Unusual speed traps and other wily LEO stuff

The empty, older cruiser parked on the shoulder just past the bridge worked around here years back until someone came up with the Dunkin Donuts box placed on the roof for the rest of us. Haven't seen the tactic used much since.

I have seen 2 that work well out here:

1) sitting on the top road of a freeway overpass and radaring down the freeway below, radioing ahead to awaiting units to pull you over

2) sitting on the entrance ramps to the freeway, tucked way up high so that you don't see them until you come under the overpass. They have you by the time you see them (true most of the time these days).

Fortunately, I commute in rush hour, so we are limited to the speed limit or below due to congestion.

It is fishing opener this weekend and most LEO's will be busy with DUI stops. Many of those are caught initially for speeding. I see at least one Whiskey plate a day on my commute. Lot's of drunks out here that can't drive worth a crap.

It's not entrapment because no one enticed you to speed and break the law.

That's actually pretty funny.

F'in coppers!

There... I just wanted to be the first one to say it!

On my way to work one morning, same route I ride/drive every day. I see an unmarked white Chevy panel van like any electrician, carpenter, plumber might drive. It's parked on the shoulder. As I get closer, I can see someone doing something through one of the windows in the rear. As I come past the driver's door, I see a uniformed Sheriff in the drivers seat. I think to myself, "That's odd." A quarter mile down the road, there are two marked cruisers pulling people over.

The guy in the back of the van was running radar. :eek1

Sierra County in Callifornia has a patrol car that they park in various places to get people to slow down. Here's what it looked like when I saw it:


And here's what the "officer" looked like inside:


California is generally better than other states regarding speed traps. You'll rarely see more than one car or two motorcycles running radar at any given spot. However, they will occasionally have another one a few miles down the road for the benefit of those who think it's okay to speed once they pass a radar cop.

My wife got a ticket from one of those, after I encouraged her.

We were in our old muscle car, which has very long legs and accelerates like a 600cc sportbike, and she was leasurly passing a string of 20 cars behind an 18-wheeler, with a slower moving 18-wheeler in the fast lane 1/4 mile ahead of us. I told her she could probably pass all of them if she got after it. She did, and in a big way. She had scrubbed LOTS of speed by the time we went under the bridge, but the motorcycle cop still nabbed her at 20 over. He was real nice, and wrote her for 10 over. He even noticed my taillights weren't as bright as they should be, and helped me track down the wiring problem. I suppose it could have been just to get a look inside the trunk, but he was a big help none the less.

Our town used to park a retired police car along the road at various locations. Somebody burned it.

In the U.S., law enforcement has the legal right to lie to us except in situations where they're subject to perjury such as under oath in court. We never have the right to lie to them, but we have the right to say nothing.

There are two videos that are great about what to say to law enforcement if you're involved in more than a traffic stop:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08fZQWjDVKE

My favorite technique when I rode motors in the Dallas area was to find an abandoned car along the interstate and pull up behind it as if I was on a stop. I'd have the handheld radar on the tank..ready to be picked up and watching the mirrors. I'd catch sight of one ripping along and before you know it...I'd have one locked in at 20 plus over the limit.

My other favorite was putting my all white bike up against the white crash barrels they used to place against the base of the overhead signs in the median. The grass was usually pretty tall and about the time the real speeders could figure out there was a bike up against the barrels..I'd have another 20 plus over the limit bagged.

I'd write plenty of tickets by 'hiding' in plain sight. I had some liberal tolerances...20 over on the highway. I'd still get all the tickets I wanted every day.

Thirty plus years ago I was travelling the interstate in Illinois? for the first time ever. They had a hedge set up in a zig- zag pattern evenly spaced (1/4 mile apart?) the length of the highway that you could hide a state trooper behind.
At some point in the ride there would be one but you never knew which one so you took your chances or slowed to 55ish. It seemed effective to me. I wonder if they still do that?

Yep--this the spot where it drops from highway speed to town speed in a relatively short distance? Nailed my dad there as he was slowing down and called it reckless driving. If I hadn't spent 16 years riding around at 5 under the limit with him at the wheel I would've believed the cop but these guys were assholes every step of the way to my dad. Stay away from Morrison if you can help it.

Eastbound on Van Born-- you curve up and over the Southfield freeway and the cop is sitting at that church just past Anne Rd. writing 20mph over tickets all day long.

Allen Park, Michigan Speed Trap

Ha, that reminds me a few years ago I was visiting a friend who lived outside Savannah and we went shooting at a state owned public range, one of those 'put your 2 bucks in the envelope' places. Several other people there as well and we hadn't even unloaded the car yet and a Sheriff shows up and starts handing everyone 120$ tickets for shooting at a closed range. Not to argue with a cop when a bunch of people are standing around with guns, but I politely told him we hadn't even got the firearms out of the car yet and what's this about the range being closed? I swear to God he laughed at me, walked 20 feet off into the woods, and pointed to a rusty sign that said "range closed first Tuesday of the month" or something like that.

I took a picture of the sign and needless to say, in court the judge let us off, and lit into the cop. It was hard not to smirk.

The city of Allen Park is almost broke. Be very careful everywhere.

In the town where I grew up a favored trick at night was to tailgate someone with their brights on. Speed up to get away and out come the flashers.

Pulling over didn't work so hot either, a few feet farther up the road you'd pass the cop and he'd be right back on your ass with the highs going.

As I was doing absolutely nothing wrong I played high beam hopscotch with one for about two hours one night.


I think I'll just go away and quit remembering how much shit like this pisses me off now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summersville,_West_Virginia

Love the last part.

I moved to Arizona about 6 years ago and got that ticket 10 years ago. Aside from the occasional photo radar, when compared to MI and Ohio, Johnny Law in AZ doesn't seem too concerned about revenue generation.

They'd never generate any revenue if they stopped writing tickets for the same stupid shit THEY do every day. Oh , but they're there to save us from ourselves. Who's going to save us from them?:huh

The funniest one I heard of was on a stationary radar camera car (we call 'em Flash for Cash) in Brisbane, Queensland.
Some young guys pulled up and took the plates off the camera car and put 'em on their own car and proceeded to drive back and forth past the radar trap at excessive speed with the flash for cash taking pictures of its own plates .... cute!

In criminal law, entrapment is conduct by a law enforcement agent inducing a person to commit an offense that the person would otherwise have been unlikely to commit.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference">[1]</sup> In many jurisdictions, entrapment is a possible defense against criminal liability.

If your speeding, cop around or not you are already speeding and committing an offence. If they had a hot female officer in some hot clothes ask for a ride on the back of your bike and grabs your throttle to make you go faster then her coworker pulls you over and she gets off and introduces herself as a police officer. That would probably be entrapment.