Being tailgated dangerously close by a police cruiser

[skiiipi]

Originally Posted by Ferra

Police tends to like tailgating people and cars they find suspicious...
i guess mainly because people with something (illegal) to hide tends to make mistakes or bail under pressure...

I bet this is the reason he found you suspicious....why would you stop in the middle of the road to let a car infront of you?
There is NO REASON to give a police vehicle any special privilege unless it has its siren on (we live in Canada, not an authoritarian police state)
It is feels awkward, create traffics hazards and in most cases, the police will feel uncomfortable as well.

yea i'm guessing this is probably why he found me suspicious.
it was a tough decision to make, and in hind sight probably i didnt make the correct one.
the way he had this car positioned (slightly facing right with wheels turned) and his signals flashing i wasnt sure if he was going to cut me off, or wait till i past him. so i slowed down to let him in. I didnt do it cause it was a cop, i did it more as a defensive driving technique cause i felt that the way his car is position, it made it seem like he was doing to go at any moment and potentially cut me off.

[toyobaru]

A similar thing happened to me once last year. I was down at Stanley Park doing some night photography. Once I was done my shots near the 9pm Canon area I drove off to head to take pictures of the Lions Gate bridge. on the way there I was driving the 30kms/hr in the park as posted. I noticed there was a ghost car and a van infront of me. The van pulled off its own way and the cop pulled over. So now i was driving alone and suddenly my buddy noticed a car tailgating me really really close. So my initial reaction was so speed up and get some distance incase i needed to slam on the breaks for a hobo jumping outta the woods or something. immediately I was pulled over. the cop asks for my liscence and so forth and automatically slams me with some bullshit number that i was speeding at (he claimed i was going 80kms/hr) If i was going 30km/hr and suddenly dash it to 80 right away i must be driving a ferrari or something, i clearly dont drive an exotic. i drive a civic lol. then he blames me for arguing back when I asked why he was tailgating and pretty much he gave me the "im a cop i do as i please i dont need to explain my actions to you" line. then he asked me "why were you speeding". i stuck to my story and said i sped up to get some distance between our vehicles because your car was at an unsafe distance between mine and his. he took a deep breath and goes "im going to ask you again and before you answer, think about it" so i was coerced into saying i was speeding because there was room ahead. in the end he let me off without a ticket. but now my questions are I had my reasons for speeding up to get room and are police allowed to coerce you into giving an answer they want to hear and are they allowed to come up with some bullshit number for speeding?

[MWR34]

when a cop is nice and I know i did something wrong, im nice, polite and accept responsibility. but when I know I did nothing wrong, and they are power tripping Im a fcuking prick.

[Jer3]

same thing happen to me once on no 3 road. he followed me from blundell and 3 rd all the way to alderbridge and 3 rd. the difference was that he was in front of me while i went 50 and he was going 60ish then he slammed the brakes which almost made me rear-end him. from there, he went 30 so i passed him going 50 again and then he tailgated me for awhile right up to my bumper while i was still going the speed limit. i don't understand the protocol with this but i find it rather unprofessional.

[minimebang]

should have just let him pull you over and ask him wt the hell is going on. Do not let him proceed any illegal search or even touch your car without any grounds. This is wht you should do when you know you hv done nth wrong and got pulled over. Be polite see wht the cop says to you. If hes being a dick then just maximize your human rights LOL.( this only happens in richmond.)

[KamalB]

I would slam on my brakes, i hate douchebag cops like that.

[sebberry]

Originally Posted by KamalB

I would slam on my brakes,

Something tells me you wouldn't actually want your car banged up by the nudge bars on a police cruiser. Plus the associated charges for slamming on your brakes for no reason other than to cause a collision.

How about you signal right, move over and slow down. If the cop wants you he'll do the same, if not he'll pass.

[?NR]

as mentioned by a few members, just pull over safely (and legally) and ask politely if you can help the constable with anything.

find out what his/her intentions are and proceed from there. In your mind you are not doing anything wrong nor broken any laws, you have nothing to fear. right? don't make the situation into something that could've been avoided with simple understanding from both parties.

[CP.AR]

Kind of off topic but may help in a situation like this:
are we legally allowed to have car video log recorders installed and running in our vehicles?

[Five-Oh]

Originally Posted by Captain Picard

Kind of off topic but may help in a situation like this:
are we legally allowed to have car video log recorders installed and running in our vehicles?

You are allowed to record events for evidentiary purposes. That being said, if you have a car video log recorder you have to ensure it conforms to all the other Motor Vehicle Act laws, ie. not obstructing your vision, can't be operating it while operating your vehicle, can't have a live video screen that you can watch while driving, etc.

[Al Lung Leung]

Originally Posted by cococly

I believe the VPD (not too sure about Richmond RCMP) has electronic devices on their police vehicles that scan through plates automatically?

i don't think so. ive been on a ride-along and the officer i was with just read the plates

[BNR32_Coupe]

one time, a police cruiser followed me closely, then i got a ticket and i paid for it the next day then i forgot about it until i read this thread then i wrote this.

[zulutango]

And they gave you the ticket for.........?

[BNR32_Coupe]

Originally Posted by zulutango

And they gave you the ticket for.........?

He pulled me over cause I was doing a wheelie. But was nice enough to give me a ticket for disobey license restrictions because I had no N since it fell off during the wheelie which he pulled me over for (somehow he didn't believe that but I offered to go back and look around the area I wheelied on for my N sign but he said dont waste my time im letting you off easy enough as it is, so he had a good point and I took the ticket and left)

[zulutango]

And that's the rest of the story.....sounds like you got one heck of a break. Would have been 6 points and $368 for due care.

[BallPeenHammer2]

i've had cops do that to me as well. i'm not cool with it at all. It was on Bridgeport in richmond. I just turned left on to bridge port from#6 road, and going towards #5. I saw him on the other side before I made the left. He followed me up until that road where you turn in to get to Future Shop.

At that intersection, I was on the far right lane. Someone made a right hand turn out of that street without checking, and I had to hit the brakes and swerve a bit. instead of pulling over the right turn motherfucker, I got pulled over a bit past starbucks.

After a 10 minute pullover and conversation, I was given a ticket for driving without due care or attention. The cop i think may have missed the right turner somehow and just thought I was brake checking him. Fucker almost slammed into me he was so close. Bloody garbage.

(note: I wasn't speeding, I wasn't drunk, I wasn't on the phone, I wasn't fiddling with anything like the stereo.)

[sebberry]

It's cases like that which make me wonder why YD teaches emergency maneuvers if you're just going to get ticketed for them.

[mac25]

i've also had this happen to me. last sumer i was travelling behind traffic all moving above the posted limit around kits. i guess since i was the last car in the lane he had to pull in behind me, makes sence. it was obviously slow enough that the officer didn't see any point in pulling me or the other vehicals over.

so as most people would do i dropped down a bit lower then the limit and proceeded to drive. the officer's cruiser nose could not be seen in my rear view window, this is how close he was. the officer fallowed me through 2 or so intersections, i thought maybe they just had to get somewhere so i changed lanes. the officer pulled in behind me again at the same distance as before. i waited for another intersection then changed once more. again the officer fallowed me. at this point i realized that the officer was just being a dick and proceeded to drive on my way with a personal escort. finally after maybe 5 or 6 intersections he pulls into the left turning lane. i look over at him and he makes a motion for me to rol down my window. so i did. then he says, in an angree voice, something like "obviously you knew you were traveling above the limit, keep it slow!"

so it would seem like he was just trying to fallow me long enough for me to increase my speed so he didn't rear end me. thank goodness i didn't.

if he did write me a ticket after such a prolonged tailgating for increasing my speed, would this not be entrapment?

[sebberry]

What goes through an officer's mind during that... "I'm going to tailgate this car, through several intersections, to tell the driver he was going a little bit too fast". Good eay to lead by example I suppose.

And no, it's not entrapment. He didn't force you to speed.