Ram-mount: SPOT

[gary in ohio]

I see the "blocking the view of the road" thing as highly dependent on the vehicle.

Depends on the officer and the state but most say nothing on the dash or wind shield regardless of physical obstruction.

 

[Robert Bills]

Agreed with all that, but I have also had good luck with:

Him: "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
Me: "You know, the moment I saw your lights I looked down and saw that I was going a little fast. Honestly, I'm not in a hurry or anything, I just wasn't paying attention until then."

This has worked a couple of times for me.

Be careful with that. You just admitted that you were speeding. The qualifier that you weren't in a hurry and not paying attention doesn't negate your acknowledgment that you were violating the vehicle code.

Should you get a ticket, and should you contest it, the officer can and will testify as to your admission. (It is not inadmissible "hearsay" under federal and many state rules of evidence because it is an "admission against interest." In California, out of court party statements are not hearsay at all.) That is the reason I advise people to respond with a simple "no" to the question "Do you know what you did wrong?"

 

[kjp1969]

Be careful with that. You just admitted that you were speeding. The qualifier that you weren't in a hurry and not paying attention doesn't negate your acknowledgment that you were violating the vehicle code.

Should you get a ticket, and should you contest it, the officer can and will testify as to your admission. (It is not inadmissible "hearsay" under federal and many state rules of evidence because it is an "admission against interest." In California, out of court party statements are not hearsay at all.) That is the reason I advise people to respond with a simple "no" to the question "Do you know what you did wrong?"

Evidence, shmevidence. That whole conversation is a game. The cop doesn't care whether you know what you did or not, what the cop is really asking is, are you a jerk? Are you going to lie and deny that you were doing anything wrong, when we both know you were speeding? Are you going to disrespect me by making me spoonfeed this to you?

I'm not talking about winning in court, I'm talking about avoiding the ticket in the first place, because if you wind up in court, you've probably already lost.

If that cop meets 100 people that day, 99 of them did something wrong and are trying to weasle out of it somehow. The cop knows this, and will look at you as one of the 99. If you can take the wind out of his sails he might start looking at you as a regular guy who just lost track of what he was doing. If you're honest and fess up, he might even respect you! At that moment, and if you're lucky, the balance shifts in your favor. Now he doesn't want to write you a ticket, he wants to cut you a break because you're the one guy he's going to meet that day who was honest with him and showed him the respect of telling the truth.

Sun-Tsu, art of war: I can't quote any of it off-hand, but there's a lot in there about the wise warrior winning the battle by not having to fight.

'Course, he might write you up anyway, that's his job, after all.:ylsmoke: