insanely awesome story to tell."

 

[Wanted Bob]

Yeah, I mean it definitely sucks being pulled over even when you did nothing wrong, but I agree that drunk drivers are incredibly dangerous and it's good to see the police taking precautions to prevent more accidents from occurring.

As bad as some of the other crimes are, unfortunately its very hard to catch someone in the middle of a stabbing or something like that.

 

[Sulkdodds]

Quotas.

 

[Gargantou]

Quotas.

Forever this, same shit in Sweden.

 

[Stylo]

Your first glaring mistake was getting out of the car after being pulled over. How do you not know that when you're pulled over by a police officer you're supposed to put your hands on the steering wheel and wait until they come to the driver side door and instruct you further?

Well, I've never been pulled over by the police before. I don't really make a regular habit of it. Had no idea what conduct I was supposed to follow but the cops didn't seem to mind, they were pretty decent tbh and not once did I feel uncomfortable with them (apart from being sat in the back of their car but that was environment and situation not them). I suppose in the U.S. I might have gotten a taser pointed at me or something for doing that?

I see far too many drunk drivers out there swerving around and being a danger to everyone around them, and there aren't any cops in sight.

You're right, I too see a lot of people driving like dicks on the road and I just sit there thinking "What a knob" but my point was that I clearly wasn't being a danger to anyone else. They did have enough time to analyse my driving before pulling me over and I did nothing dangerous within that scope. I kinda thought they would've realised I was sober, having dealt with drunk drivers before, being traine Officers and knowing the signs etc.

Seriously though I have to ask, is it really that big of a deal that you get pulled over by a police officer and have to go through that?

Nah, not really. I'm not making a massive deal out of it, I was just interested to see other takes on it. It's not gonna haunt me or anything.

I suppose I'm more inclined to be unimpressed with the police in my area though, I'm sort of a little bit biased. Too much shit goes on around here, day in day out, and the police are busy giving people fines for dropping litter.

3 of my friends have been assaulted, one glassed in the face and two others (my bud and his girlfriend) descended on by a group of around 15 young chavs and beaten to a pulp (both cases for no reason and with zero provocation) and on neither account has the assailant(s) been charged, even though the glassing incident went to court and the girl responsible was basically "issued a warning". My friend once dropped a fag end in the same town as the glassing and got a £70 on the spot fine for it. I mean, priorities, y'know?

It's not like I'm unhappy they're doing a job it's just that around here there are families running drug rings who the police are fully aware of but they never get busted.

Taking that into account you can probably see why I wasn't all that pleased about being pulled over for just leaving a pub and nothing else. But like I said, I'm not against the Police and this is totally not a f*ck them thread.

I do get that them pulling over drink driving suspects is a good thing overall and hopefully reduces the amount of actual offenders on the road but I feel like they wasted their own time a bit with trailing me from one village to another. I failed to mention that another car did pull up while I was in the back to check what was going on. That's 2 cars and 4 Officers, 2 of whom were just stood around really (I dunno maybe in case they needed to dive on me in case I turned into The Hulk and broke out of the car), attending to me when they could have been patrolling and caught an actual offender.

It's not all about it being a slight annoyance in my night, it's about them wasting their time too. But yeah, I mean, I see people's points.

Quotas.

Ha, this did occur to me.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Cops have to have probable cause to pull you over in the US. Like a brake light or running a stop sign or anything they can come up with. Also here they give you a field sobriety test before they give you a breathalyzer for some reason. At the bar I used to go to they would hang out in the parking lots around the place and pull people over the moment they got on to the street. Probably a good move considering how often drunk people run straight out the bar and into their cars.

They don't have to have probable cause to pull you over- they have to have probable cause to search you.

The field test is to avoid legal complications; it's MANDATORY they give you at least a few tests to round out the chances of simply being unable to do some, so you can't bullshit anything.

also haha quotas, quotas are illegal here

 

[Zephos]

We just have R.B.Ts (random breath tests) placed everywhere over the city (usually in pub hotspots) that catch most drink drivers unless you go out country further.

 

[Destructo-Bot]

 

[Zephos]

Actually haha, if you want a story about cops being useless pieces of shit. My friends and I were in the club district of Brisbane walking to the cab ranks at around 3am, and one of my friends was throwing a water bottle up and catching it (you know, like a metre or two high). Anyway, he accidentally threw it a bit too far and it ended up making an arc and crashing down a fair few metres away from a cop. The cop looked up, charged my friend into the wall, cuffed him and sent him to the station for questioning for a good hour. Afterwards he came out without any fines. Meanwhile, a nearby convenience store got robbed and the perpetrators weren't caught.

 

[Raziaar]

Well, I've never been pulled over by the police before. I don't really make a regular habit of it. Had no idea what conduct I was supposed to follow but the cops didn't seem to mind, they were pretty decent tbh and not once did I feel uncomfortable with them (apart from being sat in the back of their car but that was environment and situation not them). I suppose in the U.S. I might have gotten a taser pointed at me or something for doing that?

Well the only time I've been pulled over was when I was doing my paper route and a cop was tailing me for a while. He came up and asked me if I was selling fruit. He got reports of someone selling fruit out of a red van. Either he was trying to proposition me for gay sex or he was mistaken, because I clearly had a ****ing shit ton of newspapers in the back of the van. He promptly let me go. LOL

The not getting out of the car and hands on the steering wheel is something I've been taught and I've observed. It's just common sense really. Though it does put you into a bind when the cop who pulls you over is actually a hitman in disguise and you get your face blown off while your hands are on the steering wheel. So.... develop that precognition!

 

[Stylo]

The not getting out of the car and hands on the steering wheel is something I've been taught and I've observed. It's just common sense really. Though it does put you into a bind when the cop who pulls you over is actually a hitman in disguise and you get your face blown off while your hands are on the steering wheel. So.... develop that precognition!

See, I just had no fricking idea about this. It's probably in the highway code somewhere but I'll be f*cked if I remember all of that to the letter.

I'll remember it for the future but hopefully I won't have to use it.

 

[morgs]

Better that they're trying to actually catch drunk drivers than sitting in their car eating takeaways.

 

[Ennui]

See, I just had no fricking idea about this. It's probably in the highway code somewhere but I'll be f*cked if I remember all of that to the letter.

I'll remember it for the future but hopefully I won't have to use it.

Eh this is probably just an artifact of our different cultures. In the US you can get shot by police if you scare them, happens relatively often. Therefore cops pretty much expect to be obeyed and if you make sudden moves or don't heed their commands you can get hurt.

 

[Mogi67]

**** the PO

 

[Dan]

Hire a lawyer and sue them for millions of dollars and you will be set for life.... oh wait, you're in the UK, just go back to the pub and drink away your miserable life.

 

[CptStern]

I expected at the very least a tazering or accidental shooting followed by high speed chase culminating with you escaping by jumping over the london bridge just as it's being raised

 

[Stylo]

Eh this is probably just an artifact of our different cultures. In the US you can get shot by police if you scare them, happens relatively often. Therefore cops pretty much expect to be obeyed and if you make sudden moves or don't heed their commands you can get hurt.

Yeah, people in the UK can be really rowdy with cops sometimes, shout and swear at them and stuff and they'll be asked to calm down and warned they'll be arrested before they actually are. Obviously if you carry on acting that way they'll shove you against a wall or the ground, cuff you and just stick you in the back of a car/van. That or mace you in the eyes depending on whether you're violently resisting or trying to run.

Hire a lawyer and sue them for millions of dollars and you will be set for life.... oh wait, you're in the UK, just go back to the pub and drink away your miserable life.

LOLd at this.

 

[Krynn72]

When I was on the way back home (from Louisiana to Connecticut) I got pulled over on like the busiest part of any highway I've ever seen, at a junction in New Jersey. They said they just pulled me over because I had dark tints on my windows (not really) and an out of state license plate. I'm pretty sure neither of those are legal reasons to pull someone over, but maybe they also saw the stuff piled up to the windows in my back seats and thought I stole it or something. Anyways, they were pretty cool, they just asked me what my deal was, saw my dad had pulled over in front of us to wait and that he had a CT license plate which helped prove my story, and then let me go. They even blocked traffic to let me get in and cross six lanes of bumper to bumper traffic.

That's the only time I've ever been pulled over.

 

[Unfocused]

The police doesn't need a reason to pull you over here, they can do routine checks. When I was talking to a Canadian friend about this, he was like "whaaaat?! they can do that?". Got pulled over like that once, driving 40kph in an empty 40kph zone with the police van on my bumper - oh, the tension. Only time I've ever been pulled over too.

We can also get fined for swearing; we beat you to it, Australia!

 

[Iron Kat]

My mum got pulled over once on her way back from Manchester after a gig. There was a fairly legitimate reason for that which was one of the head lights weren't working and they notified her of that. Although my mum says she thinks they pulled her over because she was wearing a baseball cap and was driving a fairly wrecked car (the result of it being stolen a few months prior) and looked a bit like a scally. It was in a pretty rough area of Manchester, though, i think.

 

[MJ12]

I was waiting for the OP to say that the police officer arrested him anyways or something dick like that. Don't see the problem. Good to know a police officer was on the lookout for drunk drivers and didn't act like a total asshole about it.

Also, don't get out of your car when the police pull you over... It makes me also wonder how many ignorant drivers reach for their glove compartment immediately to get their insurance when they are pulled over, before the officer even asks them to. Keep your hands on the wheel until the officer tells you otherwise, you don't want to get shot

 

[Stylo]

Also, don't get out of your car when the police pull you over... It makes me also wonder how many ignorant drivers reach for their glove compartment immediately to get their insurance when they are pulled over, before the officer even asks them to. Keep your hands on the wheel until the officer tells you otherwise, you don't want to get shot

Well I'm in the UK so I definitely won't get shot for that. Officers here only carry guns in situations where they think it will be appropriate, not just on regular patrol.

Like Ennui said, I think it's a less serious thing to do here than in the US. Officers here won't react straight away with the drawing of a weapon. The Officers didn't even bring that up to me, I supposed if they'd cared they would have said "You should really have stayed in your car until I came to the door" or something.

 

[dfc05]

Once my sister was driving down the highway. There were a couple of cops with a car already pulled over, and she said one of them pointed at us while passing by. So she pulled over. And we waited. And waited. They gave no indication of either wanting to have pulled us over or it being a misunderstanding. Eventually she just drove away. It was very strange.

As for the hands on steering wheel thing, I did hear about not reaching for your glove compartment once, because we used to have these Say No to Drugs sessions in middle school where a police officer would come talk to us about stuff. I've never learned it anywhere else though, so I can see how someone might not know that.

 

[Dekstar]

It was in a pretty rough area of Manchester, though, i think.

Rough area? Oh, you mean that 'entirety of Manchester' bit?

 

[Stylo]

Rough area? Oh, you mean that 'entirety of Manchester' bit?

Entirety of Manchester? Oh, you mean that 'Most of England' bit?

 

[Danimal]

Wow, you kept the breathalyzer tube LOL

Everybody gets breath-tested - My friends and I actually have cops that pretend we're breaking the law until we actually tell them why we're not.

"You're not supposed to have more than one non-blood-related passenger in your car after 11pm."
"Actually, that only applies to the license class below mine."
"...You can go."

 

[JUL3]

F*CK THE PO-LICE.

Also, what Danimal said. I once witnessed the cops targeting a young driver, just because he was young (and presumably drunk out of his mind, right?)
"Yep let 'em through, let 'em through, oh wait there's a P plate up there, pull 'em over."

Mind you, police cop the most shit from young people so it's hardly surprising they use their power to try and catch the little punks in the act.

In conclusion, I like turtles.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

The thing about staying in the driver seat is true for the UK as well but not the 'keep your hands on the steering wheel'. That is probably a difference which comes about because of the frequency of those carrying firearms across the pond.

Even though they got the wrong end of the stick with you Stylo, if you consider what you said about the high crime in that area, some of which involving kids / adolescents (or shall we just say chavs?) it is understandable why they pulled your car. They inconvenienced you partially but they didn't infringe you and they had a possibility of catching some yob chav scumbag shite on a bang-to-rights DUI charge without the need for CCTV / witnesses from a GBH charge. Definitely pays off sometimes.

I've never been pulled but my girlfriend has by the essex traffic police (I think they have been named the rats). She was doing 35mph in a 30mph limit, on a road which really should be a 40. Everyone does 40 down there, perhaps more...but when she got pulled the officer said 'we've had complaints about the speed from the local residents'. So they were just ticking the boxes to show they had responded. My girlfriend was driving her B reg, matt white VW polo with her mother. Yes a B reg from 1964 with two women in it. Why is this strange? Well as the officer is writing up a ticket there are BMWs, Audis, Alfas & VW Golfs with tinted windows flying past at 40 - 60mph. She gestured towards them and he just said "We can't catch them all". Obviously...but prioritise eh? She's got 3 points now, that's a record in my opinion!

 

[Stylo]

shall we just say chavs?

Pretty much, yeah. Place is full of them!

a B reg from 1964 with two women in it. Why is this strange? Well as the officer is writing up a ticket there are BMWs, Audis, Alfas & VW Golfs with tinted windows flying past at 40 - 60mph.

Probably because they looked like they'd be a lot less hassle to deal with! It does annoy me sometimes that they tend to come across as getting as many charges as possible with the absolute bare minimum effort. Just like waiting around for people outisde pubs so they can try and get a DUI charge, I guess.

Just to add to my story, my friend Jeff who was in the car with me (and got out for a smoke when I was pulled over) informed me last night that he asked one of the 2 officers from the second car why they pulled up too and the response was "We're a bit bored tonight" pretty much confirming there was no need for another 2 officers and a car off the street to attend to me. It's not like the first 2 had to call for back up, I was polite as hell to them and complied with everything.

 

[Dynasty]

I'd say police need to focus their attention in London and anywhere north of, say, Cheltenham. Anywhere north of there and you're branded a chav straight away, deserve to just be arrested on the spot for walking. Or just....being.

I'll stay nice and snobish down in Devon.

 

[Stylo]

I'd love to argue that point but being born a Northerner and now living in and around the East Midlands, I am constantly around places that are like holding pens for the Jeremy Kyle Show.

I also used to travel down South to Cornwall yearly with my family when I was younger and it's just so much nicer.

I'm going into my second year of Lincoln Uni this year so I'll be living there during term time but I've lived most of my life in a village called Tibshelf near a place called Mansfield. If you don't know of Mansfield Town, look it up, it is a complete and utter dive.

 

[RidleyRockets]

I went on a night out in Mansfield once, the football was on that night and it was a ****ing war zone. Never again.

I'm grown man always going around odd areas at odd times on a skateboard. To the police this makes me look more attractive than a rapist, suicide bomber pedophile.

 

[Raziaar]

Must be nice living in England, where you can throw a rock and hit whatever "village" or "hamlet" somebody is talking about.

Living in the United States sucks sometimes because it's so goddamn huge.

 

[The Monkey]

They probably had some DUI-busting quota from the bosses that they had to fill to show they have been cracking down on drunk driving... Or I've been watching too much of The Wire.

 

[Dandan]

I used to get pulled over the time when I was younger mainly because I'd always have a packed car and everyone else was either drunk or stoned and sometimes I'd be one or the other or both which was stupid but 9 times out of ten I'd be DD and the best part was I never had gotten caught. Just shutup and keep it all quiet. Turn your radio down, and give them no reason to suspect anything of you.

 

[Uriel]

It happens, we all get pulled over at some point.
I'm white, clean-cut (most of the time), no tattoos, drive a very plain looking car, polite and I drive at a moderate speed. I was pulled over, wearing my Air Force "Blues", full decorations, driving the speed limit and on my way to an Air Force Banquet that I was being honored at. Got ticket for something I had already fixed with my car and the officer was white as well (just to state there was no discrimination concerning race).
Another time, highway patrol pulls me over in the middle of the night because I veered slightly and corrected it too quickly causing a jerking motion (because I was texting like a shithead), car was a mess and I was scraggly, looking like an axe murderer (reference the Post your Pic thread). Cop pulled me over, ran my plates, was super nice and let me go.
It's random at times. Unless it's outrageous, I wouldn't let it bother you. Most of us don't know the stress of law enforcement and all it entails.

And here's something slightly funny to add to my mundane post

Edit - what the **** is this new shit?

 

[Stylo]

So, yet another friend of mine has just been assaulted in the street in our local area. For having long hair.

I do love it here. -_-

I put my money on the Police doing nothing about it, too. Like literally nothing. No effort.

This is why I don't have a lot of faith in the law enforcement where I live. Stuff like this happens day in, day out, and nothing is ever done about it. People walk down the street looking over their shoulders. People in my village have even said to me they're afraid to walk to the local shops at times because they'll "probably get started on".

I hope people can understand why I made this thread in the first place. I know folks might think I was overreacting at being pulled over but I don't think people can blame me too harshly for not being happy about the way the Police operate where I live. F*ck this place, man.