Indians pulled over by cops abroad: Ex-cop shares his side of the story

Everyone has stories of being pulled over. Wanted to chip in my bit, from the other side.

BHPian no_fear recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

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 the 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 an Indian license. This is when google maps were just becoming popular. He was so afraid of being pulled over by cops that, 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, that it's an offence to bribe police officers in the US. The poor fellow turned white and tried to use the desi-desi bhai bhai play card. I scolded him a lot saying he should not be speeding on country roads, especially when he has a family + kids. I felt bad for the fellow, but I was wearing a 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, and 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 backup.

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

Here's what BHPian hondatoyotafan had to say on the matter:

Are you a US citizen because when I tried to get into LEO I enquired about 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 did I try 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.

Here's what BHPian ninjatalli had to say on the matter:

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.

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