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Pulled for non-expired tags

sv_goon

sv_goon

Early Braker
Joined
Apr 10, 2004
Location
Fairfax
Moto(s)
SV650
Got pulled over last night just a few blocks from my house in my wife's car. Local PD had followed me for a mile or so thru town and eventually lit me up.

Reason given was expired tags from "December". Since it was my wife's car, I assumed we hadn't put the new year sticker on when it came, so I copped to it without looking. I know reg is current. He checked in with dispatch and confirmed all was well and let me go.

When we got home, I went out with a flashlight and looked, and the tag is there, December 2008. 9 months from now.

So the officer either A) was just plain wrong, or B) pulled me over for some other reason and the tags were an excuse.

If it was A, I guess it's understandable, being nighttime, but I thought the tags were colored for easy ID, and he kept saying they were expired even after we stopped and he got a close-up look. Could he really forget what year it is?

I have no idea about B. I was behaving (it's a small town and I live there, so no hooliganism), and he didn't mention anything except the tag. Would a LEO make up something so easily proved wrong in order to check someone or something out?

No harm no foul, he was professional and courteous and all that, I just thought it was weird.

Cheers...
 
That's strange... 07 to 08 is orange to green as well, so very easy to see (08 to 09 is green to blue, so a bit more of an excuse).


If you had been smuggling drugs and he found them, this would be very important. As is, not so much.
 
I've made that mistake in the past. We are human.
It does seem like it would be hard to do when you are talking about orange to green, but they are a reflective tape and when you hit them just right, at night, you can see another color. The worst is when it is orange to ren or green to blue. I think the DMV should space out similar colors so you don't have similar ones back to back. Not that this would help in all cases (like this one), but it would cut down on the mistakes.
 
My favorite is how the red will look YELLOW if you hit it just right with a bright light.
 
Nah b/s I have cousins (3 of em that are cops) I love cops but sometimes cops just pull people over to mess with em...

I got followed one time when I lived in NJ for having a brake light out...

I said "hhmm that is weird cuz you followed me for the last nine miles from the police station till now, why did you wait so long and I bet it is not out cuz I check em all the time in my garage window when I am leaving home. And btw I would like to see that I have a brake light out"

He said "No stay in the car..." After going back to his car for a minute he cam eback and said "Have a nice night"

He did not have ANYTHING to pull me over for .. I was young and he just wanted to toy with me... As he pulled a away I finally checked my lights... All worked fine... so what do you say about that? I say that happend with the reg tags on the previous poster...
 
Seesm:

For me,, the green and blue tags look very similar at night on my bike when I wear my semi-clear lenses.

If I make a stop and I realize my PC is incorrect, I don't ask for ID, reg, ins, nothing. I merely say "I'm sorry, I made a mistake, I thought you were in violation of "X" code, but I realize I'm mistaken,, drive safe have a nice day".

Not worth it to me to jeapordize my credibility, I've worked to damned hard for it.
 
sv_goon said:
So the officer either A) was just plain wrong, or B) pulled me over for some other reason and the tags were an excuse.

If it was A, I guess it's understandable, being nighttime, but I thought the tags were colored for easy ID, and he kept saying they were expired even after we stopped and he got a close-up look. Could he really forget what year it is?
Click to expand...

To the best of my knowledge, if you are pulled you over for expired tags that aren't actually expired, more serious offenses such as a DUI could be dismissed in court. The officer probably just made a mistake.
 
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5MARY4 said:
Seesm:

For me,, the green and blue tags look very similar at night on my bike when I wear my semi-clear lenses.

If I make a stop and I realize my PC is incorrect, I don't ask for ID, reg, ins, nothing. I merely say "I'm sorry, I made a mistake, I thought you were in violation of "X" code, but I realize I'm mistaken,, drive safe have a nice day".

Not worth it to me to jeapordize my credibility, I've worked to damned hard for it.
Click to expand...


Very cool that deal in NJ with my brake light opened up my eye's to thing with police that if you talk nice, clear and stand tall they work with you better too... for example...

While in Florida visting my mom and step dad, I was at a bar with some old NJ friends.
When I was leaving (mind you had 2 drinks in like 4-5 hrs) My one friend's sister said "be careful driving to your moms place the cops WILL try to pull you over" (While she pointed with her perky boobs out the window where they hide...) :)

So I waited till they pulled over someone to leave and took off slow... Until I got around a bend and went pretty fast to just just not have to deal with a hassle and waste time... Not really speeding but at a good clip maybe 5 over.

About a minute or two later I had the same two cop cars pulling me over...

They were like "Do you know why we pulled you over" I said "Yeah I was seen leaving the bar back there and you thought you had a drunk driver to bust... which you do not so do you want me to get out and walk a line or do anything else?"

They looked at each other (one on each side of the van) and the looked at my ID and asked why I was driving a Florida vehicle and had a Ca. license.

I explained "I am visiting mom and dad, btw are you done with me then and can I leave"?

They said "Yes have a nice night..."

What do you call that? I was actually pissed... Cuz I did not swerve or really do anything but leave a bar...
 
Eh, there are how many cops in this country? Probably over 100,000, maybe as many as 500,000. If even just 10% of them are dicks, well, that's a lot of bad policing. In civilian jobs, how many of your cow-orkers are asswipes? That means you can expect a few run ins with cops bad cops over the course of your lifetime. I've got a couple stories myself, and they were dangerous and expensive. Welcome to life. It's just another reason to keep a low profile in public and not be doing anything actually illegal.
 
antarius said:
My favorite is how the red will look YELLOW if you hit it just right with a bright light.
Click to expand...

5mary4 said:
For me,, the green and blue tags look very similar at night on my bike when I wear my semi-clear lenses.
Click to expand...

I put the new tag on not directly over the old one, so not only do they change color at night but there's also a stripe of the old (green) tag visible.

Just wanna keep you guys on your toes.
 
Seesm said:
While in Florida visting my mom and step dad, I was at a bar with some old NJ friends.
When I was leaving (mind you had 2 drinks in like 4-5 hrs) My one friend's sister said "be careful driving to your moms place the cops WILL try to pull you over" (While she pointed with her perky boobs out the window where they hide...) :)
Click to expand...

A friend from Ireland was telling me the other night (over a couple frosty pints, believe it or not) that years ago, when they first started cracking down on drunk driving over there, the rural pubs were really hurting for business, because the police would wait for the drunks to leave and bust them.

So they worked out an arrangement with the cops so if customers were a little tipsy, they'd get a flashing light to put on top of their car and they'd not exceed 20mph and be given a free pass to get home.

Community policing at its best! :laughing
 
scalvert said:
Eh, there are how many cops in this country? Probably over 100,000, maybe as many as 500,000. If even just 10% of them are dicks, well, that's a lot of bad policing. In civilian jobs, how many of your cow-orkers are asswipes? That means you can expect a few run ins with cops bad cops over the course of your lifetime. I've got a couple stories myself, and they were dangerous and expensive. Welcome to life. It's just another reason to keep a low profile in public and not be doing anything actually illegal.
Click to expand...
Figuring out the number of LEOs in the US is a tricky thing.
Just local police, the ration is roughly 1/1000 (one officer for each 1000 citizens) throughout the US, you are talking roughly 300,000. Deputy Sheriff's are ratio is 1/15000, so about 20,000, then you have state police (Highway Patrol and Troopers)... I have no idea on that ratio, it probably varies widely from state to state. Then you have federal police; DOD, Park Police, Border Patrol, Military Police. Then you have State Investigations (DOJ, etc) and Federal Investigatory Agenices (FBI, ATF, etc..).

I think 500,000 might be a bit high, but it could be dead-on. I don't know. Back in about 2002, I recall hearing an estimate of 46K LEOs in California.. that included every LEO agency (local, state and federal). I have heard that CA represents 10% of the GNP and has roughly 10% of the US population, so extrapolating those percentages, I'd feel safe with an estaime of 460K LEOs in the US (in 2002). With the expansion of DHS and all of these "get more cops on the streets" political agendas, I think 500,000 may be closer to the current number.

Oh and I would estimate that at least 10% of them are assholes most of the time. :teeth
 
motorman4life said:
I think 500,000 might be a bit high, but it could be dead-on. I don't know. Back in about 2002, I recall hearing an estimate of 46K LEOs in California.. that included every LEO agency (local, state and federal). I have heard that CA represents 10% of the GNP and has roughly 10% of the US population, so extrapolating those percentages, I'd feel safe with an estaime of 460K LEOs in the US (in 2002). With the expansion of DHS and all of these "get more cops on the streets" political agendas, I think 500,000 may be closer to the current number.
Click to expand...

If they're 85% male (guess?) that's 425,000 mustaches! I should start selling those little combs. :thumbup
 
sv_goon said:
Got pulled over last night just a few blocks from my house in my wife's car. Local PD had followed me for a mile or so thru town and eventually lit me up.

Reason given was expired tags from "December". Since it was my wife's car, I assumed we hadn't put the new year sticker on when it came, so I copped to it without looking. I know reg is current. He checked in with dispatch and confirmed all was well and let me go.

When we got home, I went out with a flashlight and looked, and the tag is there, December 2008. 9 months from now.

So the officer either A) was just plain wrong, or B) pulled me over for some other reason and the tags were an excuse.

If it was A, I guess it's understandable, being nighttime, but I thought the tags were colored for easy ID, and he kept saying they were expired even after we stopped and he got a close-up look. Could he really forget what year it is?

I have no idea about B. I was behaving (it's a small town and I live there, so no hooliganism), and he didn't mention anything except the tag. Would a LEO make up something so easily proved wrong in order to check someone or something out?

No harm no foul, he was professional and courteous and all that, I just thought it was weird.

Cheers...
Click to expand...

This happened to me in Newark several years ago in night time. He walked up to the drivers window and asked for license and registration, then said oh sorry, I thought tags were expired, thanks for being a sport about it, drive safe.

Didn't even run my license and registration with dispatch.
 
There's one other possibility- color blindness. It can make it hard to distinguish between hues of red and green. They tend to look the same. I had a buddy of mine that was affected. (probably why he dressed the way he did!) :laughing But seriously, it affects more men than women, and depending on the study, 1-5%.

He probably made a mistake based on the color, but if he had double checked he would've seen the year.
 
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