[Amrik Singh]

Not pulled over, but cautioned. In USA, my daughter was driving and wanted to rest. We thought of switching seat. She pulled over in the service lane and stopped. Just then, from nowhere, Highway Patrol Car stopped behind us. Quick thinking, my daughter stepped out, went back, opened her boot and took out some medicine. By now the Cop walked up to her and questioned the reason of stopping.
She replied that suddenly she had migraine and pulled over for her medicine and to to let me continue with the drive.
He complimented her on her decision but cautioned her for stopping on service lane instead of proper rest area. He remained parked behind us to see me merge into fast moving traffic safely and disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.

[no_fear]

Lots of good anecdotes here to read. Everyone has stories of being pulled over. Wanted to chip in my bit, from the other side (I was the one pulling people over)

Won't go into too many details of what I did, but I worked for a while in a certain NE US state as a deputy and part of my duties was to monitor the state roads for drunk driving.

1. Pulled over a fellow desi for expired tags and broken rear light. He was very apologetic and turns out he was a senior exec at a multinational. I issued him a warning and told him to fix his rear lights because someone else would fine him the next time. He took down my details - later I got a text message from him. We met for drinks a few times and became good friends.

2. Pulled over a family. The husband was speeding in excess of 20 miles over speed limit. It was a desi family out on a trip to Niagara falls and somehow lost their way. The guy was driving a rental on Indian license. This is when google maps was just becoming popular. He was so afraid of being pulled over by cops, didn't realize I am a fellow Indian. He started telling his wife that he will be ticketed and how to bargain with me or if I can be paid off (in Hindi). I kept listening, issued him a speeding fine and told him in Hindi, its an offense to bribe police officers in US. Poor fellow turned white, tried to use the desi-desi bhai bhai play card. I scolded him a lot saying he should not be speeding in country roads, especially when he has a family + kids. I felt bad for the fellow, but I was wearing body cam, and I had evidence of him speeding.

3. Before I left the US, was out with a junior officer on field duty. I was instructing the rookie how to read body language, take cues, listen to the stories, and see what makes sense and does not. Just my luck, saw a guy driving very slowly, way below the speed limit, in his sedan. I initially thought he was drunk. Turned on my light, pulled him over. He told me he was lost and could not find his way. My spidey senses tingled, as his story did not add up, but I had no grounds to search his car. He passed the field sobriety tests so I had to let him go. Just as he was about to drive off, I asked him where he was coming from. He told me xxx place. I knew that the highway was closed from that location. That gave me grounds to search his car as he lied to me. Found a sizable amount of narcotics in his trunk. Arrested him for DUI and called for back up.

I have several more - but that's for another day.

[hondatoyotafan]

Originally Posted by no_fear

but I worked for a while in a certain NE US state as a deputy and part of my duties was to monitor the state roads for drunk driving.

Are you a US citizen because when I tried to get into LEO I enquired some Police Departments around the DC area and they wanted only US Citizens. I tried my luck in Vancouver Canada where they were ready to accept Permanent Residents. But had to move to India before completing the process.

I have many experiences being pulled over in the US because I went to the US as a young student and I was still an immature hot-head. Been pulled over many times mainly for speeding and once for a red light which I rushed through from yellow. Always been pulled over by white men and only once by a beautiful hispanic lady.

Many times the encounters were peaceful with me just getting a citation for speeding. Only once I tried to be smart and argued with a cop about the section he charged me (by this time I became astute in all speeding statutes of my state). Later when O narrated this incident to my trusted lawyer (a smart Jewish guy who got me out of points and offences many times), he said I was lucky to be put in that statute and if the cop really got angry, he could have charged me with higher offences.

Canada is more lenient than the US for speeding offences and usually you don't get pulled over much. During my time in Canada, I was pulled over only once with just a warning by a Quebec cop.

[no_fear]

Originally Posted by JVH

My recent trip to US was in June this year (after the Covid hiatus) and I had this feeling that I'll be flagged/stopped because of that ticket and for no show in the court. Stayed there for 3 weeks, nothing happened.

Was it a city cop, county sheriff or CHP - California highway patrol?

If its the first, then not much will happen. If its county sheriff or CHP, then it's a different story.

County sheriff / CHP officer will issue you a ticket which is later flagged in the systems as unpaid. On top you are supposed to go to the court to pay, but you do not show up. So the court system flags you as "failure to pay". The court then decides whether to classify this as a misdemeanor or infraction and issue an arrest warrant. In most cases, courts issue arrest warrant.

As the system will have a temporary address or no address and no social security number, the warrant can't be enforced, but it stays on the sheriff / CHP database. If you are ever pulled up, the sheriff / CHP officer will run your name and see that you have an arrest warrant for misdemeanor - not paid speeding fine. You will be arrested and produced to court, where you will have to pay the fine, plus any incremental fees - I think it's additional 300 - 500 USD. It's a bureaucratic nightmare and I know several fellow Indians who faced this rigmarole. It then causes further issues to the US visa, as you technically end up with a record. US visas are not issued to any person with a criminal record and any existing visa is annulled.

The arrest warrant will not show up on Federal / immigration portals as they are not connected. But if you drive in California and get pulled over, by CHP or sheriff you will be in serious trouble.

I would recommend you to pay the speeding ticket the next time you are in CA area. Don't chance it. The courts know a lot of people could not travel due to Covid and are lenient.

[bwajlearn]

I have one where I was the passenger. After a heavy Italian lunch, came out of the restaurant and my friend casually turned left and started driving on left lane (we had some 6 months driving at this time) and bam, cop pulled us over.
Typical Indian fashion, he just got out of the car
Luckily cop just told him to get back to seat and fined him. I remember this incident whenever I see cops in movies taking out the gun if driver tries to get out.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by no_fear

Lots of good anecdotes here to read. Everyone has stories of being pulled over. Wanted to chip in my bit, from the other side (I was the one pulling people over)

Won't go into too many details of what I did, but I worked for a while in a certain NE US state as a deputy and part of my duties was to monitor the state roads for drunk driving.

That is amazing to hear about - nice to get an idea from the other side of the table.

If my limited memory serves me right, you might be the first (ex)cop on the forum, and that too in a different country. A thread on your general experiences in that role over the period you served your duties would be really interesting to hear and also get you a huge vote of thanks (without getting into the specifics of where, etc.). Just a shoutout if you have the time/bandwidth to put that up.

[sam264_2000]

Great thread! I have my share of experiences as well. Have been pulled over a couple times in USA in my 2001 Acura 3.2TL, bought used in 2009 at 90k miles, I was the 3rd owner. Loved that machine!

1. Labor Day weekend of 2010. I was driving from Pittsburgh to Boston (I-80 E); had just left Monroeville and was at 78mph when the speed limit was 65mph. I have ALWAYS driven at 74mph when the speed limit is 65mph but I was at 78, may be for a minute or so. Was promptly caught by the laser gun and was fined $130. That's the bad part. The good part was the ticket won't appear on my driving records since it was outside of MA-NH-VT-CT-RI area (my car was MA registered). I paid the fine.

2. Thanksgiving 2010. 8:30PM. Had to copy (xerox) some important documents and decide to drive to a nearby Staples from my home in Quincy. Fearing that it would close soon, I was driving relatively faster on interior roads. A cop car passes in opposite direction and I notice in my IRVM that he is turning around to catch me. I decide to veer right inside a housing society kind of place. He still finds me in pitch dark and starts the dreaded red-white-blue lights. I start the cabin lights, hands on steering and window pulled down. He checks all the documents, runs my DL record (CLEAN) and ensures I am sober. He then asks, "Do you know the speed limit of the road you were just driving on?" I am like, yes, 25mph. He is like, yes, do you know your speed? Me - 40? He says, "you were at 42. Why were you driving so fast?" I tell him the honest reason. He tells me how my insurance would get expensive if he decides to hand me a ticket right there. I acknowledge my mistake and he let's me go. We wish each other "Happy Thanksgiving" and part our ways Lucky me.

3. Summer of 2011. NYC to Quincy, MA on a Sunday night. 9PM. I-93N. Exit-7 to Braintree. Literally 10 minutes away from my home and a cop finds me at 80mph. He runs my DL record and it's clean. He then hands me a citation for $150 and suggests that I contest it, which I do. The cop doesn't show up in court and the Hon. Judge let's me go after going through my records and me accepting the fact that I was over speeding but not for more than 30 seconds because I had to overtake since the car behind me was backing up too close. Yippie!

4. Summer of 2014. Jersey City. Driving from Grand St to Journal Square. I take a right without stopping, even when there was a STOP sign. The next second I am thinking how could I do this? How did I NOT see the STOP sign? How can I miss it when I drive on this road almost every other weekend? All these questions in my head and I am cursing myself for being negligent and a cop on bike catches me on the next red light. I pull up, he runs my record (again, CLEAN) and I honestly accept my mistake. He let's me go too. I should thank my stars for this one.

Lesson Learned: Honesty is the best policy

[noopster]

I've never got pulled over in the US, though on my first visit there in 2001, I once took a reverse U-turn (clockwise like we do it in India) and ended up on the wrong side of the road. I was lost somewhere in Miami and panicked when I saw that the neighbourhood was getting lonelier and seedier. I realised my mistake quickly and nudged my way carefully to the correct side and drove quickly away. Luckily there was no traffic, though I did get some curious looks from some people who were standing about. There was a cop car a mile or so ahead and I asked him directions to the Hilton or wherever else I was headed.

Got my only overseas ticket in New Zealand of all places (I say that because it really is a simple place to drive). 5 of us friends were headed from Auckland to Cape Reinga up North in a rented Ford Mondeo and I got pulled over in a small town called Warkworth en route. Highway speed limits are 100 almost uniformly across the country but for some reason there were some sections on that route where it came down to 80. The cop was typically very friendly and asked whether I hadn't noticed him in the mirror (I hadn't and admitted likewise). He said I had missed one sign indicating the reduced speed limit and that's when he started following me, figuring that I would notice the next signboard but I just sailed right through that one as well

Was clocked at 105 which is usually forgiven in a 100 zone but 25 over the limit fetched me a hefty $200 fine.

There is an interesting post-script to this story. Tickets in New Zealand are mailed to your postal address, after which you pay them online. The cop collected my address details and sent us on our way but for some reason I never got the ticket for a really long time. Then I saw an envelope from Immigration NZ with the details of the offence, a link to make payment and a caller helpline. I immediately called them in panic, fearing this may have some impact on my visa status. The lady who answered was quick to put me at ease, saying that the cop probably didn't take my address down right and as a result had reached out to INZ for my communication address (I was driving on an Indian DL at the time and didn't have a local address on record). She said that since I got the ticket late there would be no compounding and I just had to pay the $200 and was good.

[malim]

Entertaining thread!

I've never been pulled over by foreign cop. The closest I came was back in 2017 while driving from Milwaukee to Rochester. Classic rock on the radio, beautiful weather, light traffic on I94W, and despite being in a truly atrocious 2016 Nissan Sentra (corporate rental, don't ask) I ended up a good 10mph over the posted speed limit of 70. This must have gone on for a few minutes before I spotted a cop car quietly sitting on my tail. Fearing the worst, I eased off the throttle ever so slowly until I was close enough to 70 as made no difference. A minute later the cop switched lanes and drew up beside me, and as we exchanged glances he wagged his finger at me and disappeared into the next exit.
Cue a sigh of relief and fervent thanks to whatever it was that put the cop in such a lenient mood!

[StarrySky]

We were on a trip to the northernmost parts of Finland. Early one morning, we drove to the village of Utsjoki. We could see the Finland-Norway border in front of us. There was a building, probably customs, at the checkpoint, lane markings for vehicles with goods to declare etc. After taking a couple of pictures, we travelled another 35km towards Nourgam which has the northernmost point in the whole of Finland and EU. We spotted information boards indicating that we were approaching another border crossing between Finland and Norway. We thought we would go to that border as well, take couple of pictures and turn back. The road was great, weather nice, almost no traffic and we were enjoying the drive. And just like that, we started seeing information boards in Norwegian. We were confused:
- "Are we in Norway?"
- "No, we didn't cross any checkpoints."
- "Yeah, there should be a checkpoint like the one we saw in Utsjoki." (we could spot nothing resembling a border checkpoint for quite some distance ahead)
- "But all the boards are in Norwegian."
- "Maybe because it's a border area."
- "Huh, but there is nothing written in Finnish on most of them."
- "Yeah, they won't leave Finnish out of information boards in Finland."
- "So, we are in Norway?????"
- "Oh my God, we are in Norway!!!"
- "Oh my God, we are not carrying our passports "
- "Let's get out of here!!!"

We turned back at the next possible opportunity, driving frantically till we spotted the board saying "Suomi/Finland" and stopped when we were back in Finland. Turns out, there was a pole on either side of the road there with couple of cameras on them and a board there saying "National Border". This was just ahead of a curve, and I had missed it.

We took a few pictures at the monument erected at the northern most point in the EU and went back towards Utsjoki. We were relieved to have gotten away with travelling without passport, when just in front of us, we saw a parked police car and a policeman signalling us to stop. The policeman came to the driver side and said something in Finnish. I mumbled something back. I am sure my face had turned white, imagining that I was about to get busted for coming across the border without a passport. Then he produced a breath analyzer and told me in English that he is going to administer a test. I said Ok and blew into it. The policeman had a look at the machine, gave me a stare. To me, it looked like he was trying to work out why this guy is panicking. After a few seconds (seemed like an eternity), he showed me the reading on the machine and said, "It is 0. You can go."

We later joked that given the Finns' fondness for drinking, the policeman was confused when analyzer showed 0 alcohol level early in the morning and the stare was because he was trying to work out if I had cheated the test somehow or if the analyzer was broken.

[dragracer567]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

We could see the Finland-Norway border in front of us. There was a building, probably customs, at the checkpoint, lane markings for vehicles with goods to declare etc.

A small question out of curiosity. Why is there a customs checkpoint between Finland and Norway? Both are party to the Schengen open border agreement right? Does it have something to go with Norway not being part of the EU?

[StarrySky]

Originally Posted by dragracer567

A small question out of curiosity. Why is there a customs checkpoint between Finland and Norway? Both are party to the Schengen open border agreement right? Does it have something to go with Norway not being part of the EU?

Although Norway is not part of EU, it is part of European Economic Area and is part of EU's single market. So the checkpoint is unused as far as I know. During a different trip, I have crossed that same checkpoint without any sort of checks. The buildings and signboards are still present, though.

[mayankverma]

I have one memory from my trip to Australia. On the road to Sunshine coast from Brisbane on new year day 2020, we were pulled over by a cop near Maleny for a drunk driving test(I suspect being new years day). I passed the breath test, he said thanks and we moved on. He was so polite and alert. And he was standing near the rest stop where I could stop without obstructing traffic. Quite opposite to the experience with Delhi cops at CP on a Friday night.
But, at first when I saw the officer asking me to pull over, my heart just sank, being my first day of driving outside India that too in a rental car. Went well though

[noopster]

Originally Posted by StarrySky

- "Are we in Norway?"
- "No, we didn't cross any checkpoints."
- "Yeah, there should be a checkpoint like the one we saw in Utsjoki." (we could spot nothing resembling a border checkpoint for quite some distance ahead)
- "But all the boards are in Norwegian."
- "Maybe because it's a border area."
- "Huh, but there is nothing written in Finnish on most of them."
- "Yeah, they won't leave Finnish out of information boards in Finland."
- "So, we are in Norway?????"
- "Oh my God, we are in Norway!!!"
- "Oh my God, we are not carrying our passports "
- "Let's get out of here!!!"

This is hilarious. Reminded me of the episode of Frasier where Frasier and his dad are doing an RV vacation and cross the border into Canada, totally oblivious of the fact that their English housekeeper Daphne is in the back (the implication being she is an illegal immigrant). The way they smuggle her back into the US is worth watching! Glad you didn't have to go through something similar.

[Capri89]

Little long post. Please bear with it.

This happened in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia sometime in Dec. 1995.

It is one thing to deal with a cop whose language we can speak and understand and a totally different thing when we don’t speak his lingo and neither does he speak ours.

The law - Have to spend some time (from few hours to overnight stay) behind bars for any traffic violation.

In addition to check for traffic violations there are also frequent and random checks for over stayers, Jeddah being the gateway for Mecca and Medina.
The incident. On a Thursday late night (being weekend there) I dropped my friend at his home and was driving back alone. This was a routine weekend affair. Normally my wife also accompanies me on these trips as we combine this with a long drive also. But in this instance she opted out because both my infant children were already asleep when I started from home.

At a signal intersection there was this usual police checking going on. From a distance one cop waved me to park my car to the side and come out with all id papers. As soon as I did this and started to walk towards him he gently waved again for me to proceed with my driving. So I went and sat back and started to drive. As this was at the signal, and I noticed the green was on, I just saw the cop continue to wave at me and asking me to hurry and proceed. As I came near the signal it dropped to red as I just crossed it. Technically I jumped the signal, but it was not a speeding jump, as I had just started the car and was on the first gear only. But I was held up.

I reasoned with him, in sign language of course, that I would go home and tell my wife and come back. Those were pre-mobile days. Even for a land line we had to wait for three years for the connection. I showed him my id (Iqama) that carried the proof that I was staying with my wife and two children. He seized my id card and didn’t utter a word thereafter. After sometime he agreed to my request and I went home and told my wife what transpired and not to panic. If at all I don’t return, to contact my office first thing on Saturday morning and they will do the needful for my release. And I came back to the scene of the crime. Probably the cop wasn’t expecting me to come back there. In the meanwhile several other offenders were also present there. A Pakistani (let’s call him Abdul) for driving his brother’s vehicle (yes, that is an offence there) and a black African (Leo) for jumping visa restrictions.

After an hour or so, a senior cop came there and after assessing the situation, he took Abdul and Leo along in his vehicle and asked me to follow him in my car. After long drive here and there in the course of his duties we went to a place where lot of vehicles were put up in a yard that was ring fenced with a gate keeper. The gate keeper opened the gate for the yard and I was asked to park my car inside. I was handed over an acknowledgement slip and the cop took me along in his car. During the brief conversation with Abdul, he gave me to understand that we have to spend the night in jail. So I was preparing myself to face the worst. Now the time was already 3 am early morning.

On the way back the cops – there were two of them – got down and forced out Leo who was resisting all the attempts to coax him out, and booked him up in a separate jail meant for the visa jumpers.

After that, the cops started to drive back and only Abdul and I were remaining with them to deal with. We were approaching a T junction where a left turn would take me to my home and a right turn will take us to the jail. As the signal turned green at the junction the cop turned right. Surprisingly I was very calm and saw no reason to panic. What has to be faced has to be faced. The vehicle turned right and the cop stopped after about 100 feet. Now what ?!

He asked me to alight and just waved me to go home. I silently uttered a prayer for my guardian angel. The walk was about 2 to 3 kms and as it was the beginning of winter the weather was also very pleasant for an early morning walk. Of course the wife was awake all through the night and was only over joyed when I entered the house early morning.

I have no idea what happened to Abdul who continued with the cops further.

Epilogue

On Saturday morning I handed over the parking acknowledgement slip to my office Mandoob (liaison officer) to get my car released from bondage. So he went to the prison to pay the fine and collect the receipt so that the car can be released from the bondage yard. When the jailor called out my name nobody was coming out of the prison cell which annoyed him quite a bit. Every fine collected had to be accounted with a corresponding person in the register. My offence was registered only in the car bondage yard but not in the prison register. Then my mandoob had to explain matters in detail to him which he could not accept. Initially he refused to clear the case without seeing the “culprit”, me in this case. But then my mandoob had his way finally.
There was one other Great Escape which I will write about later.