Should have had the two gals in the trunk instead that night. But your back end would probably have completely bottomed out and the cop would probably notice that and asked you to pop open the trunk. I'm not sure what's worse, two unbelted passengers in the passenger compartment, or two of them in the trunk.

 

Two passengers.. or two bodies

 

As to who gets the ticket, that varies by state, in VA, MD and DC, the driver gets the tickets for any infractions (except when it comes to cameras, then it is the registered owner of the vehicle, unless you want to throw whomever was driving under the bus, which if it is your wife/gf.. probably would not end well for you )

I'm actually surprised you did not get two tickets, one for unbuckled passengers, and one for unsafe driving conditions (or whatever your states catch all equivalent law)

Consider yourself lucky.

I also have no beef with cops, in fact the 2 times I have been stopped I have received only warnings, once around the Pentagon for doing 45 in a 25 (I was fiddling with the GPS to get an alternate route during rush hour), got a warning for speeding and failure to maintain proper control of the vehicle by the Pentagon cops..

and I got a warning for doing 90 in 3rd gear through the 395 tunnel at 3am with no other traffic in the tunnel (I waited till after I passed the speeding camera to open it up )... except the cop hiding behind one of the onramp entries.. surprised I got a warning on that.. Some DC cops are cool

 

I think in every profession there will be douches and there will be cool people. It's just the luck of the draw. In your specific case, I don't think it would've mattered if the cop made you go around her or not. If she saw that you had that many people and it was dangerous, she didn't need for you to go around. I understand how you were trying to do your friends a favor and that might work in your favor if you testify the ticket in court. I have had only 1 moving violation (accelerating through an intersection but I wasn't speeding [EXACT description on ticket] lol), and that was after I was 25 so I just paid it and let it go. I don't think you really have a leg to stand on for this ticket. Yeah some judges hate BS tickets, some judges don't give a ****, but you rolled the dice once and lost, do you want to risk it again? The judge could give you the max punishment...just something to think about...from now on, don't do favors that put you in jeopardy for ***** lol, we've all been there done that, but you can do a lot less and still get it...good luck though and hope it works out for you.

 

In our area cops stop pretty much when and where they want. This one was in front of you and (I think) didn't have any lights on and was talking to another cop on the side of the road. Theres nothing that says you cant go around her and proceed. Maybe if you hadn't waited '20 minutes' before you went around a vehicle stopped in the middle of the road she might not have noticed the extra passengers.

Cops have a lot of discretion in cases like this and it's as big or as small an issue as they want to make it. Your attitude and tone can go a long way here. I'm not saying there was anything wrong with yours here, it's just advice from a guy who has gotten out of more than his share of jams. In this case, I would have opened by saying something like "I'm sorry Officer, I know I have too many people in the car. I haven't been drinking tonight but the girls in the back definitely have. We were at a party where I really didn't comfortable leaving two drunk girls alone while I took the others home. If 5 people split and left my sister and a friend drunk with this group of liquored up guys I would have been pretty upset and so I made the decision. I know you can't watch me drive away with them cos that puts you in a spot if something happens down the road, so.....how about after you give us a warning we all just sit here on the sidewalk together for a while? You'll never see us again".

Female cop. You deliver that line with no attitude or snottiness and 99% you are golden. The other 1% of the time the cop is just gonna be a Dickless Tracy and give you a hard time anyways. Then you know that you are truly dealing with a Grade A, top drawer k.u.n.t. who's only real joy is sanctimoniously writing people up cos her szhit don't stank and she's never done a thing wrong in her entire gawdamm life. In the case of the female cops some of them are bent on proving that they are as low down mean and nasty as any man. This usually happens if she is working with a bunch of slack jaw yokels who haven't got the update and heard that women are allowed out of the kitchen. They take a lot of crap from these Jethro"s and crap runs downhill. They'll make your life miserable to show they can.

If that's the case, the only thing you can do is accept the fact you did have two passengers without belts, take the ticket with a smile and get out of Dodge before she starts poking around for something else to write you up on. Then when you get home take that ticket and either a) wipe with it or b) use it to roll a super huge doobie and smoke that ******. Then turn to your girl with a smile and say "bad news is I got a ticket for driving your friends home tonight. Good news is I know a way we can make it all better".

Stay golden Pony Boy.

Soda Pop.

 

Classic advice and great reference!!!

 

thanks for all the advice and fun from this thread haha

Anyways I'll try to see what happens. hopefully I get out of the ticket and save myself 110 bucks which is 1 weeks gas! LOL and if not well I'll just take the hit since at the end I did break the law.

re: hating cops. you guys have to be from my area to understand. cops really do target the college kids more than the others, especially with newer/nicer cars. I mean this didnt even happen in my c63. I was driving a friends 2013 Altima. My town is a college town and cops (unlike in other real cities) dont have any real crime to protect so all they have to do is give college kids a hard time. There is a kid with a Lambo and everytime I see him on the road he is pulled over LOL. I seriously have no problems with police except from my area.

 

tell judge you drove 2 of the girls that were intoxicated in the back seats home so they wouldnt drive drunk....