I’ve got a family member, and a number of friends in law enforcement in a number of states. And frankly the way I hear (and my experience from friends who have them) it the FOP badges, charity license plates, and other stickers and doodads you stick on your car don’t work for shit. There’s the rare cop who does give a shit (and he’s unlikely to spot your horse shit before he pulls you over), but for the most part noone cares. In fact many of the officers I know are more likely to ticket some one with one of these things than otherwise, because they find the implication that you can buy the police just as offensive as everyone else. In my experience people who donate to police orgs with the sole aim of getting special treatment tend to be giant entitled assholes, which doesn’t help them out either.
There’s a couple reasons why people think they work, and its mostly simple confirmation bias. The fact is your pretty damned unlikely to get pulled over (outside of speed traps and municipalities cracking down on moving violations) regardless of how much, where, or when you are speeding. Whatever you feel like sticking on your car. Think about the number of times you’ve been pulled over versus the amount of time you spend speeding. I’m pretty much never not speeding, and I’ve been pulled over maybe 5 times in my life. The other thing at play is that for the most part once the officer pulls you over for a moving violation its entirely up to his discretion whether to issue a citation or a warning. And he might go with a warning for any number of reasons. You are probably best off being known to the officer, just being nice, or being a pretty woman. For the most part officers (even in highway enforcement) don’t like, or want to give traffic tickets. It’s why traffic enforcement is often used as a punishment or relegated to officers with the least seniority. Many officers aren’t looking to issue tickets, they’re looking to spot more serious violations. Like drunk and high drivers. So in a lot of cases the guy who pulled you over is looking for an excuse not to ticket you.
What does tend to work are the small “spouse badges” as they’re called, and the courtesy cards issued by the police unions (PBA cards). Both are issued by an officer, and are typically tagged in pen with his name, badge and phone number. And they’re, as the term for the cards indicates, intended to foster polite treatment for members of the officers family and a courtesy phone call to the officer in question should anything happen. That’s the baseline. I won’t treat you like an asshole and I’ll let your dad know when I lock you up. But the badges are pretty infrequently issued these days and usually purchased privately from a jeweler by the officer. Since they’re openly purchasable on the market they don’t carry much weight without some sort of ID, like the PBA cards I mentioned. Which are less effective these days then they’ve ever been. Enough officers hand them out like fucking candy that its undermined the whole idea behind the cards. So the PBA has started to issue lifetime,permanent membership cards to officer’s families. They are printed with the holder’s full name; the officer’s name, rank, and badge number; and the family relationship (son, brother in law, spouse etc). Most officers choose to issue a warning instead of citation when presented with a family card or spouse badge, many will still do it for the regular card. But it isn’t guaranteed, warnings are recorded in the officers log book, he’ll still make the call to whoever gave you the card, and the cards can be rescinded at any time by any union member. So if you make an ass of yourself, or cause a continued problem whatever privileges you may eek out from the thing evaporate. The officer’s discretion to issue a warning also evaporates beyond anything more serious than a simple mail-in fine. Anything more serious, or requiring an arrest, or involving a court appearance all that happens is that call to an officer who might be able or willing to help in some way.
Funnily enough, that’s where a relative of mine does keep here emergency cash. Which she would only need for paying gas. The idea of bribing would be foreign to her, as would the idea of speeding.
Well, I don’t drive, so, take my sentiments with a grain of salt. But the archetypal speed trap is described as follows.
At the top of the hill, the speed limit is 55 mph. At the bottom of the hill, the speed limit is posted as 35 mph. Ten feet further is a cop with a quota to fill.
I’d rather the cops focus on enforcing safe driving conditions for other drivers and pedestrians. Revenue generation should not be the primary aim.
There was (is?) a similar scam in Montreal to help prevent your car from being towed.
I can’t remember what is was called, but they had year-dated stickers.
If these things work, I wonder if they could get you out of a “driving while black” harassment stop. I suppose it might even make things worse, depending on the cop.
Things will continue on, in small ways like this and in larger ways like the 2008 collapse, until there is a major disruption in the food supply and/or significant population displacement that can’t be concealed by selective media coverage. This will most likely require a disaster of some kind, like the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, or maybe an asteroid impact.
See, I can log on to BoingBoing and rail against the crimes of the powerful from my MacBook via high-speed Internet, and when I’m done I’m going to go make dinner. Things won’t change until a significant percentage of the population set (use the variable [JustLikeMe]) can’t get food.
Not trying to be apocalyptic or New Age crisis-y or anything, but I really do think it’s going to have to get real ugly before any substantive structural change occurs. And even then, there’s no guarantee that it’ll be a change we [DecentNonpowerfulFolk] want. That just seems to be how humans, with their 80-year lifespan perspectives, do things.
Any cop whose likely to pull someone over for being black is enough of an asshole to not care whose sticker or card you’ve got or where you’ve got it taped. A prick is a prick and a corrupt department is a corrupt department.
Yeah, but though you may have been background checked, you certainly weren’t feeding money into police support group coffers. And therein lies the difference.
Crimes are committed by members of the criminal classes
Membership in the criminal classes may be ascertained by examining an individual’s background, as ascertained by a search of legal records.
The criminal classes aren’t merely a figment of the imagination.
Besides, many otherwise law abiding individuals do flout the traffic laws-- and many individuals who engage in criminal activity are quite keen to avoid police entanglements of any sort.
Ah. Over here (Germany) signs myst be posted in a way that it’s possible to reach the posted speed in a reasonable, safe manner. Also, speed control may not be enforced directly behind the sign.
