I'm going to go ahead and presume that all of the above qualifications make it acceptable for me to offer some advice on what to do and what not to do if and when you ever get pulled over by a police officer.

First of all, this is not a list of ways to get out of a ticket.  The only sure way to avoid getting a ticket is to obey the motor vehicle statutes.  If you do something you're not supposed to you run the risk of getting caught and getting a ticket.  If you have a driver's license it is your responsibility to be familiar with the motor vehicle laws, so claiming "I didn't know that was illegal" isn't going to work.  If you believe that your special status as a taxpayer in town, or a business owner in town, or a personal friend of the Chief, or First Selectman, or Governor, or whoever should grant you immunity from traffic violations, please take a look at the "Influence" page to see how I feel about that.

I can offer you some advice on how to act during the stop to improve your chances of not making the situation worse.  Maybe you'll even manage to get a written or verbal warning rather than an infraction ticket.  Of course, the statutes I mention are all Connecticut statutes so they might be different from those in another state.

If you notice a police car behind you with its emergency lights activated you should pull over and stop.  The easiest way to get off to a bad start is to make the officer follow you for a mile or two as you drive on in blissful ignorance, totally unaware of what's going on around you.  To do so might even get you an additional fine for violation of Connecticut General Statute (usually abbreviated "CGS") 14-283e, Failure to Pull to the Right and Stop for an Emergency Vehicle.

Once you've pulled over and come to a stop, parallel to the curb line and clear of any intersections, you should turn on your dome light (if it's dark) and get out your driver's license, the vehicle's registration, and your insurance ID card.  You should have these items in an easily accessible place, not back home on your kitchen counter or locked in your desk at the office.  The law also specifies that those documents must be made available for me to take in hand, so you have to hand them to me when I ask for them.  If you attempt to hand me your entire wallet because your license is in the clear plastic window and you don't feel like taking it out, I'm going to ask you to remove the license and just hand me that.  A lot of people get very upset at that, so let me tell you why we do that.

If you hand me your wallet with your license on top, whether I take it back to me car to write the ticket or whether I examine it for a few moments and then hand it back, you could suddenly claim that you had hundreds of dollars in cash in the wallet when you handed it to the cop, and now it's empty.  Even though it's a bullshit complaint it would still be an annoyance to deal with it, so we avoid the whole issue by not taking the wallet in the first place.

Anyway, keeping in mind that those documents must be available for me to take in hand, please do not try to hand me an envelope bursting with hundreds of slips of paper which you just laboriously pried out of the glove compartment and tell me:  "The registration's in there someplace."  That's no good - I won't take the envelope from you.  It is your job to locate those documents, not mine.

There are two excellent reasons why you need to have those three documents with you any time you are driving your car.  First, if you don't have one of them you may receive a ticket just for that, in addition to whatever you were originally pulled over for.  Not carrying your license is a violation of CGS 14-213, and not carrying your registration is a violation of CGS 14-13.  If you don't have a valid insurance ID card with you that is, by law, prima facie evidence that you don't have any insurance at all.  Not having insurance is a more serious offense than not having your license or registration with; it's a misdemeanor instead of an infraction.  I have to tow your car from the scene, since I can't let it be driven on a public highway without insurance.  And you get issued a misdemeanor summons with a mandatory court date.  Usually you get released at the scene on a written promise to appear in court, but you could be arrested, handcuffed, searched, and taken to the police department where you'd have to post bond in order to get out.

The second excellent reason to carry those three documents with you is that I am well aware that the Department of Motor Vehicles is a large government agency and, as such, occasionally makes mistakes.  If I query their computer and it says that your driver's license expired two months ago, but you have a valid license with you, I will be perfectly willing to believe that DMV is a little late updating their computers and you won't have a problem.  However, if I query their computer and it says that your license is expired, and you tell me you renewed it last week but you left it at home, well...  I'm sure you are a nice person and I believe you, but in our business we trust but verify.  You'll be getting a ticket and a reminder not to leave your license on the kitchen table any more.

Anyway, once you get those three documents out of whatever automobile orifice you'd secreted them in, put them all in one hand and put both hands on the steering wheel.  This makes it much easier for me to see that you don't have a weapon.  If the idea that the cop who pulls you over thinks that you might have a weapon bothers and insults you, consider this:  Do you know the cop who is walking up to your car?  No?  Well, if you don't know him how on earth is he supposed to know you?  Since he doesn't know you he can either assume you are harmless and then hope you actually are, or he can approach with caution, hoping for the best but prepared for the worst.  One way could get him killed, the other way gives him the best chance to go home to his family at the end of his shift.  Which one would you pick?

Moving on...  When I get to your car I'm going to stand to the rear of the front window, where it's easy for me to see you but difficult for you to see me.  I do this for my own safety, not to annoy you.  Please don't angrily demand that I step up to where you can see me, and don't expect me to use my flashlight to let you look around your car to find your wallet.  My primary concern when stopping a car is my own safety.  None of the things I do are being done to make you angry or uncomfortable, but if they do I'm not going to do something unsafe to make you feel better.

Once I get up to your car I'm going to identify myself and ask you for your license, registration, and insurance card.  The only proper thing for you to do at that point is give me your license, registration, and insurance card.  It is not appropriate for you to quiz me on why I pulled you over, or for you to ask if I know who you are, or tell me that you know the Chief of Police, or the Governor, or anyone else.  It is also not at all appropriate for you to try to barter with me, offering to give me your license if I tell you why I pulled you over.

Once I get those documents from you I'm going to examine them for a few seconds to see if everything appears to be in order.  If you have a restriction on your driver's license which specifies that you need corrective lenses to drive, and I don't see you wearing glasses, I'm going to ask if you are wearing contacts.  I'm sure you can understand why I do that - there's no need to get upset and accuse me of prying into your personal life.

At this point I'm going to tell you why I pulled you over.  Whatever I say you did, you did.  Get over it.  Police officers do not pull over random cars and then dream up fictitious violations to write them tickets for.  It just doesn't happen.  Legally I can only pull you over if I have probable cause to believe a traffic violation has occurred (see Delaware v. Prouse.)  Do you really believe I'm going to pull you over just for fun when I know that I'd be breaking the law and putting my career in jeopardy to do so?

Next I'm going to tell you whether I intend to give you a verbal warning, a written warning, or a ticket.  If you think you have a legitimate excuse as to why you did whatever you did feel free to tell me.  I am perfectly willing to listen to whatever you have to say, provided you talk to me in a normal tone of voice.  If you start screaming and cursing at me I'm just going to calmly walk back to my car.  I may change my mind after I listen to you and give you a warning instead of a ticket.  No matter how rude you are or what you have to say, I'm not going to change my mind and give you a ticket after deciding to write you warning.  But that's just me - I don't believe that is true for most cops.  If your excuse consists solely of "I didn't do that" you can feel free to say that once, but don't be too upset if I don't buy it.  If I hadn't seen you do something which violated one of the motor vehicle statutes I wouldn't have pulled you over in the first place.  It's unlikely you will be able to convince me that I didn't see what I thought I saw.

As a little extra help here are some excuses which are endless attempted, but which NEVER work:

1. The light was yellow.

2. I didn't know that was illegal.

3. Other cars were doing it too.

4. I couldn't have been speeding because my car won't go that fast.

5. I was just following the car in front of me.  (A popular but no more effective variation of #3, above.)

6. But I slowed down when I got to the stop sign.

7. This is a leased vehicle so it's not my responsibility to renew the registration.

8. Someone was chasing me.  (Yes, we hear this all the time and no, we don't believe you.)

9. What time do you get off work?  Maybe we could get together sometime?  (Forget it.  I'm not stupid enough to believe you have fallen in love with me in the six seconds since I walked up to your car.)

After all that I'm going to return to my car, check your license and registration through the DMV computer, then write either the warning or the ticket.  Then I'll return to your car and hand you the warning or the ticket and explain what you need to do with it.  If you have a question it helps if you speak up, since I am standing on a busy street with traffic rushing by and sometimes it can be difficult to hear you.  After explaining the ticket I'll hand you back your license, registration, and insurance card.

If you want to know my name or badge number please take a moment to look at the ticket.  They are both right there.  Please be aware that asking for my name is not going to intimidate me or make me worry that you're going to report me, because I know I haven't done anything wrong.

If you feel you didn't deserve the ticket then check off box #2 on the back and mail it back in the envelope provided.  You will be mailed a court date at which time you can tell your story to the State's Attorney.  If he agrees with you that you had a valid excuse for whatever you did then he will dismiss the charges.  Good luck.  The State's Attorney and, after that, the judge, are the proper individuals for you to argue the merits of your case with - not the officer on the side of the road.  Please refrain from taking your frustration and anger out on the officer who is, after all, just doing his job.  Is there anyone out there who believes the world would be a better place if there weren't any cops on the road enforcing traffic laws?

The bottom line is that if you are stopped and issued a ticket all that means is that on this particular date, at this particular time, in this particular location, you violated one of the Connecticut General Statutes regarding motor vehicles.  That's it.  It doesn't mean or imply that you are a bad driver, or an irresponsible person, or a bad mother or father, or a criminal.  Good people violate traffic laws sometimes, the same as not-so-good people.  No one forced you to speed, or run the red light, or whatever, so take responsibility for your own actions and face up to the consequences.

If you have kids in the car, please take a moment to consider how this experience might affect them.  If they see Mommy or Daddy drive through the red light, and then they see Mommy or Daddy yelling and screaming and cursing at the police officer who stopped them for driving through the red light, what does that tell them?  In my opinion you are clearly showing that the proper thing to do when you get caught doing something wrong is to become angry and upset with the person who caught you, rather than admitting you made a mistake.  I don't think that's the sort of thing we should be teaching our children, do you?

That's about it for traffic stops and advice on how to act.  The links below will take you to some pages with various rants about the stuff police encounter every day, if you'd care to look.

Click on Rant: Alarms Calling 911 DTLA Illegal Parking Influence Not Pulling Over Seat Belts Stupid Calls