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The advice offered here is that of attorney Norman G. Fernandez
 
 

for more on what to do when stopped by the police, click here
 
 
 
 
 

for more on your right to remain silent or your right to an attorney, click here

for more on when police can legally search your vehicle, click here

     Regardless of how good your efforts are in trying to avoid a ticket, one of these days the boys in blue are going to get you.  You're going to look in your rearview mirror, you're going to see the flashing lights, and what you do in the next very few minutes may be a tremendous determining factor in whether or not you beat the ticket.  Pull off to the side of the road as far as is possible to allow the officer to approach your vehicle after he pulls up behind you.  Try not to do anything that might be out of the ordinary, or to make your appearance before the officer, memorable.  You don't want him to remember you.  That way, if any specific details are asked in court later, he'll have no idea and it may blow his credibility in front of the Judge.  Once your car is safely pulled off the side of the road shut the engine off, roll your window down, and keep both hands on the wheel.  DO NOT remove your seat belt at this time.  If you're not wearing your belt, it's too late to put it on.  Don't bother.

     If it's during the evening or darkness hours, make sure that you have your flashing lights on.  Relax, calm yourself, and wait for the officer to approach your vehicle.  If you get upset now, you'll cause undue attention to yourself, and you certainly do not want to do that.  Generally, an officer will ask you one of two questions.  It's either, "Do you know how fast you were going?", and your response should be, "No, I'm not really sure." Or, "I think I was doing the speed limit."  Or, "I know I wasn't speeding, I looked at my speedometer right before you stopped me."  The other question that you may be asked is, "Do you know why you were stopped?"  Your response is, "No Officer, I don't."  The most important factor to consider at this point is, DO NOT ADMIT ANYTHING.  Your Constitutional rights allow you to remain silent, but the officer doesn't have to let you know that.  If you tell the officer you were doing about 62 or 63 and you know that you're in a 50 mile speed limit, you've admitted your guilt.

     When the officer requests your credentials such as drivers license, insurance, and registration, tell him where they are located in the car and ask for permission to retrieve them before going for them.  This will relieve the officer's suspicion that there may be a concealed weapon in the car.  If the officer decides that he wants to search your vehicle, do not agree to this under any circumstances.  If the officer asks you to exit your vehicle, do not argue with the officer, and exit your vehicle.  Inform the officer that you do not consent to a search of your vehicle.  In the past, the police were required to have probable cause to search your car, now all they need is Reasonable Suspicion that a crime has been committed to search the interior of your car.  The police can also do a cursory search of the interior of your car for weapons.  If he can smell smoke from Marijuana or alcohol, he has probable cause.  And those are things that are more important right now to you than the speeding ticket you're about to get.  This is not the time to try to argue with the officer, or see if you can beat the ticket.  Give him as little as possible to remember you by because he's heard of all the excuses hundreds of times before.  Once he starts writing that ticket, you're going to get it, period.  There's no turning back for the officer or for you.  He can't void it and say he made a mistake.  He's got to write it.  And it's yours.

     While the officer is writing your ticket back at his vehicle, look over your surroundings and make notes of as much data as you possibly can.  Small details can be very important.  Some of the information that you should be on the lookout for is the type of vehicle, the license plate, and the unit number of the police officer's car that stopped you.  Know the exact location of where you were stopped, and the distance between where you were stopped and where the violation occurred.

     Write down the weather conditions.  Cloud cover, rain, no rain, sunny, overcast, snow, whatever it may be.  Write down a list of anyone who is traveling with you in your vehicle and please ask them to remain quiet during the entire time that you are with the officer, unless they are asked a question by the officer.  Write down the color and the type of clothing that you are wearing.  Make note of any noticeable characteristics of your vehicle.  Different colors of paint, dents, aluminum wheels, hubcaps, anything that are small details which would be difficult for the officer to remember later.  Make sure you try to remember everything the officer says during the traffic stop.  If he has to talk on his radio, or direct another driver during the stop, make a note of that.  Many times the person who's writing the ticket is not the one who is using the radar unit.  He's basically the chase car.  Find out if he's the one because it's very important to your case that you know if the officer was the one using the radar unit.  Observe the traffic in the area during your stop and remember what the traffic was like when you were pulled over.  If you can, remember everything humanly possible about the cars in your area during your stop.

     After the officer writes your citation he will bring it back to you and ask you to sign.  By signing you are merely acknowledging receipt of the citation.  At that point in time, ask the officer if you can have your court appearance moved to the county seat.  If he refuses, please have him indicate on the back of the ticket that he refused to allow you this consideration.  If he does not want to indicate that on the back of the ticket, don't worry about it, just make a note of it in your notes.  It may be important later on.  Tell the officer after you have signed the citation that you would like to see the read-out on the radar.  He's not really required to do this for you because it would involve your safety.  They would not like to see you run down by another motorist while you are walking back to the patrol car.  If he does allow you to see the radar, don't make any comment at all.  Just make a note of who manufactured the unit or a model number.  At this point in time, don't mention the calibration fork.  We'll explain that later on in the book, but don't ask to see it.  If the officer knows that you are aware of the calibration fork, it would tell him that you know a bit more about the type of equipment that he's using, and he'll remember you in court.  And that's not going to help you later on down the road.

      After the officer returns to his patrol car, stay there for another one or two minutes and jot down any other notes that may come into your head at the time.  The officer will usually be making notes on the back of the ticket so that he can recall them later on in court.  Don't stay too long at the scene because that will be memorable to the officer and you don't want him to remember any aspects of this particular traffic stop.  You've got plenty of time to prepare your case between now and the time you're set to appear in court.  All of the information is available to you twenty four hours a day.

     When you leave the scene of the citation, pull away safely.  Don't spin your tires, don't send rocks up into the air or a cloud of dust.  Go away with the confidence that you probably will never see the officer again.  There's also the extreme possibility that the next time you see the officer, he's going to be in a courtroom, under oath, answering your questions.  If you follow the directions previously noted, you are just going to be another face in the crowd out of the hundreds of citations he wrote in the past month.  There's a good chance that he won't remember you, and he certainly won't remember what color of shirt you had on, or what the weather condition was like.