The Busted Knuckle Chronicles see your registration Insurance and drivers permit, and then write a ticket, warning or charge it is the officer’s discretion. If upon approach by the officer you are rude, obnoxious loud or overbearing, you can expect the officer to use command and control techniques to take control of the stop. If you become agitated, verbally abusive and then physically abusive you can expect the officer to escalate their response as well as call for assistance in dealing with you. I always tried to make a calm confident approach to the driver and spoke firmly and clearly, asking for the documents while informing the driver as to the reason for the stop. We do not care if you believe you were not speeding, save your complaining and arguing for the Judge. No we do not have to show you the radar and no we do not want you to get out of your car and yes we are willing to back our ticket in court with expert testimony. The road side stop is not a trial it is a notification of a violation and the issued ticket gives you three options, pay it and forget it, appear in court and contest it, forget the ticket and be found guilty in absentia. This goes for any motor vehicle offence. Traffic officers spend day after day enforcing traffic laws, and so, NO, they do not have more important things to be doing. We do not want to hear about the drug problem in your schools and neighbourhood, please call the office, file a report and let the drug boys handle it. The officer does not want
A Cops Perspective & SOT
you to point out the other people speeding by as they write the ticket, because they have their full attention on you. Feel free to voice your frustration quietly and respectfully as free speech is still alive in Canada. I made it a habit to ignore passengers who would be so rude as to interrupt me as I was trying to converse with the driver. That is obnoxious, boorish behaviour and only slows down the process. It is amazing how many questions or comments people feel they must make to an officer while the officers are trying to do their job. Strange enough they never, as
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a rule, call the office to alert us to the more important things going on around us. There are situations where an officer has come storming up to the car angry and all their cool gone, this is not a good experience. I became that way only if the person being stopped had nearly creamed my motorcycle, it is impossible to remain calm with an adrenaline dump in your veins and a heart rate double your normal rate. Sometimes
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