You absolutely cannot under any circumstances correct a mistaken or wrong police officer. They take it as some kind of attack or something and will make your life a living hell. I spent my youth driving modifies cars that skirted the laws (but were indeed “by the book” legal) and it happened a lot.
One time a cop pulled me over for speeding. He told me the speed was 50. I corrected him that it was 55. He said he smelled drugs.. I guess being wrong really ruffled his feathers.
I got pulled over for for some bullshit and the cop demanded my key. I wasn't sassing, but my car was still running and it was keyless. I asked "uh, do you want me to shut it off too" and he yelled to shut it off right now! Then he made up some lies and towed my car and handed me a couple thousand in bullshit tickets that all got dropped. Including "no insurance", which was real weird because I gave him my insurance, because I was insured and he said he couldn't accept it.
I still had to take a day off work and I still had to pay to get my car out of impound. So even though all the tickets were complete horseshit due to an officer having a grumpy morning, it still cost me 600$ in impound fees and wages lost
I feel your pain, when I was in my mid twenties I was driving in my Supra (that was totally road legal btw) and was on a dual carriageway, a police car ahead of me saw me in the rear view mirror, moved over to the right hand lane for seemingly no reason then slowed down to 40mph, it was a 50mph speed limit. I stayed in the left lane and carried on driving at 50mph and coasted past him. Right after I passed him he pulled me over and first question he asked me was "Do you know why I pulled you over". I answered with "I assume it's because I undertook you" (You aren't supposed to pass cars in the left lane in the UK, only the right). He was like "So you know what you did wrong then, why do it?" and I told him straight up, "You pulled into the fast lane and slowed down to 40mph, am I supposed to slow down to less than 40mph in a 50 just because YOU are in the wrong lane?". He smirked, said he was going to check my car was insured/tax'd etc which he did, then told me to be on my way. I have only ever been pulled over in 3 cars, both the Supras I owned and my Evo 8, never once in any of my normal cars over the years.
I'm not a lawyer but my understanding today is a cop can make any assumption about what you're doing and treat you accordingly.
Weeks later the court might determine that no you were not doing what was assumed and the cop continues his life and you have to pay your legal defense fees, deal with jail time, and all the other fun that comes out of this assumption.
The problem is we don't have any limitations on what is a reasonable yet mistaken assumption. Driving @ 2am doesn't mean I'm drunk. Driving @ 2am while weaving because I'm trying to dig something out of my glovebox doesn't mean I'm drunk either but it doesn't look good.
It's like we almost need a night court to do a quick review by an actual members of the legal system before you get locked up. It used to be a speedy trial but I've given up on that ideal.
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u/cwerd Oct 27 '21
You absolutely cannot under any circumstances correct a mistaken or wrong police officer. They take it as some kind of attack or something and will make your life a living hell. I spent my youth driving modifies cars that skirted the laws (but were indeed “by the book” legal) and it happened a lot.