Pretty sure I was profiled today

[Scarlett]

I don’t care really but it was an interesting incident.

I drive a Prius with dark tint. OK tags. 

I made a drive over to AR to pick up my SIL’s dog.  We are dog sitting while they go on vacation.  While in AR but very near the OK border I was following a FED ex truck.  Suddenly a sheriff deputy in a white truck comes flying up behind me. The FedEx truck pulls over and I pull over in front of fed ex truck sure that the sheriff would go on.  He did not.  He waved fed ex truck on. 
 

It took him 10 minutes to come up to my door.   He was very nice. SIL dog growled at him and he asked if he was going to get eaten up.  ‘I said, well she  isn’t my dog so I don’t know.’  He asked for my license and registration. I handed him my license and reached for my registration but he said he would be right back.  While he is gone I realize I handed him an expired license.  My current one was also in my wallet. It took him about 10 minutes to come back. When he does he hands me my expired license without a word.  I look at it and verify it is expired and then point it out to him.  He asks for both back and compares them….and kind of shrugs.  Then he says, ‘hey remember the speed limit in AR is 55, I know that is hard to adjust to after OK (it is 75-80 in OK) ‘. I said thank you very much.  
 

So I don’t think he ever even looked at my license.  I think once he saw I did not appear to be a drug trafficker he just did not do anything more.  
 

What do y’all think?

[Loowit]

If he ran the driver's license number and it came back as valid, he probably didn't bother look at the expiration date.  If you were speeding, it sounds like a valid stop to me.

[Annie G]

Sometimes they pull cars over for an infraction hoping to find things like guns or drugs in plain sight, or run the license and learn there’s a warrant out for the driver.  Is a Prius the vehicle of choice there for drugs dealers?  The dark window tint can be a way to hide what’s going on inside. 
Probably took him a while to come to your car initially because they were running registration. An expired license gave him the info he needed to verify you hold a valid license.  
Our small town catches a lot of stuff when they stop cars for speeding, headlights out, etc. But they don’t often write tickets for the minor infractions, as they’re really looking for bigger issues. Other than speeding in a school zone, it’s hard to get a speeding ticket in our town. 
Maybe you were profiled..who knows, ya know. 

[Katy]

DH and I went there a couple times when we lived in OK.  We got pulled over every time, twice in one town I think just because they wondered what we were doing. There was literally no valid reason to pull us over. One guy said, “I just wanted to check on you. Can I give you directions?” It seemed like we were being told to leave town by the tone. The town was on the path to one of those state parks that was on a list of must-visit places if you’re in the area. 

[Scarlett]

15 minutes ago, Katy said:

DH and I went there a couple times when we lived in OK.  We got pulled over every time, twice in one town I think just because they wondered what we were doing. There was literally no valid reason to pull us over. One guy said, “I just wanted to check on you. Can I give you directions?” It seemed like we were being told to leave town by the tone. The town was on the path to one of those state parks that was on a list of must-visit places if you’re in the area. 

You will have to pm me what town.  I am from the general area where I was stopped but he did not know that of course. 

[Scarlett]

39 minutes ago, Loowit said:

If he ran the driver's license number and it came back as valid, he probably didn't bother look at the expiration date.  If you were speeding, it sounds like a valid stop to me.

I don’t think I was speeding.  I was following a fedex truck and had been for miles. I remember thinking, wow this guy is going the speed limit…..

I would think a sheriff deputy would look at the license if he was even remotely interested. 

[happi duck]

I only think of race when I see the word "profiled" which with tinted windows I'm guessing isn't the case.

Why do you think you were pulled over?  Tinted windows?  Out-of-state?  Prius?  (Us Prius owners are a bad ass bunch, lol!)

[Loowit]

26 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

I don’t think I was speeding.  I was following a fedex truck and had been for miles. I remember thinking, wow this guy is going the speed limit…..

I would think a sheriff deputy would look at the license if he was even remotely interested. 

Did he say why he pulled you over?

He may have looked at the expiration, but if the license came back valid when he ran it, it might not have mattered to him because you had a valid license. 

I have never thought of a Prius as a drug car, so it would seem like an odd car to think of for being profiled that way to me.  I mean I guess maybe tinted windows, but a lot of cars here have them, so it wouldn't be a red flag here either I don't think, but your area might be different.  It does seem a bit odd to be pulled over if you weren't speeding or doing anything wrong though.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Prius’s are the number one car targeted in catalytic converter theft. I wonder how high up they are on lists of actual car (ie the entire car) theft?  Just musing that he might have thought that you were driving a stolen car but was proven wrong. 

[Scarlett]

41 minutes ago, Loowit said:

Did he say why he pulled you over?

He may have looked at the expiration, but if the license came back valid when he ran it, it might not have mattered to him because you had a valid license. 

I have never thought of a Prius as a drug car, so it would seem like an odd car to think of for being profiled that way to me.  I mean I guess maybe tinted windows, but a lot of cars here have them, so it wouldn't be a red flag here either I don't think, but your area might be different.  It does seem a bit odd to be pulled over if you weren't speeding or doing anything wrong though.

He did not know it was expired until I told him.  
 

I don’t know what a drug dealer car looks like. Tinted windows and OK tags may have been enough.  

[TravelingChris]

Back in  '13, my fil died and he lived in Northern NJ and we are Alabamanians.  We were travelling by car, my 06 Subaru Outback w dh driving and ds, dd2, and me also along.  It was night and we were in I80 in VA.  We were targeted.  Once the trooper approached, you could see him surprise that he had just stopped an older military officer w family, not drug mules or ????.  

Anybody can be targeted.

In one notorious town in Alabama near Florida, the sheriff was well known for targeting people who looked like they were moving and seizing cash.

[Tap]

If you were following the FedEx truck for quite a while, the driver may have called you in for concerning behavior. Especially if he was going under the speed limit, but you stayed with him.....The FedEx driver may have been concerned. 

[Jean in Newcastle]

26 minutes ago, Tap said:

If you were following the FedEx truck for quite a while, the driver may have called you in for concerning behavior. Especially if he was going under the speed limit, but you stayed with him.....The FedEx driver may have been concerned. 

True!  Around here porch pirates actually follow FedEx and Amazon delivery trucks and then steal the deliveries. 

[Eos]

nvm, might be taken as political 

Edited September 16, 2022 by Eos

[HomeAgain]

Out of state plates have given us ideas of where to avoid.

Upstate NY seems to be particularly troubling.  We've gotten pulled over for "going too slow", "going too fast", "concern about our turn signal"...and none of these were actual reasons.  Turn signal was fine, we were going with the flow of traffic.  But, out of state plates.  IA got us pulled over for "illegal tint".  Well, the tint on the windows was perfectly legal in the state where we were from and done by the dealership.  They gave us a hard time for about half an hour before letting us go with a warning. 

We just keep out of areas now where we know the response will be based on perception and not fact.  I have a perfect driving record, and other than intentionally driving through a stop sign (very rural, I had the flu, and the cop was very kind once he saw what was going on), but other than that, I have never had a reason to be stopped.  The responses that I've had in certain states have now made me steer clear of them, though.

[Scarlett]

6 hours ago, Tap said:

If you were following the FedEx truck for quite a while, the driver may have called you in for concerning behavior. Especially if he was going under the speed limit, but you stayed with him.....The FedEx driver may have been concerned. 

We weren’t going under the speed limit.  And we were on a 2 lane main highway.  I had no choice but to follow him.

[gstharr]

You probably were the subject of a pretext stop.  An officer can pull you over for any real or imagined minor traffic infraction allowing  the officer to search for evidence of a crime (typically drugs).  The 10 minute delay in reviewing your license  is so that  a k-9 unit can get there when the cops start questioning you.   The pretext stop is common on  most famous drug corridor: I-95.  I-40 id s another well known drug corridor. The cop let you go because he either felt you weren't dealing after seeing you, or the k-9 unit couldn't get there in a timely manner.  https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/pretext-traffic-stops-whren-v-united-states

[Scarlett]

1 hour ago, gstharr said:

You probably were the subject of a pretext stop.  An officer can pull you over for any real or imagined minor traffic infraction allowing  the officer to search for evidence of a crime (typically drugs).  The 10 minute delay in reviewing your license  is so that  a k-9 unit can get there when the cops start questioning you.   The pretext stop is common on  most famous drug corridor: I-95.  I-40 id s another well known drug corridor. The cop let you go because he either felt you weren't dealing after seeing you, or the k-9 unit couldn't get there in a timely manner.  https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/pretext-traffic-stops-whren-v-united-states

Possibly. My brother lives very close to where I was pulled over. He says pot from OK growers is being brought into AR(which is illegal) and a lot of people with OK tags are getting pulled over. 

[SKL]

Given the comment about drugs being brought from OK, I assume the OK plates + tinted windows + maybe a slow news day got you pulled over.

At least they didn't try to give you a ticket.  I've had to threaten a cop with a complaint to stop him from ticketing me when I was going 1 mile under the speed limit (on the freeway, middle of the night, no traffic).  I had been followed by the cop for a while, so I was watching my speedometer very closely.  Not sure what motivates some people sometimes.  I've also been ticketed for the stupidest reasons that, while true, did not justify a $100+ ticket.  (Like a broken light bulb above my license plate.  Couldn't you just give me a warning?)  I've also been pulled over because my car was the same model & color as another car that had been stolen.  Annoying.

[Annie G]

2 minutes ago, SKL said:

  I've also been ticketed for the stupidest reasons that, while true, did not justify a $100+ ticket.  (Like a broken light bulb above my license plate.  Couldn't you just give me a warning?)  I've also been pulled over because my car was the same model & color as another car that had been stolen.  Annoying.

The license plate bulb ticket would drive me nuts. A headlight  I understand-you can see that it’s out. But who even sees their tag light?  I know it’s a legit stop and all, but sheesh, that seems petty to ticket someone for that unless there’s other stuff going on. 
I once had a headlight go out WHILE driving home from work and got stopped a half mile from home. Just a warning, and then ticket said to come by the station when it’s fixed to prove I’d done it. So the next day I fixed it and went down to station (we lived in a small town) and the officer wouldn’t even come look at it. I told him I fixed it and had the ticket in hand and he just said ok. As a rule follower it annoyed me. If you want me to show you it’s fixed, come look at it. 

[shawthorne44]

The worst for me was I was once pulled over for having two years worth of tags on my window.    These were the tax tags that you had to get a new one every year.  I couldn't get the old one off, and I knew the car inspection was due soon.    So I just planned on having the inspector scrape the old one off.  This was in a town nicknamed locally as Useless.   I think I was really pulled over for driving an old car.  I tend to drive cars until they can't be fixed.   Or in that case the mechanic made (gentle) fun of my car.   

[Scarlett]

It was just a combination of things…..the fact that I really don’t think I was speeding…..he waved the fed ex truck on and kept me. He made me sit 10 minutes both before and after he took my expired license .  He did not notice my license was expired. Then he let me go with a verbal warning and a smile.  
 

Just weird.  

[SKL]

10 minutes ago, shawthorne44 said:

The worst for me was I was once pulled over for having two years worth of tags on my window.    These were the tax tags that you had to get a new one every year.  I couldn't get the old one off, and I knew the car inspection was due soon.    So I just planned on having the inspector scrape the old one off.  This was in a town nicknamed locally as Useless.   I think I was really pulled over for driving an old car.  I tend to drive cars until they can't be fixed.   Or in that case the mechanic made (gentle) fun of my car.   

The year I got pulled over most (including the broken light over the license plate) was shortly before I replaced my old car.  I was pulled over 3 or 4 times in one month!  I was going over the speed limit some of the times, but no more than most people usually do.

People driving old cars are not the ones who can afford unnecessary tickets.  Like I said, I don't understand some people's motivations.

[Guest]

I did get pulled over once for a very strange reason while I was driving a Cadillac Escalade, which is sometimes the car of choice for people up to no good. He said my headlights were excessively bright, though they were not on high beam. I still think he pulled me over for a different reason but let me go when he realized I was just a mom in an SUV on my way to my kid’s doctor appointment. 

[Selkie]

Maybe your car matched the description of a vehicle he was looking for. On the police scanner here, they’re always issuing all points bulletins for vehicles that were stolen or involved in crimes or traffic incidents, etc.

[Terabith]

When we were in the middle of an epic cross country drive (moving from Denver to San Antonio, but I was going to spend a month in Roanoke, VA, while my husband was at an Air Force training), we were at the end of stage one from Denver to Alamogordo, New Mexico, where we were dropping our cats off at my mom's house.  So, we had two cars, two adults, and three cats, one of whom was so claustrophobic that she had managed to claw through the plastic carrier and was riding loose in the car.  We hit Alamogordo at midnight, and one of the cars had a tail light that had gone out on the journey.  We got pulled over THREE TIMES in the four miles between hitting Alamogordo city limits and my mom's house.  After the first time, my husband was like, "I have the ticket here.  I now know about the tail light, and I will get it fixed tomorrow, but what am I supposed to do about it at midnight?"  

[Clarita]

Maybe he thought you were cute. I got pulled over once for expired registration sticker, and that was my husband's explanation aside from of course the sticker that we hadn't put on yet. 

Although where I am, a lot of times they may have gotten a description of a car or something and they just want to check things out. Criminals drive all sorts of cars, sometimes just depends on what is available.

[BlsdMama]

On 9/16/2022 at 5:54 AM, HomeAgain said:

.  But, out of state plates.  IA got us pulled over for "illegal tint".  Well, the tint on the windows was perfectly legal in the state where we were from and done by the dealership.  

Lol! We bought a van from FL with heavily tinted windows and DH and I wonder how long before we get pulled over.