How to Avoid Receiving a Traffic Ticket

This is NOT how to fight a ticket in court. See Google or Yahoo.

Many people seem to think that the way to handle a traffic stop is to challenge it in some way, at some point during the stop. Question his authority, reasoning, timing, or motive and you're not going anywhere for a while. At least not without a ticket.

Traffic stops are not enjoyable for anyone. Believe it or not, they're not even enjoyable for the Officer.

Police Officers rely on their training to determine almost EVERYTHING  they do.  If you can adjust your attitude and your behavior from the very beginning of the stop, you can actually trigger his, or her, (Yes, I'm aware there are female police officers) training to cut you loose sooner rather than later AND possibly without even being issued a citation!

DISCLAIMER

In my entire license history, I estimate, conservatively, that I have personally driven well in excess of 500,000 miles. I still haven't seen it all and I don't claim to know it all. Don't blame me if you try following my advice and end up in jail. Use your own best judgment in all situations. I have been stopped well over two dozen times and have received only 6 tickets in that time. Between that and hearing others' tales of getting stopped and ticketed, I have a pretty clear idea of how this works.

This primer assumes that you are not in the course of committing any sort of non-traffic offense in your vehicle.  If you're an escaped felon on the lam for bank robbery in a stolen car with a bloody corpse in the back seat and you have lines of coke drawn out on the dashboard, this won't help you very much. Sorry.

Let's start from the beginning.. feel free to jump ahead, if you must.

Obviously, avoiding a traffic stop is the best way to avoid getting a traffic citation:

OBEY TRAFFIC SIGNS. This may sound stupid, but no matter how closely you almost came to a full stop at that stop-sign, if an Officer observes that, that's a legitimate reason to stop you. Make a full and complete stop at stop signs and obey the other basics too.

USE YOUR BLINKER. This is another suggestion which sounds dumb on contact, but police love to enforce the basics. Good basics make for good drivers.

DIM YOUR LIGHTS TO ONCOMING TRAFFIC.  Not just at night either. Elderly people seem to think they have a force-field around them if they drive with their high-beams on all day long. It's nothing more than just another reason to get stopped.

DON'T SPEED EXCESSIVELY.  If you drive in excess of 12-15 MPH over the speed limit, you're almost certain to gain the attention of a patrolman. Keep your speeding to around 5 MPH over in limits up to about 30-35 MPH and to within 10 MPH over the limit in higher posted areas. Make this a habit and you'll find you won't even have to slow down when you see an approaching cruiser.

DON'T SMOKE POT. Windows up or windows down, when you and/or your passengers smoke marijuana in a moving vehicle, you might as well be dragging a 400 yard, red flag behind you. Once an officer gets wind of that, it's only a matter of him looking around to figure out which car it's coming from.

DON'T SHOW-BOAT.  When you make jack-rabbit starts, squeal tires, fish-tail in snow or gravel or make other video-game maneuvers, you're waving that big red flag again. Save the grandstanding for some other activity or do it on private property on which you have permission to do so.

AVOID ROAD-RAGE. Some states make it illegal to make hand gestures to other drivers. Others simply use it as a tip-off to stop you. Know when to go, when to yield and keep your hands on the wheel. Waving any gesture at another driver can be the end of your trip no matter what your intention.

Uh, oh! There's a cruiser up ahead!

DON'T STAB THE BRAKES. You're halfway zipping along when you see a cruiser heading your way, let off the accelerator until your speed declines 4 or 5 MPH,  without touching the brake. When you hit the brakes, your vehicle does, what is called, a 'nose dive'. Officers are trained to recognize nose-dives as a signal that you knew you were speeding and you specifically don't want to be stopped. BAM! Instant traffic stop.  Gently reassuming the speed limit tells the officer you have complied and he can keep moving. If you were speeding beyond 15 MPH over, you should definitely use your brakes and scrub at least half of your excess off the speedo, just don't make it so sudden that you rock the suspension.. do it gradually and quickly.

MAINTAIN NEW SPEED. Reapply the accelerator to maintain your new, lower speed as soon as you reach it, and for well after the cruiser is out of sight.  Keep it there. If he radios to a cruiser he knows is just moments ahead of you, the second guy is going to make darn sure you're still close to the limit when you encounter him.

DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT. When you pass an approaching or parked cruiser, keep your face and eyes focused on the road. DO NOT LOOK at the policeman! Making eye contact with a passing officer triggers their training to make a traffic stop.

OKAY, now the cruiser is behind you but he hasn't lit up his lights, yet:

IGNORE HIM  and pay attention to the road. Act like he's just another car behind you. When you focus on that cruiser in your rear view mirror, at the very least, you're going to cross the yellow or white line and that's a traffic stop.

DRIVE NORMALLY Keep your speed slightly above the limit.  Driving exactly the speed limit is going to attract his attention. Most speedometers have error built in that makes them read a bit faster than the vehicle is actually going.. and driving under the limit is as much a reason for a stop as for weaving or speeding. Very minimally speeding in front of a cruiser gives his training the impression that you are not concerned with or have not even noticed his presence.

EVERYONE SIT STILL. You and your passengers should not duck down or move about. If he sees all kinds of moving around or faces looking back at him through the rear window, you're going to get stopped.

DON'T CHANGE YOUR ROUTE. You want to be able to explain truthfully and calmly where you are headed. If you make a turn to shake a cruiser and he still stops you, you will then have to start making excuses for why you turned and you won't be able to convincingly explain why you turned into a neighborhood or street where you have no business being. His training will tell him if you're telling the truth or if you're making it up.

You've been stopped by a cruiser. You now have one mission, trigger his training to cut you loose so he can look for more deserving offenders. This comes by way of a simple theme. Respectful compliance:

PULL OVER IMMEDIATELY. As soon as you realize you're being stopped, let off the accelerator, steer to the side of the road and come to a stop as quickly as possible without slamming on the brakes. If you're not in a safe spot, he may announce over the P.A. speaker to pull ahead somewhere safer off the road. You should comply, exactly, with what he said!

SHUT OFF THE MOTOR.  It doesn't matter how cold, dark and rainy it is. Turn the thing off. You don't need your headlights or four-way flashers running.

NOTE: if you're a woman alone in the car AND you're concerned this may not really be a policeman, Keep your motor running, doors locked and only roll the window down enough to be heard through it. Immediately and politely inform the officer you question his identity and you either want to follow him/be followed to the station or have a second officer respond to the scene. Their procedures allow for this but it may ruin your chance for avoiding a ticket.

STAY IN THE VEHICLE. Unless he tells you otherwise, DO NOT get out of the vehicle!

INTERIOR LIGHTS. If it's nighttime, turn on your dome light as soon as you're stopped. This will automatically relieve some of your officer's, natural, traffic-stop tension.

HANDS ON THE WHEEL. Don't go digging for your license and/or registration until he tells you so. Sit still with your hands on the wheel at Ten and Two O'clock until he tells you otherwise.

FORGET THE RUMORS.  If you attended high school in the United States, you've probably heard that officers must disclose their reason for pulling you over upon reaching your window. This is pure baloney.  Unless you've taken law enforcement studies, virtually everything you've heard about what an officer must do when pulling you over is probably false. He's running the show, he knows what must and must not be done. Listen and comply.

ANSWER HIM POLITELY AND TRUTHFULLY. Imagine your Mom is listening in on this. If you escalate the volume of the conversation, his training will not make him back off. If you start out with angrily asking the officer if he doesn't have anything better to be doing than stopping you, you just made matters worse. When you escalate the amperage of the conversation, John Q. Law's training will take him another step ahead of you with his next action. This is BAD.  Listen to what he's asking and answer his questions truthfully and politely. His first question will likely be 'How are you?' You will gain a positive reaction out of his training if you look him in the eyes and answer politely.  Being defensively snide will not help him decide to cut you loose. Of course, if you've had two beers, eight hours before the stop, you'll want to answer 'No, sir' when he asks if you've been drinking today.

RELAX AND LAUGH.  While he's running the show, he might say something like 'Do you have any guns, drugs or nuclear weapons in your car?'  He's thrown a little cop-joke in there to help ease tension.  This is your cue to smile, laugh a little and politely say 'no'.  People who don't even blink when asked if they have any rocket-launchers in their vehicle, trigger the officer's training because they're too nervous to notice a little joke.  Innocent nervousness is normal but can be a sign for the officer to look a bit harder if it doesn't go away or becomes worse.

KEEP IT SHORT. He's probably short on time and that damn training is going to tell him when you are drawing a yarn of crap on his ears. Answer each question completely but don't ramble on. He's in charge and he doesn't want to hear a bunch of babbling baloney. Just answer nicely.

DO YOU KNOW WHY I STOPPED YOU? He will almost certainly ask you if you know why you were stopped. Here's where your compliance may matter most.  Remember, above we said: Question his authority, motive or timing and you're not going anywhere for a while.  No matter his reason for stopping you, If you debate him, you're going to LOSE the debate! (yep, training! How'd you know?!) The sole purpose of these, seemingly inane questions is to gauge your temper, your respect and your attitude. If you know you were speeding, you say with shame (remember, mom's listening) "yes sir, I suddenly realized I was going a lot faster than I normally do, I'm sorry. That's not how I normally drive" Regret should be in your voice and should appear in your face. If you saw him observe you fail to make that full and complete stop at a stop sign, say so! "Yes sir, I didn't make a full and complete stop at that stop sign like I usually do." Did You Catch that? You know what you did wrong, you know better and it was out of character for the way you were taught to drive. If you DON'T KNOW, you say, "No, sir. I don't."  Politeness and regret should be in your voice and on your face here too. You might have crossed the white line or you could be dragging a dead puppy. No matter what he tells you, you should accept it respectfully and apologetically. Put regret in your heart and it will play in your voice. No need to over do it. Just as long as you save the defensive act for your spouse.

DO YOU KNOW HOW FAST YOU WERE GOING? 5 to 10 MPH over the limit: Don't white-wash it! Tell him exactly how fast you likely were traveling. (Respectful, regretful face, etc.) If you were doing 15-19 MPH over the limit, the anti 'rambling' rule goes on hold for one, single-breathed sentence.   Ever regretfully,  explain that you caught yourself thinking about something that's genuinely and personally stressful to YOU.. it has to be a, real-to-you, life-event issue i.e. divorce, cancer, career change or death in the family. Again, his training will tell him if you're making up a half-baked, tale of woe. You never saw the cruiser till he was right on you, instead, you suddenly saw the speedometer and realized you were going way too fast, you immediately backed off to get back to a safe limit where you belong. He's not likely to exaggerate your speed, so if he says it's any faster than you thought, DO NOT ARGUE. Accept it and let him move to the next point.

LICENSE AND REGISTRATION, PLEASE. Do not hand him your wallet with your license showing through a plastic window. Remove the license from the wallet and hand it to him. Open your glove box, take out the registration, leave the glove box open and hand the registration over to him. If it's in a plastic sleeve or such, take it out and hand over only the registration. If by chance, you are legally, or even illegally, carrying a gun in your glove box, please tell him this before you open the glove box.

WHERE'S THE DAMN FIRE, PAL?  If you really had the pedal to the metal, you may already be fully screwed to a ticket. One last chance may exist if you can produce a genuine and verifiable emergency. Careful. Faking this and getting caught will be far worse than just taking your ticket quietly. Again, no making up some crock story about your best-friend who failed in his desire to become a banker and now has threatened suicide.   Do you feel a stirring in your bowels or bladder?  Cross your legs, wince, whine, pinch yourself hard for some eye-tearing effect and claim you were racing to get to a bathroom before soiling yourself. This is unwise if you've just passed a stretch of open, fast-food restaurants. Even in the best of circumstances, he might not buy it anyway. Remember that the urge to poo comes in waves and the urge to pee does not fade. Use appropriately. You will, likely, have to produce proof of this.. that is, he may immediately allow you to step off the road to relieve yourself.. or he may just be the sort of guy to want to see you shit yourself on your suede bucket seats before he hands you a ticket anyhow. If you play this card, and you don't want to add a charge of providing false information to a police officer, bombs away!

SIT TIGHT. I'LL BE RIGHT BACK.  Even if your theme of respect and compliance is about to succeed, he's going to do his homework on your history. You'll sit in your car while he sits in his and runs your license and tags. He might ask you to come back and sit in his car with him. Be calm and patient, do what he says and don't move around.  When he returns to your window, continue the theme, ticket or no ticket. Remember, a written warning will look like a ticket in his hand while he's walking back to your vehicle.

ACCEPT HIS PAPERWORK. (Contrary to what George Carlin says)Don't  snatch it out of his hand and complain you've got enough of these floating around in the car already. If it's a ticket, he'll tell you so and say that a court date is printed on it. If it's a warning he'll tell you that too. Now is not the time to argue if you don't agree with the facts on the ticket OR the warning.. respect, comply and thank him. This will mean all the world  to you if the same guy pulls you over again the next day!

WHY ISN'T HE COMING UP TO MY WINDOW? Something's really wrong and he's worried you (or your car) are someone they're looking for. This is a felony stop and he's waiting for backup before he makes contact with you. Always stay in your car during a traffic stop until you are told otherwise. Perfectly innocent people get shot by jumping out of their car to greet their traffic cop. When they begin to read instructions to you over the P.A., listen very carefully and comply precisely.  The correct time for explaining yourself will be presented to you.

HOLY CRAP! THAT COP WAS DRIVING TOO FAST. He's the cop, and You're not. Keep to yourself any thoughts of complaining that he was driving too fast or spoke at you too aggressively.  You will never convince him or your Presiding Justice that you know his responsibilities better than him. The quieter you accept his lesson and move on, the less likely he is to recognize you on the next pass.

You got a warning! You Lucky Stiff! Now you'll really have to behave yourself inside his jurisdiction because if you get stopped for the same thing inside a year, same guy or not, You're guaranteed a ticket.

You got a ticket! You still have at least one last chance to get out of it. Bring the indicated fine with you to court on the listed date. DO NOT MISS YOUR COURT DATE.  If no one shows from his department to present their side, the ticket can be thrown out by the court. (Not by you!) If you're not there, you will have a warrant out for your arrest, whether the cop was there, or not!  Trials are expensive for all sides. Only a lawyer, with facts in hand, can decide the worthiness of taking your ticket to the next hearing and subsequently a trial.

GOOD LUCK AND DRIVE SAFELY!!