Why do some police officers do this?

Question

My wife and I reside in NW Houston,TX and recently were pulled over by a Jersey Village police officer.

This is what happened. We were in the far right lane of a 3 lane road (not highway) speed limit was posted at 45...I had the cruise set on 43 or 44...JV is notorious for stopping you for 1 mph over the limit..so I have heard....

So anyway, officer whoever was in the middle lane opposite direction..across a 15 foot wide median....whips into the left lane....u-turns...weaves in and out of the traffic...rides my tail for about 15 secs then hits the lights and blares the airhorn and siren (wife is preggo, scares her) I pull over...Now, before the mob tries to jusitfy his reasoning...he got us because our registration had expired...the DAY before...Now, in Texas there is a grace period..I know this because I have a good friend who is a DPS Trooper..I think he said 5 days grace...not sure..but anyway.,..

Just had new tint on the windows...I start to open the door slightly to let him know I cant roll it down...and he yells shut the door!!...OK...don't get trigger happy...so I did...

Well, I ended up rolling it down slightly...ruined the tint...and he says..well...why didnt you go ahead and open the door...and I said well..you would have shot me if I did right?...so why do that....anyway, I feel he was just trying to stereo type because he saw a young couple in a nice car and thought...oh...drug dealer or something....

Now, I would just like some honest answers......there is no way he ran my tags in that 15 secs...I have done ride alongs...it takes longer....

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Officers don't have to run plates to know if they are expired. Your registration information is clearly posted in the window. Besides, I can easily run a tag in 15 seconds with dispatch and even do it much faster with an MDT.

Texas does indeed have a 5 business day grace period. I don't know how the law works, but he still may be able to legally stop your car to warn you about the expired tags. Though in many states, one day expired is one day expired. It's not like the state surprises when you it is expired. You know the exact date when it happens a year in advance and you should plan around that. I have a trooper buddy that will write tickets for expired tags at 1201 the morning after they expire. Giving you a grace period of exactly one minute. I generally give a month or two before I write a ticket. But I will also stop the day after because along with expired registration comes expired insurance and expired inspection.

I don't know what answers you want. Obviously the officer stopped you because he believed there is a law violation and he has problems with people opening doors on car stops. From what you describe, you opened the door before he got there. You should have waited and explained your situation  when he got up there.

Answer 2

Reasonable Suspicion is need to make a traffic stop.  That is does the Officer have a reasonable belief to believe that a crime has been committed, is being committed, or is about to be committed.  if the Officer has reasonable suspicion they may stop the car.  You said it yourself, your tag was expired.  You also mention your speed but don't say if the Officer brought up your speed as reason to stop you.  You weren't in the car with the Officer (and neither was I) so you can't honestly say that you know he did not run your tag (the vast experience of your ride along doesn't make you an expert on law enforcement).  I have an in car computer that spits back tags in a few seconds.  But like I said, you stated that your plate was expired so you really have no gripe about the stop.  The Officer should have discussed the reason(s) why he stopped you with you and explained them to you at the time of the stop.  I wasn't there and can't elaborate further.

As far as your window goes....you should have just left it up and told the Officer it wouldn't roll down.  I have had plenty of people with broken windows do this on traffic stops.  The Officer would not let you get out of the car because he probably didn't know if you had a weapon or not and he probably didn't feel like getting shot that day (we're funny like that).  We don't know who we are stopping and can't read minds.  Even though you had no intention of harming the Officer he didn't know that.  Also, it is dangerous to get out of a car on the side of the road........there are plenty of videos out there showing Officers getting hit by passing cars on traffic stops the occupants of the vehicles we stop can also be hit.

Answer 3

Well, he didn't have to run your tags. The sticker's there, and guys who work a lot of traffic get real good at reading the month off them from traffic going to other way. But you're correct about the "grace period." The offense hasn't occurred until after five days from expiration.  

Answer 4

Couple of ideas:

1. Your new tint was too dark

2. Your vehicle matched the description of a vehicle the police were looking for.

3. The police had a report that your tabs were expired. There is no grace period during which you can operate your vehicle on the road with expired tabs. The grace period is the time during which you will not be charged a penalty when you renew for renewing late.

4. He saw the stickers (they are color coded in most locations) and there by knew the plates were expired.

On the opening the door issue, you opened the door *before* the officer asked you to roll down the window. Had you waited until he approached and then opened the door slowly after he asked you to roll down the window and stated calmly "I can't roll down the window", you could have avoided that entire issue.

Answer 5

your speed could be off...as to the running of tags ya it takes longer than 15 sec and in teaxs you only have the 1 plate on the back. he could have been looking for a car that matched what you are driving. or he could have just seen that they where expired ( most states have a sticker with the exp date.) and pulled you over.  

Answer 6

So you were driving on expired registration, you had window tint, which is illegal in many states, and you are complaining?  Whether there is a "grace period" or not you can still get pulled over for it.

Why would your wife get scared from a siren if it was that obvious you were going to get pulled over?  My wife got pulled over when she was pregnant and she didn't get scared.  She also paid her ticket and didn't complain because she knew she was guilty.

You are just ranting and complaining because you got pulled over.  Deal with it.  I have had eight tickets in my life and been pulled over many more times.  So what?  No big deal.

Answer 7

I am from California and I can not answer or speak for officers in Texas.  Most statistics show that police officers are most likely to be killed while making an arrest followed by traffic stops and approaches on vehicles.  Now with that said, I can understand  why the police officer ordered you to remain in the vehicle during his initial approach.  Once he identified you were not a threat, that is why he probably asked you to just open the door.  Call it what you want, but I would have done the same thing.  Several years ago a colleague was shot and killed as he approached the vehicle he had stopped.  The deputy did not have his gun out and the driver exited his vehicle and shot and killed the deputy.  I encourage you to go on a ride a long with your loca police department so you can understand the dangers that we face everyday.  Nation wide we all have the same saying, we will do what ever it takes to go home alive at the end of the shift.

Answer 8

It does not necessarily take longer than 15 seconds to run a plate. If TLETS is up and running and dispatch is slow, it can easily be about 5 seconds. You never, ever open your door or make a move to exit the vehicle until an officer asks you too. There is most certainly NOT a grace period, that is ridiculous. If there was a 5 day grace period, then your registration would expire 5 days later. Your wife would have been scared by the air horn and siren whether she was pregnant or not...and, quite frankly, if something like that scared her enough for you to mention it, then the Houston area is probably not for you!

Answer 9

I can get a tag back in less than 15 seconds...but I'm good like that.