Professional courtesy from police at traffic stops

Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP · Aug 20, 2007

Tim -- I got similar advice from my dad, who wasn't a police officer but has been pulled for speeding enough times to be familiar with them. It is good advice. I hadn't thought about turning on the interior lights at night but it makes perfect sense.

Once I got pulled on my way to work (I was 19) for running two lights in a row that turned red as I went through them. :trout: One at one block and one at the next. Below is the verbatim transcript of the said traffic stop:

Officer: Good morning.

Me: Um, good morning.

Him: Do you know why I pulled you?

Me: Well, I think so.

Him: Why is that?

Me: For running the red lights? [duh!]

Him: That's right. You wanna tell me why you did that?

Me: Honestly, officer, it was because I had them timed wrong. (that was the truth.)

Him: Well, I'm gonna let you go with a verbal warning. But I'm gonna give you a piece of advice. Next time you decide to run two red lights in a row, don't do it with a police officer right behind you. Have a good day.

Altra, BSN, RN · Aug 20, 2007

After reading a number of posts about police giving nurses a break on a traffic stop, I am curious. To those who have enjoyed the benefit of professional courtesy, some of you several times, do you reciprocate the favor? I mean do you treat your police patients extra nice, or quicker, maybe just do an all around more compassionate and caring job? What goes around should come around I would think, perhaps as a way of saying "thanks, you guys looked out for me, now I am going to look out for you."

Yes, I definitely do.

When I have police officers or their family as patients, we generally have a lot to talk about. :)

And when I have patients accompanied to the ER by police, we make sure we get them on their way as quickly as possible. When PD brings in a patient at 0745 after an incident lasting an hour or more ... I understand that they have been working all night, will have to transport the patient to jail when they're discharged from the ER, and then face an hour or more of paperwork after that.

Cooperation is a good thing.

MB37 · Aug 20, 2007

On "Get out of jail free" cards: in a city that shall remain nameless, my husband had two very close friends on the PD - both stood in our wedding. DH also I believe still carries in his wallet a card that actually has that saying stamped on it, signed on the back by one of his friends on the force. He never had occasion to use it, we didn't own a car there and he never got arrested for anything else, but it was supposed to be good for anything "minor," which I took to include pretty much any misdemeanor he got picked up/stopped for. I'm still a student and actually have never been pulled over (knock wood, again we got our first car pretty recently) in or out of scrubs, but since I drive the speed of traffic I'm sure it will happen eventually.

Chaya, ASN, RN · Aug 20, 2007

I know many Sweet Young Things that seem to have been let off with warnings in our out of uniform. Maybe because I am not much to look at, I have NEVER gotten off, with the exception of one of the 2 times I was stopped in scrubs. That time the officer basically told me I ought to know better and said "You don't want to end up IN the hospital as a patient, do you?" He told me to be more careful and let me go. The other time I was stopped for going, like, 45 in a school zone at 6:20 in the morning. Our first school buses are not until 6:45. I was in school and working a few shifts at a NH during our break to get extra experience. I was sick but going in anyway feeling miserable and being stopped was making me late. I just sat there and blubbered as he wrote out the ticket. (No, I wasn't trying to melt him with my tears, I was probably pretty scary to look at at that point!)

woody62, RN · Aug 20, 2007

Twice a week, I would drive from just outside Albany, N.Y. to N.Y.C. I'd meet my S.O., we would go out to dinner, spend some time together, then I dropped him of at his home. One Saturday, I noticed one of my low beams had burnt out. Because it was after 10:30PM, there was no place I could get it replaced in. On my way out of the city, I passed three NYPD officers. They ignored me. I drove past two NYS troopers on the Thruway, they ignored me. I was less then a mile from home, when I saw a trooper going in the opposite direction, on Rt. 20. In my rear view, I watched him flip, turn on his lights and siren. I pulled over into the right lane, slowing down to let him pass. Much to my surprise, he stayed behind me. I went a few hundred feet, pulled into a parking lot, turned off my engine and rolled down my window.

After handing him my license and insurance card, he asked me where I had been coming from and why I hadn't pulled over immediately. I said I didn't stop on a hill, on a curve, as I considered doing so dangerous. And that I was returning from NYC. He then asked me how much I had had to drink. I told him nothing. He told me he didn't believe me and that I had attempted to evade him. ??????? He also told me to get out of my car, he was going to conduct a 'field sobriety test' on me. I declined, telling him I had suffered a head injury, that affected my balance and I was unable to stand as instructed. You would have thought he would have wiped out his handy, dandy Breathalyzer. Nope, he keep demanding I get out of my car(the door was locked ,the window up so that he couldn't reach in to unlock the door). I asked him to call his supervising officer out, which he finally did. I told the supervisor why and he gave me the Breathalyzers. Of course I didn't trigger any response. He then handed me a ticket, for driving with a head light out.

Why the heck could he have just handed me the ticket after checking my registration. Because I didn't pull over immediately. And by doing that he made the assumption I had been driving under the influence. Fortunately for me, most of the police officers I have interacted with, have had a sense of humor, have acted human, and had been helpful. Especially the two NYPD officers that saw me crying, at the turn onto Canal Street, shortly after the Westside Highway reopened after 9/11. And upon learning I had lost three friends who were FDNY firemen, had me park my car and took me down to the Towers. Most police officers are just doing their jobs. And most are understanding. And to them, I am forever grateful for their doing the jobs and protecting me, mine and the rest of the community.

Woody:balloons:

copswife522 · Aug 21, 2007

my husband is a cop and he tells me he doesn't ticket nurses when he pulls them over. He says you never know when you'll need that nurse to save your life, or if he/she has already saved the life of one of your fellow officers. I think it's great.

US-RN · Aug 21, 2007

I live in Chesterfied, Va. and work in Richmond, Va. and I guess that my police officers are just the common vernacular for memberes, but because the last 3 tickets that I got (which were over a 12 year period) have been for stupid things and twice I was actually in uniform coming or going to work. The other time leaving the gym parking lot. Twice the tickets where for not having my wheels come to a complete stop at the corner stop sign when turning. And once was going around a garbage truck on a 2 lane road (one lane each way). Needless to say, I hate cops. I think that just mess with people. I never donate to their cause when the phone for solicitation. And I just wish that one of the ones who ticketed me needed my help at some point so that I could remind them of such. If I could remember them. As it is, we did have one cop (but he was a detective) and I treated him as I would "want to be treated" not as their kind treats me. :uhoh21:

kukukajoo, LPN · Aug 21, 2007

Thin blue line stickers are not an urban myth- you can do a search and find people selling knockoffs. The real one looks like a blue strip of tape between two strips of black electric tape- a very simple symbol. Saw one just yesterday on a local vehicle.

Recently there was an article in in MA paper regarding these stickers and that some are still getting pulled over with them and if caught not being family or a LE officer, they have been bullied and made to remove sticker, etc...

58flyer · Aug 21, 2007

The police really have no authority to make anyone remove a TBL sticker. It's not like it's an official logo and it's not an indicia of authority. Now if the sticker actually had the words "police" or "law enforcement" in a way that would someone think that a police officer was present in the vehicle, that would be a different matter.

actress8503 · Aug 21, 2007

I've been pulled over 3 times in my driving career (all for speeding), and have only been let out of one ticket and that just so happened to be when I was wearing my nursing scrubs. At the time I was actually a student nurse still and the motor cop pulled me over, saw my scrubs and stethoscope and asked if I was an RN. I told him not yet, but in another year I would be. He told me right then and there that I would be let off with a warning, but made me promise that I would take good care of him if he ever ended up in the hospital.

One of my friends is a cop and he told me that police officers always tend to let medical professionals go because law enforcement and medical professionals team up a lot and rely on one another to make the world a better place.

rec · Aug 21, 2007

I just recently got pulled over for the first time in something like 10 years. I was on my way to work wearing scrubs (bright pink scrubs, easy to see from the road) and my work name badge. It was on a stretch of interstate that is pretty well patrolled, I guess there is a lot of drugs that run up and down the area. The state patrol was driving slower than the speed limit and several cars passed him before me so I went on past him too, I had my cruise control set on the speed limit and I thought I was ok. He sped up and pulled me over, I kept running through the list in my mind, I wasn't speeding, my tags are current... He said he pulled me over because my windshield was cracked (which it is, but low on the windshield, not directly across my line of vision, and it has been that way for the past 4 years or so). He looked at my license and asked if I still lived at that address which I did, then asked if I was going to work at the hospital, I said yes I was. I was a little irritated, but I was making the effort to be pleasant, because I do appreciate what they do, but I lived in a bigger city area up until about 3 years ago and pulling people over for broken windshields was what the police out there did when they suspected something else was going on in the car that they wanted to check out. I couldn't imagine what made me look suspicious, I was driving a decent looking car, going the speed limit and obviously wearing scrubs. He just gave me a warning which I was happy about, but I was late for work and now I am all worried about getting pulled over again since I haven't gotten the extra $200 to get myself a new windshield yet!

REC

AR_RN · Aug 21, 2007

Just a little story about professional courtesy in general. I know many of you have been involved in the police "culture", but professional courtesy is just part of that culture. It may not be appropriate to manipulate it, but it's not wrong to allow it.

A few years ago I worked for a police department near my home town. I was in my town on an unfamiliar road and was stopped for speeding. I had no idea I was speeding as the road I'd just turned off was a higher speed limit than the one I'd turned onto. I was stopped and the officer proceeded to write me a ticket. When he got to the part about asking where I work, and I told him XXXX PD, he gave me a very annoyed look and said, "why didn't you tell me that!? Now that I've started writing this ticket, I have to give it to you." I felt like I'd done something wrong by not trying to get out of the ticket.

Now, getting pulled over my my guys was another thing altogether. I got pulled over only 3 times during my years working there, two speeding and one expired inspection....but all three were by the same officer. I may have preferred a ticket to the chewing out he gave me. heehee.