Tail gating.

[TMF]

Brake checking a cop is not the smartest thing. Yeah, if he hits you then he may be in some hot water, but if he doesn't you might be getting a ride to the police station.

It ain't right for a cop to be driving in an unsafe manner just for the hell of it, but it is what it is. If he's enough of an ahole to tailgate you for so long then he is an ahole enough to arrest you on a BS charge. It'd just be a huge headache for you, but if you're into that sorta thing then go for it.

Slamming on your brakes with intent to cause an accident is illegal. So is tailgating. Guess who is gonna be the one defending themselves in the courtroom?

[DaveTN]

Tailgating is wrong no matter who is doing it. If he hit you it would be his fault.
If a cop knows the vehicle code and wanted to stop you I doubt you would make it 4 blocks let alone 4 miles. But it makes for an active thread.

[Joseg]

Okay, I'm curious of those have responded are LEOs? Because this is an interesting question. If you rear end someone, you get written up for following too close automatically. Call it break checking or whatever you wanna call it, If someone has to suddenly slow down be it, child, pet, pothole, whatever, if they get rear ended irregardless of whom it is, same laws should apply. BTW, I know of one case when someone barely touched rear ended a car, both cars continued to school, reported to their SRO, and one driver got wrote for driving too close.

 

Fellas, about the Lights and sirens, I've seen several emergency reasons for no lights but speeding, but I've also seen the no real reason for speeding with no lights, hopefully this doesn't turn into a LEOs witch hunt.. It's like the military, you good & bad guys, and then you have douches..  And it's those douches that mess it up for the rest.. 

[teecro]

Call it break checking or whatever you wanna call it, If someone has to suddenly slow down be it, child, pet, pothole, whatever, if they get rear ended irregardless of whom it is, same laws should apply. BTW, I know of one case when someone barely touched rear ended a car, both cars continued to school, reported to their SRO, and one driver got wrote for driving too close.

 

I'd fair a guess that if it can be proved that you willfully brake checked and caused an accident that you would end up with reckless endangerment dangling over your head...

 

As commented in another thread 30 plus years of driving in many states I've rarely ever received attention from LEO that I did not some how ask for...

[Dolomite`s Breezy]

I see a ton of people here don't care about the law. Seems to be common place for gun boards to be full up with the criminal element.

Y'all can rationalize all you want, but I don't have anymore time for the guy going 60 in a 45 or changing lanes in front of me without a blinker than I do the guy that stole the radio out of my car.


As for the cop thing, how do all of you know he was trying to bait you? I like how you all just assume. Maybe he just has bad driving habits.

If someone tailgates me, I don't care who they are, I just get out of the way. No wonder everyone has heart attacks and anxiety problems. Y'all are all just wound up about pointless stuff. Just try and relax every now and then. Don't let crap get to you to the point that you have to complain to strangers on the internet or try and blind people or whatever.

Nope.. those are armchair commandos.... and a lot of those stories you have to take with a grain of salt anyway.. ;)

[Joseg]

As commented in another thread 30 plus years of driving in many states I've rarely ever received attention from LEO that I did not some how ask for...

 

BTW, I can mention one incident, where I was profiled and had an LEO roll up on me, really close, and then to top it off, I turn to go to the grocery store and the guy lights me up (not even 1/2 a mile from my house). Since I had light tinted windows, I rolled down all my windows, turned off the car, turned on the lights, and wait for the officer while he waited for backup, so he approaches and asks for the usual info, spends like 30-45 minutes going over my stuff and discussing what to do with the other officer, he comes back as states that he stopped me because I didn't have my seat belt on, keep in mind he was a good 5-6 cars lengths away when I turned on to the major roadway and before he decided to speed up to tailgate me and when he got to the car he saw me with my belt on and having to remove it to get to my glove box.. And he wanted to argue about it, even stated he had it on camera, let's just say, he lost that argument and issued me a warning for a seat belt, Let's just say that city has really bad history with not doing the right things and was thinking about having to dissolve itself and letting the county take over. 

 

The other is getting lit up by a high illum flashlight (well at the time it was a high illum, now there's even better ones), because I had to park down the road because the whole shift decides to block this road to the house my kids were visiting, because some one called in stating some kids were breaking into a house, when they weren't.. 

 

But hey, like I stated, there's good, bad, and douches, just like in the military.. 

[RC3]

If anyone is familiar with spring hill, most of the roads are single lane. If he need to go past me, all he had to do was flash his lights and I would have pulled over. This is the second time this has happened. Nothing big, just slightly annoying to have someone rde your bumper for about 4 miles.

[Guest TresOsos]

Most of the time this a tactic used by the LEO to get you to screw up so he can have cause to stop you, just stay cool and ingonore his

stupid ass behavior. When you get home, call the dept and let them know you don't appreciate having your life endagered.

 

 

Several years ago I was going deer hunting and had my 4-wheeler loaded in the bed of my truck.

It's 5 in the morning and quite dark and a car get right on my ass on HWY 52 and is following

way to close. I'm doing the limit and hauling 685lbs of 4 wheeler so I'm not going to speed up.

So I put on my turn signal and slow and pull off on the shoulder to let the car by, well the car follows me onto the shoulder, oh *hit.

So I pull back onto the road and start to prepare for an a close encounter when the car behind turns on the blue lighs, whew a cop.

So I pull back over, get the my papers in order and when the cop comes up and ask me why I pulled that manuver, I ask him why

was following me in an unsafe manner. Should have seen the look on his face, he started stuttering and stammering and apologizing.

I let him know real quick he sacred me and I was just trying to get out of the way of an unsafe driver I thought might be drunk.

All he said was have a nice hunt and sent me on my way.

[RC3]

I was going about 2 to three miles over the limit. Nothing bad and I also dislike people that drive under. I can understand if I was swerving or Amy other questionable driving behavior.

[teecro]

I was going about 2 to three miles over the limit. Nothing bad and I also dislike people that drive under. I can understand if I was swerving or Amy other questionable driving behavior.

 

 

Sometimes they might just be hoping to provoke a response. Curious as to the car, tint, exhaust something that might attract a LEO attention?

[jtmaze]

As I posted earlier, I have rear mounted lights for off-roading that have never been on the road. I have found that 3 quick taps on the brake lights work if not repeat. That usually gets someone to back off when they realize if I had brake checked them they would have been screwed. JTM We the People of the United States, in order to form a more Perfect Union......

[RC3]

Dark blue untinted Toyota corolla. 04 model. Real suspicious car.

[teecro]

Dark blue untinted Toyota corolla. 04 model. Real suspicious car.

Sure is.... LOL

[DaveTN]

Okay, I'm curious of those have responded are LEOs? Because this is an interesting question. If you rear end someone, you get written up for following too close automatically. Call it break checking or whatever you wanna call it, If someone has to suddenly slow down be it, child, pet, pothole, whatever, if they get rear ended irregardless of whom it is, same laws should apply. BTW, I know of one case when someone barely touched rear ended a car, both cars continued to school, reported to their SRO, and one driver got wrote for driving too close.
 
Fellas, about the Lights and sirens, I've seen several emergency reasons for no lights but speeding, but I've also seen the no real reason for speeding with no lights, hopefully this doesn't turn into a LEOs witch hunt.. It's like the military, you good & bad guys, and then you have douches..  And it's those douches that mess it up for the rest..

I’m not a LEO now; but I was, I was a Police Officer. Cops don’t have immunity in a wreck. They also don’t have immunity even if running emergency equipment. At least that was the way it was in the state I was in, I will assume it is the same in Tennessee.

Getting “written up” is not “fault” in an accident. I explained to people that I don’t determine fault, their insurance companies or the courts will do that; I just write the vehicle code violations I feel occurred. Insurance companies pretty much do what they want.

As far as the speeding and turning into a witch hunt; it will always turn into a Witch hunt on the interweb.

We had a citizen get on the radio in an Officers Car and start yelling for help saying “There is blood everywhere”. An alert tone went out with an "Officer needs assistance". I was on the south side of town the incident was on the North. I hit the overheads, the siren and blew the red light I was sitting at. I told the dispatcher I was a long way off. At the same time a couple of Officers that were closer cleared the call they were on and said they would take it. The dispatcher told me I was the only car she had clear, she told me to move central and remain available. I shut the lights and siren off and slowed to the speed limit.

Awhile later I was called into the station. My Sargent was there with a couple that was making a complaint. He explained that they saw me throw on the overheads just to bust a red light and they wanted to make a complaint. We played them back the tape of what had happened; they apologized said they were embarrassed and left.

I can’t count the number of times I have blown a light or been speeding responding to a call only to be called off and returned to normal driving. My point is you may have no idea of what you are really seeing.

As far as what happen in this story; we have one side of a story. Not much here and certainly not enough to start throwing cops under the bus. I can only say that if I was looking for a reason to stop someone they probably couldn’t drive 4 blocks without me having a reason to stop them; let alone 4 miles.

I’m not saying there aren’t bad cops; I know some. But I will say this; if you brake check or instigate a bad cop on a traffic stop you may end up regretting it for the rest of your life. Bad cops don’t play by the rules and if its only you and them; you may not like the outcome.

[tnguy]

When I was a deputy the most aggravating thing was people going too slow in front of me. I didn't tailgate anyone though. The headlights on a crown vic were pretty recognizable. You are in a car that when people see it they automatically drop 10mph even if they weren't speeding. I got behind sevearal cars that were going the speed limit only to have them see me and drop it to 45 for the next 10 miles. I am not making an excuse to tailgate but it does get old.

 

Indeed. I actually ended up overtaking a cop the other day who was stuck behind someone doing 50 in a 55. I didn't really want to do it but it was the last good overtaking place in a while.

 

I also got my first speeding ticket from a tailgating cop. Probably helped my healthy distrust for authority there.

[glowdotGlock]

[quote name="DaveTN" post="1102199" timestamp="1390871726"] I can’t count the number of times I have blown a light or been speeding responding to a call only to be called off and returned to normal driving.[/quote] This. Usually happens several times each day.

[TerryW]

Just to be clear, I know for myself and I'm sure 99.9% of us, I, in no way am complaining about our LEO's in particular. (now I feel better) lol

[TMF]

[quote name="DaveTN" post="1102199" timestamp="1390871726"] As far as what happen in this story; we have one side of a story. [/quote] Yeah, but from a very reputable source who posted in the past week regarding shooting holes in his parents house and his car being drunkenly wrecked by an anonymous friend. There is no reason to doubt that there are now random cops sent to harass him! Sounds to me like they were just late to the party. Maybe next time. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[RC3]

Yeah, but from a very reputable source who posted in the past week regarding shooting holes in his parents house and his car being drunkenly wrecked by an anonymous friend. There is no reason to doubt that there are now random cops sent to harass him! Sounds to me like they were just late to the party. Maybe next time. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I doubt thats true. Only been pulled over 3 times since I started driving. First time was for speeding, second was for tags being expired (on my way to the DMV, and I had the emissions paperwork with me, so he let me go with a warning), and last june for having a tail light out. So three times in 8 years does not seem that bad. And only one was a ticket.

[Joseg]

DaveTN, great reply.. 

 

 

I’m not saying there aren’t bad cops; I know some. But I will say this; if you brake check or instigate a bad cop on a traffic stop you may end up regretting it for the rest of your life. Bad cops don’t play by the rules and if its only you and them; you may not like the outcome.

 

Hey, play stupid games, win stupid prizes.. 

[Guest drv2fst]

I'm sure COPS are no better or worse drivers than the general population.  They have the same issues the rest of us have.

 

For ANY tailgater; tap the brakes very lightly and very quickly 5-6 times in succession.  Just enough to light up the brake lights but not enough to slow your car very much.  That's usually enough to let them know that they are tailgating and that you are bothered by it.  Most will back off.  It they don't then, I recommend getting away from them either by pulling over or taking the next turn off.

[RobertNashville]

I doubt thats true. Only been pulled over 3 times since I started driving. First time was for speeding, second was for tags being expired (on my way to the DMV, and I had the emissions paperwork with me, so he let me go with a warning), and last june for having a tail light out. So three times in 8 years does not seem that bad. And only one was a ticket.

I think you missed his point.

[teecro]

I think you missed his point.

We didn't.... LOL