I once was led on a five-mile car chase through busy city streets at 20 MPH over normal speeds with the driver refusing to stop. The path they were taking made me realize they were trying to get somewhere quickly, not trying to evade me.
Finally the driver, who turned out to be a middle-aged woman, stopped in front of a house where an ambulance was waiting.
The woman leapt from her car and ran to unlock the door to allow the medics entry to the house that had security barred windows and doors. She burst into the house ahead of the EMTs obviously trying to find the occupant with them.
I entered behind them to offer assistance and found myself assuming the role of comforter to the woman as the paramedics declared her mother’s death.
The woman had a major breakdown and I wound up holding her for over a half hour as she cried inconsolably until her husband arrived.
She tried apologizing for her driving actions between sobs but I assured her I would have done the same thing and that she wouldn’t be getting a ticket from me that day. Sometimes traffic laws simply do not apply.
I pulled over a guy for going 88 in a 55. Oh, he was going to get a ticket, that’s for sure. He looked utterly defeated when I came up to his window and when I asked why he was going so fast, he said, “It’s a new car and I wanted to see how it accelerated.” (It was a Volvo station wagon and did indeed have a Dealer Tag on it). I asked if he knew how fast he was going, he said, “About 90 miles per hour?” I said your speedometer is about 2 mph off, don’t do it again – and I gave him a verbal warning.
As a cop, just about everyone lied to me, for often trivial reasons. To have someone so honest was refreshing and I gave him a pass.
EDIT: This answer blew up and took on a life of its own. Some of the comments below were helpful and furthered the discussion and premise behind the original question. Others went way off track and turned into cop bashing.
So I’m cutting of the comments but I will continue to keep the answer up. For those that gave meaningful comments and feedback, I thank you for your contribution. For the others, some of you need mental health help. Best regards.
I had a guy at 127 mph at 2:00 AM on the interstate. I actually caught up to him and pulled him over. He told me he had tuned up this El-Camino to sell it in the AM, and that car had gotten him in a lot of trouble. He wanted one last run.
He acknowledged that he was going to get a ticket, but had one request. He wanted to see what I had under the hood that I was able to catch him with. Back then we actually had “police interceptors”. His hands were all greasy, so it was obvious he was telling the truth about the tune up.
During the whole encounter we never saw another vehicle, so as no one was endangered, I turned him loose acknowledging it was a good thing he was getting rid of that car.
A final note: That cruiser was sold at the end of it’s PD life and the buyer put a new set of plugs in it and immediately began winning trophies at Dover drag strip.
I was on the other side, as a civilian driver.
It’s January 1990, after dark, and I’m driving north on the NYS Thruway, in the vicinity of New Paltz.
My car was a 1978 Ford Granada, four doors, 98 horsepowers on the day it left the factory.
I see the lights right behind me, so I pull over and open my window.
Cop comes over, I ask why I was stopped, he says speeding, I look back at my car and say in this.
He thinks for a moment, and then says that he caught me more easily then he thought he would.
That area was hilly, with short hills, so the cop lost sight of the actual speeding car, and when he saw my taillights, they were similar enough for him to think my car was the one he wanted.
So, with that realization on his part, he gave me back my papers, and let me go, as he headed back to his car.
