This happened on my way home last night (1 Viewer)

Mojo1312

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State trooper passes me in the opposite direction in town as I am heading home at 11:15 last night from playing cards. Population of the town is 2100. I notice him pull in and turn around at the Irving gas station. I continue driving under the speed limit, seat belt fastened, which is my habit. The state policeman follows me as I leave the outskirts of town. The speed limit increases to 40mph. I maintain a speed of 38. He stays behind me as the speed zone changes to 55. I am wondering if he is going to flash his blues and pull me over or simply turn off. Nope. He tags my ass for another 10 miles. At this point he has been on my tail for 14 miles. His behavior struck me as unusual. There is literally nothing but woods for 30 minutes once you leave town.

It is late, I am tired of driving 50mph with him behind me. I decide to slow down to let him pass. Instead he slows down, matching my speed. I am not going to have this happy shit go on the rest of the way home. I slow down to 22mph on a beautiful straight stretch. He stays behind me. Fine by me, if this is what he wants to do. After three minutes, he tires of the game and puts on the blues. I immediately pull over and roll down my window.

I am a little heated. He has a gun. And we are in the middle of nowhere. I fully expected him to come up with gun drawn considering the amount of interest he needed to have to follow me this entire time.

He comes up to my window, hands on hips and asks me why I am driving 20mph. I asked "Am I breaking the law?" He says "Yes. You are disrupting the flow of traffic." I ask "Why have you been following me for the last 15 miles?" He tells me he is on his way home and asks me for my drivers license.

After running my license, he comes up to my window smiling and tells me I am all set. I put my car in drive and leave, watching his headlights fade out of sight.

Thoughts? Case of mistaken identity? Boredom? Some other explanation? Or is this common practice?
 
To clear away any biases, I appreciate the fact that policeman face stressful situations and how that must extract a toll over time. Sometimes I am left wondering whether police escalate things unnecessarily or too quickly, but that was not my experience. What I am searching for is some sort of explanation for last night's events, which seemed out of the ordinary for me.

Twenty plus minutes is a long time to decide whether or not you are going to pull someone over, same is true for the person you are closely following.

As far as slowing down to an unreasonable speed, I did so on a long flat straight stretch in order to give him the perfect opportunity for passing me or to get him to light up the blue lights so I could find out what was the matter. The "disrupting traffic" is a reach. He and I were the traffic!
 
How many lanes in each direction?
 
How many lanes in each direction?

One. I live in a sparsely populated county. There is a lot of windshield time between towns. The sidewalks roll up at 9PM. I am lucky to encounter more than one or two vehicles on my hour long drive home.
 
Definitely "normal" practice where I live as they are always looking for a reason to pull people over at night, BUT where I live is apparently the drug highway feeding bad drugs into Baltimore city as it has been explained to me many times. After 11 pm in Westminster 2 over the speed limit will get you pulled over and a paper warning at minimum. Check your tag lights and all other night running equipment, they are literally looking for anything they can use to pull you over. And YES they will get right up your butt and follow you for zero reason at all.

As said above, if you were not drinking I would just pull over and let him light it up if they want... technically he could sight you for impending traffic... just because
 
To clear away any biases, I appreciate the fact that policeman face stressful situations and how that must extract a toll over time. Sometimes I am left wondering whether police escalate things unnecessarily or too quickly, but that was not my experience. What I am searching for is some sort of explanation for last night's events, which seemed out of the ordinary for me.

Twenty plus minutes is a long time to decide whether or not you are going to pull someone over, same is true for the person you are closely following.

As far as slowing down to an unreasonable speed, I did so on a long flat straight stretch in order to give him the perfect opportunity for passing me or to get him to light up the blue lights so I could find out what was the matter. The "disrupting traffic" is a reach. He and I were the traffic!
Maybe you matched a description.
 
Here’s my response:

“I always drive slower in the wooded areas because of deer. Especially when being followed and partially blinded by the bright head lights behind me.”
I might then have told him the remoteness of the stop was making me uncomfortable and could we move to the police station or public area of the next town and finish this?
 
Dont quite understand why you'd wanna slow down like that. Makes very little sense to me. Why not just follow the speed limit and go home? lol.

Obey the speed limit after dark when there is zero traffic on the road? Bwa-hahahahahaha! Seriously, my risk of falling asleep at the wheel would increase exponentially if I had to drive 55 or slower all the way home.

Definitely "normal" practice where I live as they are always looking for a reason to pull people over at night, BUT where I live is apparently the drug highway feeding bad drugs into Baltimore city as it has been explained to me many times.

Sadly, drugs are a huge problem along the coast. I considered that last night, but I have owned my vehicle for nine years and have had the same vanity plate for even longer, so that didn't seem like a plausible explanation. However, that may have not stopped him from wondering why I was an hour away from home at that time of night on a Tuesday. (70 minutes if a person is inclined to obey the posted speed limits).
 
Idk about Australia, but voluntarily pulling over to a stop and inviting an interaction with a LEO in the middle of nowhere late at night isn't a great idea in America...
I wasn't suggesting voluntarily pulling over for a stop but just to stop for a 'valid' reason vs slowing down and giving the cop and excuse to pull you over.

To me, given the cops actions to follow for as long as he had, it was evident he had intentions to pull them over eventually and was waiting for something to "happen".

Having been in that situation multiple times I just ignore them and let them do what they are going to do. I dont have control over what they are or arent thinking.

I guess the biggest difference is we dont really have the same level of fear of a cop shooting us when getting pulled over like there is in parts of the US, so its easy to have my approach to the situation versus how OP felt in the same situation.

Given it is such a small town Id also assume that most people know each other so its interesting to me that any fear of a poor police interaction is a concern.

Either way im glad OP got home safely and that the interaction was merely an inconvenience versus other of the other possible outcomes.
 
If this had been me, I’d have driven normally (even for an hour if necessary) until he pulled me over or I got home. This has happened to me before, and one time they pulled me over as I turned into my driveway. I feel like I’m always followed at night when the police see me. Or at least I was when I was a bit younger.
But I have to think that if I were a woman, I’d feel entirely different about it and would be tempted to drive straight to the nearest police station.
 
Idk about Australia, but voluntarily pulling over to a stop and inviting an interaction with a LEO in the middle of nowhere late at night isn't a great idea in America...
I guess depends where you live.
If you feel uncomfortable I might pull over too.
If he asks why, my phone rang. I might be in the phone on purpose when he stops and be talking to my mom.

Honesty a cop doing this alone on a dark road is really dangerous for him. That’s where people will bait cops to stop them when they feel the need to shoot a cop, like a gang initiation. Unless you have a damn good reason that’s a good way to set off someone unhinged and they shoot you when you get out of the car.
 
:unsure: He might been following the OP so he can get into those juicy Poker Cash Game.

Joke aside, sometime police or army forces act on instinct or gut feeling.

They might pick up some weird vibes and decide to follow you base on that
 
Maybe it was a ‘Municipal Worker’ from up Binghamton way and he thought he caught a ‘hanger’

Possibly heading home and decided to follow you a ways (as you’re the only car on the road) to see if you exhibited signs of driving under the influence. He probably decided you weren’t and kept on going until you started slowing down, which may have appeared odd considering no problem til then, hence him ‘suddenly’ pulling you over .
 
In my area the cops follow you to let the computer have the time to run your plates, then they follow you with the high beams on hoping you swerve just a little bit so they can pull you over and ask "how much have you had to drink tonight?"
The last time a cop pulled me over he walked up ......
"Do you know why I pulled you over sir?"
"Do you know I have a Go Pro 4 recording my dashboard and the view out my windshield officer?"
"........ Have a nice day sir" and he left
 
:unsure: He might been following the OP so he can get into those juicy Poker Cash Game.

This is going to make me look foolish, but that is okay. I go by three brick buildings on my way to poker that up till now I took to be the headquarters for the state police. I learned tonight those buildings belong to the county's sheriff department. Three blocks past the sheriff's department, you turn right at the intersection. You go another four blocks and you are at the game. It is a six to eight minute walk from one to the other. I would guess no more than a half mile.

I have very little interaction with state police or police in general, but I do know state police have a very distinctive uniform and hat. In hindsight, I was stopped by a county sheriff, not a state policeman as I stated in my original post.

The game I play in dates back 50 years. It is an institution that is hosted by a multi generational business owner who is widely known and respected in the community. Of equal significance, he heads a roundtable that supports conservative candidates each election cycle.

I haven't missed a game since joining the group 18 months ago. This may count for nothing, then again it may explain the hundred and eighty degree change in the sheriff's demeanor and the smile on his face after calling in my licensee. As I noted earlier, we are talking about a town with a population of 2100. The game moved from the host's garage last year to its current location, a 1200 square foot home owned by a lawyer in town who after completing his tenure as a public defender no longer needed the rental income. He and the host have played cards together for 20+ years.

Funny if the sheriff on duty or someone at the station recognized my name as a member of the group and put two and two together. To paraphrase @Josh Kifer, "It is Tuesday night, you know what that means!"

Of course, this is all speculation, but it is within the realm of possibility.
 
Reflecting last night on the sheriff's smiling countenance when he handed me back my driver's license. My plate reads: TKEME2RV.
 

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