Serious Cop Pwnage

[Racket_Man]

years ago in the 80's I was driving I-70 from St. Louis MO to Columbia MO to visit a college friend. this was during the Regan Preidency and he had repealed the 55 MPH national speed limit and put it back up to 65 MPH in "rual areas" (population less than 50,000 per sq mile)

I was in the right lane in the middle of a small pack of vehicles. the car in front of me was doing like 55MPH so I get into the left lane and speed up to about 70 MPH and pass the guy. staying in the left land well I guess I slowed down too much or I was not going fast enough for the car behind me. they start to ride my bumper and beep the horn maddly at me. I finally get to a point where I can get over to the right land and the car behind me roars past me I see it is 2 youngish girls. I then look over and see another car passing me at a high rate of speed. as he passes I see, much to my shock he is wearing a smokey the bear hat--- ahhhhhh damn a unmarked state trooper. I expect him to point at me to pull over or or pop on his light, but not to be. did not even look at me a 2d time. he continues to follow the 2 girls up the road about a 1/4 of a mile and then pops his lights on. I guess since I go into the right land and slowed far enough he wanted the "real " speeders.

[Jack7957]

Not wanting to cause a Fratchign thing, but is that last thing true? I can't remember where I read but somewhere cops ARE doing the 'pose as hooker' thing to catch johns in the act.

They do it here, every once in a while the newspaper will have an article with names/addresses of the Johns they picked up.

Funny thing is, these people are always in so much trouble with the law, wouldn't they recognize a cop OUT of uniform? Oh wait..drugs...impaired....gotcha.

Around here, there's an undercover unit just for doing drug sales/purchases. I've been in their office when I worked for the county doing computer repair, they do not look like your average cop. When it comes time to bust people, they send in the regular cops.

[Pezzle]

I finally get to a point where I can get over to the right land and the car behind me roars past me I see it is 2 youngish girls. I then look over and see another car passing me at a high rate of speed. as he passes I see, much to my shock he is wearing a smokey the bear hat--- ahhhhhh damn a unmarked state trooper.

Also, he probably popped them a violation for tailgating

[Geek King]

I guess since I go into the right land and slowed far enough he wanted the "real " speeders.

From what I can tell, most (but not all!) of the time, the Highway Patrol will go after the fastest speeder/most violations in a situation where there are multiple drivers with potential infractions. Plus, you could have claimed you were speeding through intimidation (they were on your bumper, you were trying to get out of their way), which is a slap on the wrist for most places. Most patrols would rather get the driver causing the problem if they have the option.

[Pezzle]

From what I can tell, most (but not all!) of the time, the Highway Patrol will go after the fastest speeder/most violations in a situation where there are multiple drivers with potential infractions. Plus, you could have claimed you were speeding through intimidation (they were on your bumper, you were trying to get out of their way), which is a slap on the wrist for most places. Most patrols would rather get the driver causing the problem if they have the option.

Also the possibility the cop allowed for margin of error in speed, at least here they will let you get away with doing 5-10 over passing someone even on a 2 lane highway. Provided you don't KEEP roaring over the speed limit in the other lane. If you keep doing that, esp if you tailgated the poor person trying to pass in limitations of the law as much as possible and intimidated them, they will definitely target them.