Yeah, for my criminology class, we had the option of signing up for ride alongs with the local police, and I picked Friday night because I figured that'd be a busy time for them. Anyone else ever done a ride along? Anything I should ask the officer about specifically? I'll let you guys know how it went tomorrow.

Anything I should ask the officer about specifically?

Ask him if you can slob his knob.












Seriously, try to get him to talk about "probable cause." For instance, if he sees a ghetto car full of hoods, but they are not breaking any laws, will he find something to pull them over for? Cops pulled over four black dudes right next to my house, and after they were all cuffed up, I spoke to the officer (I was angry because he had sped the wrong way up my street) and he stated that he and his partner had "smelled marijuana" as these guys drove by. It seemed highly suspect to me, but I would guess that it happens more often than not that a police officer makes something up to make the stop. I was pulled over a couple of months ago because my "license plate holder was obstructing the tag." Nevermind that I had had the license plate holder on since I bought the truck in summer '05, and had driven it all over the country since then.

Seriously, try to get him to talk about "probable cause." For instance, if he sees a ghetto car full of hoods, but they are not breaking any laws, will he find something to pull them over for? Cops pulled over four black dudes right next to my house, and after they were all cuffed up, I spoke to the officer (I was angry because he had sped the wrong way up my street) and he stated that he and his partner had "smelled marijuana" as these guys drove by. It seemed highly suspect to me, but I would guess that it happens more often than not that a police officer makes something up to make the stop. I was pulled over a couple of months ago because my "license plate holder was obstructing the tag." Nevermind that I had had the license plate holder on since I bought the truck in summer '05, and had driven it all over the country since then.

Well, the cop I rode with was an all right guy. This was my campus police department, and even though it is a very large and populous campus, they can really only patrol the official campus area. Off campus housing where all the parties usually happen is in the city's jurisdiction. So these guys get bored from time to time. The more bored a cop is, the more likely he is to take the time to stop someone for a license plate holder obstructing your registration tag. Was it obstructing the tag? Then yeah, that's a violation. We drove around some campus parking garages where he says he's caught people smoking weed in their cars and shit, and he pointed out all of these cars with old registration tags, but when he ran the plates through the computer, they were renewed. The person just never put the new tag on. He could've wrote them a ticket for that, but he let it go. And as we drove around, even though there really wasn't that much going on, he would occasionally point out to me various violations, without going to the trouble to stop the person.

So I don't know if police officers make things up to make stops so much as they lower their bar for what constitutes a stop if it's been a slow shift for them. They're hoping to stop somebody for a plate holder obstructing a tag, and find a shitload of drugs or something in the process.

Also, anytime he could get a clear look at a plate, especially when stopped behind a car at a light, he would run the plates, just to see if the car was stolen or there were any warrants I guess. The computers they have in the cars are actually just like real computers, with Windows XP and full internet access and everything.

But all that really happened besides patrolling was he got someone for running a stop sign in a spot that's common for it, and he backed up another officer that had pulled over this girl and made her do the whole sobriety test dealie. She passed.

I'd like to do this again, but with an actual city department, because I imagine the majority of police work to be domestic related, and that's something that really doesn't happen with campus police.

what college you go to? just curious.