Pulled Over

[emc002]

Well, all the reading of these instances of similar situations here really paid off the other night!
I was leaving a gas station late at night, and before turning up another road, I noticed a SO behind me. I set the cruise control to the speed limit and kept on going.
Less than a mile up the road, just after leaving the city jurisdiction, the SO lit me up so I pulled over, rolled down both the passenger & driver window, turned off the car and turned on the interior dome light (No streetlights out in the country BTW) and placed both hands on top of the steering wheel.
SO walked up to my car, introduced himself, said there was something wrong with my license plate # and asked for my registration. I responded, "The registration's in my center console, may I retrieve it?" He said yes, then asked for my license to which I responded similarly.
He took my items and went back to his SUV. A few minutes later, he returned, apologized and said he mistyped an O on my plate as a D which came back as a Porsche (I drive an Infiniti). He then went on to say, "You are the most aware person I've ever come across, I really appreciate your cooperation. Are you law enforcement?"
Since I had my wallet out already I showed him my rice paper and said "Not carrying tonight, but I always act like I am to avoid any misunderstandings with law enforcement."
He laughed, thanked me again, wished me a goodnight, I told him to stay safe and went on my way.

*ETA I wasn't carrying because I was the designated driver for a few friends and as we all know, you can't carry in a bar.

Thanks CalCCW, best law enforcement stop for me ever!

[Keith92555]

Sounds like you did everything right. If I had to criticize anything I would say that being a DD for the night, you could have locked the weapon in the car safe and retrieved it upon exiting the bar. You showed a lot of respect and deference to the SO and he appreciated it. BTW, I'm not buying the D mistaken for an O bit, he was fishing...

Good job,

Keith

[mark]

good job on both ends,

[brightside]

Great job! I hope my first CCW pull over experience goes that smoothly.

[crash5150]

Good Job with making it relaxed for him. Question though, why were you not carrying?

[Dresden]

Originally Posted by crash5150

Good Job with making it relaxed for him. Question though, why were you not carrying?

Check the next to last line of his post:

*ETA I wasn't carrying because I was the designated driver for a few friends and as we all know, you can't carry in a bar.



Sounds like you did well. Good job.

[Truckoholic]

What the hell was the SO doing running your plate? I've had them just randomly run my plates in the past. I always have my scanner on, so I hear when they call it in to dispatch, and it irritates me because there was no reason! Seems like they should have to have a compelling reason just like they need one to pull you over. But whatever, glad it went good for you.

[rkmagicman]

Still could have locked it in a safe in car

RK

[IAmASensFan]

Originally Posted by brightside

Great job! I hope my first CCW pull over experience goes that smoothly.

I think the idea is to NOT get pulled over in the first place...but I understand what you are saying.

[jn-emt]

When things are slow, they will run plates to check for stolen cars.

Also, nice work on the traffic stop. I have yet to have a bad experience with any LEO since I figured out the drill you just described. It really seems to increase your chances of getting a break.

JN-EMT

Originally Posted by Truckoholic

What the hell was the SO doing running your plate? I've had them just randomly run my plates in the past. I always have my scanner on, so I hear when they call it in to dispatch, and it irritates me because there was no reason! Seems like they should have to have a compelling reason just like they need one to pull you over. But whatever, glad it went good for you.

[Andy Taylor]

They will randomly run plates when it is slow.
Back in '89 I was on a ride-along with my dad. He was a small town cop in WA. Very small town. Entire police force was 3 officers. IIRC the population was around 2,000 at that time. (Wiki is showing 2,530 as of 2000 cenus.) It was about 1 am and a brown Ford Pinto drove through town. We were parked in a spot where we could see the whole main street through town. He wrote down the plate, and made a couple of notes about the car and ran it through dispatch. (Dispatch was handled by the PD in the next town over, as his town could not afford their own.) It came back clean, and was registared in a neighboring town. When I asked him why, he replied, "It's 1am, and I don't recognize the car."