I hear so many more good pull over stories than bad ones. Very nice!
Have never had a good experience with a Sapulpa cop - I lived there for a very long time and finally escaped. They are rude and obnoxious as a group - ask nearly anyone who lives there. I have known one individual LEO in Sapulpa on a personal level and he didn't care for the department either despite working for them. Most of that kind of behavior is due to bad management, poor working conditions, poor hiring practices...just like in the private sector.
I don't intentionally speed. Never committed any sort of crime so I am not a law hater in fact I support what they do but I have had two bad experiences with the constabulary in Sapulpa myself. One cost me some cash - very unjustified and the other was dismissed because it was plain stupid. I have an ex-relative and a friend that were treated most horribly and neither of them deserved it. Both cases were dismissed. The judge was even audibly irritated with the idiot that threatened my friend. Again it's probably just bad management. But I would recommend doing nothing to garner their attention. Check your tail lights, tags, head lights oh and tag light, make sure your muffler isn't leaking before you drive through the place.
You gotta be a good guy to get your CCW
I had NEVER gotten out of a ticket in my entire life. Not even when I had VERY good reason.
I've been pulled over 4 times for miscellaneous things since I got my CCW 2 years ago, and I have been let go EVERY single time with not so much as a written warning. Just "have a nice day, and be safe."
I've been pulled over 4 times for miscellaneous things since I got my CCW 2 years ago, and I have been let go EVERY single time with not so much as a written warning. Just "have a nice day, and be safe."
Definitely. It's a breath of fresh air to read through this thread after having read a bunch of complaints in some other threads. I've been stopped thrice while carrying. Twice chastised in Texas for not having a permit (though it's legal to carry in your car in Texas without one), once by a jackass, once by a guy who was kind of a jerk, but was polite about it (really was a nice guy, even though he was trying not to be), and once by a guy who was pretty cool (also in Texas). Never in Oklahoma. Now that I actually have my permit I haven't even been stopped.
I've had my CCW for something like 10 years now. I'm not the type that EVER gets pulled over so I've never had anything to add. Until a few months ago.
My CCW instructor actually told us to produce our CCW if stopped even if we weren't carrying. He thought it was worthwhile because it showed the cop that we had gone through the background checks, etc. He claimed it would lead to a "better attitude" from the cop.
I live in Craig County, OK which is a very rural county. I own 90 acres about 5 miles SW of Vinita. One evening I had to drive alone from my property to Vinita to pick up my 12 year old son from Boy Scouts. I took a lightly traveled county road that leads to Vinita, speed limit of 45. I came around a sweeping corner and started up a hill. Looked up and saw an OK Highway Patrol car parked on the opposite shoulder. I glanced at my speedometer and saw I was going right at 45 or even less. As I drove by, I waved at him. (Hey, this is a friendly place.)
After I went by, he turned on his lights and came after me. I was baffled but it had to be me he was after since there was nobody else in either direction. I pulled over, got out my DL, insurance card, and my CCW. I was carrying my usual S&W M296 in a Safepacker on my right hip. The Highway Patrolman walked up past my window and ignored me. Went to the front of the car and looked at it. Then came over to my side of the car. Stayed about ten feet out and put his hand on his gun. I was sitting there holding out my DI and permit. He just looked at me then slowly came forward and took them, all the while keeping that gun hand ready to go. I was trying to be non-threatening at this point and still wondering why I got pulled over in the first place.
He saw the permit and asked where the gun was. I pointed at my right hip. He wanted me to get out of the car but leave the gun behind. So I told him I could slide my belt out of the loops and remove it. He agreed but leaned in close to watch with hand wrapped around his gun. I slowly put it on the floor. (It's not like you can do some kind of fast draw from a closed Safepacker in the first place!)
When he had first stopped me, it was just starting to be dusk. As I got out of the car, it was actually getting dark. He got me by the arm and took me in between our cars. In the beams of his headlights. He then had me put my arms behind my back and he clamped my wrists together with one hand and patted me down with the other. Very slowly and carefully from top to bottom. He "discovered" the car alarm thing in my pocket and had me remove it. He found my two Spyderco's and "escorted" me by the arm back to my car to put them on the driver's seat. Then he had me get into the cruiser with him.
He asked me where I lived. I pointed and said about two miles away. I told him where I was going and why. And finally why I got stopped in the first place. He told me that one of my headlights was out! It wasn't even dark when I got stopped. If I had been driving an older car, he wouldn't have even known since they wouldn't have been turned on. But those "always on" headlights were working. I told him it wasn't even my car. It was my wife's commuting car, it just happened to be in the back of the garage so I took it. And I told him I watched her drive out every day and the lights were working this morning.
He wrote me up a warning. I took it, he told me to go back to my car and be on my way.
1) So much for being treated "better" if you have a CCW! I was treated like a very dangerous person every second of the way. I could be wrong, but it seemed like I got searched just because of the CCW. If I had just been Joe Average with no gun, I would have gotten a quick chat at my window, then the warning, and gone.
2) It's frustrating when you get the full blown "this is what we learned in CLEET school" thing in this situation. I don't give a rat's ass whether "it's what we are taught" or "it's about officer safety." You pull over a car for something minor like a missing light. You run the tag before you ever get out of the car. It comes back registered to an address two miles away. Registered to a family with ZERO tickets or other "wants or warrants" of any kind. IMO.... at that point you should put on your happy face and act at least a little bit like a neighbor rather than a prison guard.
3) And it was even more frustrating when it was the OHP. I expect the occasional badge heavy city or county cop. But the OHP are supposed to be the professionals. I would like a little more "protect and serve" rather than "put your hands behind your back so that I can pin them in place and search you here by the road as your neighbors drive by!"
If LEO's "are confused" by why some civilians don't "trust" them, this sort of incident is an example. I was treated as an adversary rather than as a valued member of the community. I'm 48 years old, ex-Army, hadn't had a drink in months, was driving an obvious "family car" (VW Golf TDI)..... I just can't see how my "profile" fit any excuse for the full court press.
Gregg
Langston302: Yes, it was an honest reply and appreciated. It is true in any location, career or pay scale. There are always a few people that have to ruin it for others.
Personally I have only gotten stopped once since having my CCL for several years and I did deserve to get pulled over (wasn't paying attention to the changing speed limit in an area I wasn't familiar with), but the guy was totally nice, in fact I had my license and permit packed in a suitcase, under a bunch of other crap in the back of the SUV (coming home from 4th of July at the lake). I was nice and respectful as always. I informed him that I had a license and a weapon beside my seat (with both of my hands on top of the steering wheel). When he saw what I was going to have to dig through, he said 'don't worry about it, just watch your speed, be safe and have a nice day'. It was a very small town. I know that I could have caught a different officer on a different shift, or just going through a divorce with his wife or any other kind of problem that life throws at all of us and had a lot different experience. You never know, the guy could be a total jerk, or could just be having a bad day was we all do occasionally.
Side note: Does your cruiser have the 5.7 or the 6.1? I have an SRT8 and have been curious as to what engine the OHP cruisers have. I asked an OHP the other day in a parking lot, but I didn't get the impression that he really knew.
Personally I have only gotten stopped once since having my CCL for several years and I did deserve to get pulled over (wasn't paying attention to the changing speed limit in an area I wasn't familiar with), but the guy was totally nice, in fact I had my license and permit packed in a suitcase, under a bunch of other crap in the back of the SUV (coming home from 4th of July at the lake). I was nice and respectful as always. I informed him that I had a license and a weapon beside my seat (with both of my hands on top of the steering wheel). When he saw what I was going to have to dig through, he said 'don't worry about it, just watch your speed, be safe and have a nice day'. It was a very small town. I know that I could have caught a different officer on a different shift, or just going through a divorce with his wife or any other kind of problem that life throws at all of us and had a lot different experience. You never know, the guy could be a total jerk, or could just be having a bad day was we all do occasionally.
Side note: Does your cruiser have the 5.7 or the 6.1? I have an SRT8 and have been curious as to what engine the OHP cruisers have. I asked an OHP the other day in a parking lot, but I didn't get the impression that he really knew.
I have a 5.7 in mine....as far as I know all OHP cars are 6.1
well at least you got to read what I responded with.
well at least you got to read what I responded with.
