I have never liked speed limits on the open road. They require you to constantly check your speedometer to make sure you’re obeying the law. You could be drive perfectly safely well above the limit and yet be forced to pay a penalty for unsafe driving.
And this constant checking of your dashboard prevents you from keeping your eyes on the road (where they should be).
Yesterday I was pulled over in western Illinois, just a few miles east of the Mississippi after crossing over from Iowa. The cop, very polite, told me I had been driving a few miles over the speed limit; I got a warning, not a ticket, but the whole experience was, well, passing strange. And I think his decision to pull me over had more to do with my California license plate than the velocity of my car.
You see, even when I first spotted the car, people were passing me. Indeed, the oddest thing about the whole experience is that I noted the cop car when he first passed me (which I then saw as a relief). As if we were bound up together.
I recall delaying a cell phone call; the cop car prompted me to wonder what was Illinois’ laws on driving while on the phone Could I dial a cell phone to make a call where I would speak through the blue tooth.
Not long after considering these questions, I saw the police car which had passed me pull over. Now, I was ahead of him. I gradually decelerated, staying in the right lane, maintaining a speed of less than 65. He wasn’t going to pass me again as I hoped. I sensed I was in his sights.
Now, the cop was behind me. I kept checking the Speedometer. Needle just above 60. His flashers went on. No siren. I pulled over, not panicked, but befuddled. I expressed as much when he came to my window. He said I had been going “a few miles over” the speed limit. He asked me if I were traveling with anyone, mentioning something about a “white car” that he had seen pass by.
(Given my nature, in retrospect, I was surprised how calm I was.)
I told him I was traveling alone, also that I had been checking constantly and making sure the needle was below 70.
He said, well, the speed limit in Illinois is 65. I pointed out that I hadn’t seen any signs advertising that and recalled the last sign I had seen was in Iowa (where the speed limit) is 70. (Maybe there were no signs because we had to detour on the 280, the 80 bridge being closed.) Then, oddly, he asked me if I had any contraband in the car, firearms, alcoholic beverages or “dead bodies.” Yes, he really did say that last expression.
No, I replied, would you like to check the trunk? He would. Normally, I wouldn’t volunteer that, but I also didn’t want to be called into police headquarters. (I had to get out of the car to open it as the button which pops it from the interior doesn’t work.) He prodded around a bit, but let me go.
Through it all, the state trooper was a nice guy, never rude, always patient. And as I noted above, he gave me a warning, not a ticket. Still, the whole experience left me with a strange feeling and further delayed my arrival in Chicago. I was constantly checking my speed.
My conclusion: there must have been a report of a suspicious white car with out-of-state plates, or perhaps more specifically, California plates. He saw my plates and wondered if maybe there was some connection. He used the fact that I was traveling a few miles above the speed limit to pull me over–even if my car did not match the description of the one they were looking for, save in out-of-state plate.
The speed limit helped empower an official of the state.
Two more points to note: Not until I reached the 57 mile-marker on I-80 East did I see a speed limit sign. Nearly every license plate I saw in Illinois was in-state or from a neighboring state (Iowa or Wisconsin). Indeed, once in the City of Chicago, I saw only Illinois plates.
That latter fact helped me come to my conclusion.
Has anybody else had a similar experience? Been pulled over for driving only a few miles above the speed limit? Or had a state trooper ask you if you were traveling with another car?
I was pulled over VERY briefly a few weeks ago because either I or my car resembled someone they were looking for. In fact it was so brief that the police officer never actually stopped. I pulled over, he slowed down almost to stop behind me, then started driving past and announced over his loud speaker, “sorry, wrong car” or something to that effect, and sped off.
So yes, the do pull people over if they think you might be someone they’re looking for.
The important thing, Dan, is that you didn’t break any of Chris Rock’s Helpful Hints for Dealing with the Poh-leece.
Your conclusion matches mine. I was going to mention that until I found that you had written that.
I was pulled over once in Houston. I drove past the Compaq campus where there had been a hit and run. My truck matched the description and I had some damage on my hood. The damage being from a stupid teen stunt which landed me in a ditch up against a rather large tree. Most of the damage had been pulled out, but the hood was still pretty beat up.
Anyways, they had found the vehicle in question just as they were walking toward me. The officer explained and let me go.
What? You mean you mean a cop pulled you over and asked for your papers? You mean he questioned you to ascertain whether you could prove your identity and your legal authority to operate a motor vehicle? What is this? Nazi Germany?
Mocking left-wing histrionics at Arizona’s Immigration Enforcement Law aside, even though it’s been a while since I’ve driven on I-80 in Illinois, I do recall observing that the semis cut their speed dramatically after crossing from Iowa, and there is an absence of speed limit signs as you head East.
My take on this is that they are trying to keep people fleeing California from settling in fly-over country. All the cop needed to know was that you were headed to Chicago with your fancy liberal, socialist ideas.
I’m sure glad I didn’t meet up with Illinois state troopers the one time I was going from Mississippi back to Northwestern. I was driving at least 20 above the speed limit pretty much the whole way.
Speeding is sort of an unusual thing, legally speaking. It may be the only violation of law almost everyone is guilty of on a regular basis. No matter how much people believe in obeying the law, people usually make an exception for speeding. And as a Christian, I admit that I, along with pretty much every other Christian I know, make an exception for speeding as far as the whole Christians should obey the law philosophy. I don’t drive as fast as I used to, but that has more to do with mellowing with age rather than any principled moral decision. Plus, speed limits have generally gone up since when I first started driving.
All that being said, the selectivity of who gets tickets, who get warnings, and who doesn’t get pulled over at all is often pretty cynical.
Driving through Ill. is somewhat weird cause Iowa and Indy both have 70 mph speed limits while it has 65, like Ohio. You could drive right through the state and not notice the difference, and its not like there is a clear sign always about which state you are in and what speed limits you are suppose to follow.
Well at least it was only a warning, thats a plus.
Get Cruise Control
You’re upset about a state determined speed limit (not federal) and an officer of that state using his authority to use a specious determination to stop and question you? Not very conservative of you. Of course the libertarian alternative might be no highway in the first place. Kind of funny when we give the police those sort of unchecked powers, right? You better do what the man says or maybe you could pull out your carry concealed and challenge him to a duel or something. I mean what do you do as a conservative when you’re unreasonably detained and searched?
Oh I see. You’re mostly upset you actually have to limit yourself to certain speed limit that’s been determined for the good of all people. God why should you do that? I mean surely no harm could come of driving any speed you want. I mean it’s not like you’d be putting anyone else at risk or anyone would be putting you in more harm, right?
Good thing you had your citizenship papers!
Of course, according to ILC, no cop, anywhere, ever, would pull anyone over unless they had done something obviously wrong.
Countervail again rants and raves, yet still won’t answer my challenge.
Of course, he also ignores that the police officer did pull you over for breaking the law, and then gave you a warning. Gasp, call the president, it looks like someone was potentially abusing the law by not giving you a ticket.
I’m guessing you’re right. I pulled over once because I was speeding, the highway patrolman’s lights caught the sun just right that I thought he turned them on. He did a U turn when I pulled over and stopped…
…to check if I was ok. I told him I thought I saw his lights come on, he laughed and I went on my merry way.
And speaking of breaking the law, about that gay couple in Malawi that was sentenced to 14 years in prison–what part of illegal don’t they understand?!?
ok so let’s leave WHY I know this aside, but an often-used drug smuggling tactic (I-80 being a major route) is to use 2 cars, one car loaded, one car “clean”. I figure that they had the “clean” cop-catcher pulled over, and were hoping that you were the transporter. Cali or NV plates are like towing a neon sign saying, “pop me” around here….
Just set your cruise control next time and you won’t have to keep staring at your dashboard.
Classic drug stop.
I’m not a lawyer but I’ve been told several times to never offer a search and if the cop asks (“Mind opening your trunk?”), the answer is always NO.
Saying no does not give a cop a reason to search unless he already had one and if he already had a reason, he wouldn’t be asking, he’d be telling.
Bottom line, always say no but don’t obstruct the officer if he searches anyway.
Dan, you’re doing yourself a disservice. How about this scenario? The cop is gay, sees a CA plate and a good-looking guy behind the wheel, weighs the odds and decides to pull you over to get a closer look.
It could happen.
Not for speeding, but I was pulled over a couple of months ago for not signaling on a right turn – from a right turn only lane.
It was 5:00am (I had to be somewhere early) and there were no other cars in sight. Evidently, the police car was parked in the gas station on the corner where I made my criminal right turn.
My theory is that it’s because I drive a Nissan Cube – which has a demographic primarily consisting of teenage girls. He probably thought I was coming home from a party only to be surprised to see a 50+ guy in a suit sitting at the wheel.
He didn’t give me a ticket – but I did get a staunch warning that if he ever saw me making a right turn again without signaling that he would ticket me.
Not at all. Ash, what a dolt you are. Truly.
That’s the dynamic with most of the laws created nowadays. I.e., the innumerable neo-fascist laws of Ash’s beloved Nanny State. The laws are not created not for you to keep them. They are created for you to break them. So that they can have any excuse, at any time, to jerk you around.
Meanwhile, those few laws created that deal with actual criminal problems – like Arizona’s recent law, dealing with its influx of non-criminal citizens from over Mexico’s border – are ridiculed by our various Left neo-fascist dullards.
Heh, sorry – “criminal non-citizens from over Mexico’s border”.
Those fancy bridges spanning a quarter-mile wide ribbon of water fairly clearly demarcate the transition between Illinois and Iowa.
The tangle of smokestacks, concrete and bumper-to-bumper traffic does make it difficult to tell whether one is south of Chicago or south of Gary, but Illinois’ shakedown toll booth on I-80 lets you know the border isn’t far.
“So that they can have any excuse, at any time, to jerk you around.”
So you agree that the law in AZ can be misused to invade people’s privacy?
*ANY* English text can be mis-cited or mis-applied, in the hands of the wicked and/or the willfully stupid. You do it constantly,
As regards laws, the above fact one part of the reason (though not the entire reason) that we should try to have fewer of them, if at all possible.
Now I know, Ash, that you didn’t hear or understand a word of what I just said. It’s implicit in everything I’ve ever said. I am a small-government guy. It’s implicit in that. But, as you have shown in this thread, you have no understanding of that or anything I have ever said, nada, none, zip, zilch. Hence my answer at #18. Re-read it 1000 times or so. There *is* such a thing as “stupid questions”. Your questions are so gob-smackingly, mind-bogglingly dumb, showing such a fundamental lack of understanding of basic logic as well as basic libertarian principles, that I have no moral obligation to answer them. You should thank me for having given you this many words, i.e. having tried at least this much.
Typo, “the above fact *is* one part of the reason (though not the entire reason)…”
Driving exactly at the speed limit makes officers suspicious that you may have contraband. You were either going faster than you claim or he was just interested in messing with an out-of-state person’s head.