[vreihen16]

Originally Posted by dmatre

While 10-15 over has been my experience on the highway, when driving through small South Carolina towns I’ve found the threshold to be 0.00001 over.

Owning a small tree farm in SC that we visit with "damn yankee" NY State license plates on our vehicles, the threshold is even lower than that!

The worse state by far is Ohio, where as Brock Yates joked in the "Cannonball Run" drivers meeting that Ohio may have the death penalty for speeding! I got yanked there for doing a legitimate 62 in a 65 MPH zone because of my out-of-state plates, and had to plead guilty and pay the fine by credit card on the side of the road or else go in handcuffs to see the magistrate.....

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by sygazelle

Sedan_Clan,

The topic of speeding has come up before but it's been a long time and I don't remember your answer.

On the freeway when road conditions are good, how much over the speed limit must a vehicle be going to get you to pull them over and give the driver a ticket?

For context to the reason for my question: I was going eastbound on Interstate 80 and was going to be way early for a meeting so I stayed in the right two lanes with the semi rigs and just hung out. Much to my surprise, I had to stay a minimum of 70mph to keep up with the trunk in front of me and all of the cars in the 1st and 2nd lane were passing us like we were standing still, probably averaging 80 mph or more. Yes, each of those vehicles is exceeding the speed limit and subject to a speeding ticket, but what scenario would cause you to pull one of the speeding vehicles over and cite the driver?

My experience driving in the SF Bay Area and all over the western half of the country one can get pulled over for any speed over the limit or believe it or not even if going *under* the limit if one's sports car is mistaken by the officer for the car which was actually speeding.

I got pulled over for 10mph over on 17 in Fremont CA. I was in my 996 Turbo. But I also got pulled over for 10mph over on I40 out in the Texas panhandle. And every vehicle was going 10mph. My Turbo with CA plates of course came in for special attention.

In AZ a state trooper told me he holds drivers of sports cars to higher standard than drivers of of "lesser" vehicles. I'm sure he's not the only LEO that feels that way.

[HerkHealer]

I recently watched a YT video of a Police SGT who got fired by his Chief.
He was caught twice in one Month going well over 100mph chasing someone at night without his lights and sirens on. They showed the in car video and it was crazy. At one point he was going 148 mph weaving in and out of traffic.

He eventually put his lights and siren on, but it was after at least a minute or two.
Even worse, both cars he was chasing got away.

Has this happened in your Department?

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by RockCrusher

My experience driving in the SF Bay Area and all over the western half of the country one can get pulled over for any speed over the limit or believe it or not even if going *under* the limit if one's sports car is mistaken by the officer for the car which was actually speeding.

I got pulled over for 10mph over on 17 in Fremont CA. I was in my 996 Turbo. But I also got pulled over for 10mph over on I40 out in the Texas panhandle. And every vehicle was going 10mph. My Turbo with CA plates of course came in for special attention.

In AZ a state trooper told me he holds drivers of sports cars to higher standard than drivers of of "lesser" vehicles. I'm sure he's not the only LEO that feels that way.

This is inconsistent with anything I’ve experienced and/or heard from colleagues over the last 15 or so years of law enforcement service. Truthfully, nobody cares about a sports car nor a car color. I mean that. Nobody cares. Maybe up in the Bay the uppity yups do, but in general, cops don’t care. By way of actual numbers, I’ve rarely ever cited or even pulled over sports car drivers unless they were being complete clowns begging for attention.

Originally Posted by HerkHealer

I recently watched a YT video of a Police SGT who got fired by his Chief.
He was caught twice in one Month going well over 100mph chasing someone at night without his lights and sirens on. They showed the in car video and it was crazy. At one point he was going 148 mph weaving in and out of traffic.

He eventually put his lights and siren on, but it was after at least a minute or two.
Even worse, both cars he was chasing got away.

Has this happened in your Department?

We would get fired as well. Our policy allows for 25 MPH over the prima facie limit, but even with that considered we are supposed to use reason during a pursuit. We should be able to discern when a pursuit is becoming too dangerous and terminate immediately. It’s all department liability and regard for the safety of the public. We have been allowed to “play” outside of that 25 MPH on occasion depending on where the pursuit is occurring, time of day/night, severity of the crime, etc.

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by Sedan_Clan

This is inconsistent with anything I’ve experienced and/or heard from colleagues over the last 15 or so years of law enforcement service. Truthfully, nobody cares about a sports car nor a car color. I mean that. Nobody cares. Maybe up in the Bay the uppity yups do, but in general, cops don’t care. By way of actual numbers, I’ve rarely ever cited or even pulled over sports car drivers unless they were being complete clowns begging for attention.





We would get fired as well. Our policy allows for 25 MPH over the prima facie limit, but even with that considered we are supposed to use reason during a pursuit. We should be able to discern when a pursuit is becoming too dangerous and terminate immediately. It’s all department liability and regard for the safety of the public. We have been allowed to “play” outside of that 25 MPH on occasion depending on where the pursuit is occurring, time of day/night, severity of the crime, etc.

That's what I was told by the AZ state trooper. Said he -- and he said he was not the only state trooper officer -- held drivers of sports cars/performance cars to a higher standard. He mentioned this applied -- regardless of vehicle -- to other LEOs and first responders.

I believed him. I was in my Porsche 996 Turbo and he had pulled me over for failing to signal a lane change. I didn't cut any vehicles off. I told him I was so tired/sleepy and I felt it a matter of safety to get off the freeway for a break.

The officer made a big deal having me demonstrate the turn signals worked.

He also insisted I take down the NAV unit (mounted to the windshield) and the radar detector. I politely pointed out they were up high and in no way interfered with my view out the car. The sunshade when down completely hid the two devices thus restricting my vision way more than the two devices. And between the 2 devices I could do away with the radar detector but I liked the NAV unit handy and asked if I could leave that in place.

The officer was insistent threatening to confiscate the NAV/radar detector devices if I did not comply. I complied.

(And believe it or not left them off the windshield until I had driven east all the way to the AZ/NM state line only putting them up again when I stopped at Gallup NM to refuel the car.)

The officer did not cite me. I don't even recall now if I even got a written warning.

So I got pulled over for failing to signal a lane change. This happened at Wiliams AZ.

But during a previous trip through AZ on I40 just west of Kingman AZ I observed an SUV change lanes in front of an AZ state trooper car and so abruptly the officer had to brake. I thought for sure the driver of the SUV was going to get pulled over but the officer didn't pull the driver over.

So having observed a clearly improper lane change with no consequences then my benign lane change bringing the threat of legal action I had some indication not all drivers were treated equally by the state police of AZ.

I know that officers claim vehicle colors don't matter and I believe them but I have watched LEOs at stop lights and they invariably follow brightly colored vehicles or loud vehicles or vehicles with very visible mods as they pass through the intersection.

So I just figured in my sports cars/high performance cars regardless if it was white, blue, red, yellow, or silver, I could assume any LEO officers around that my cars would get more than just a passing glance.