Job keeps me from getting traffic ticket

[MTM]

How many people have avoided a traffic ticket because they are a journalist?
The last two times I've been pulled over by police, the officer did not write me up because of my job.
A couple years back, the officer saw my state-issued press card, asked me where I work, said he knew our longtime cops reporter, and let me go with a warning.
The other night, I was pulled over for speeding and recognized the officer as a former local athlete, who I had covered years ago.
After I greeted him and told him who I am, he told me to slow down and returned to his cruiser.
As journalists, we shouldn't accept favors, but I had no problem avoiding what would have been multi-hundred dollar fines and whatever else goes with a ticket.

 

[RickStain]

<Throne Of Judgment>
No, because I obey the laws.
</Throne of Judgment>

 

[spnited]

Oh, man, Can't wait for the board ethics police to get hold of this one.

 

[alleyallen]

How many people have avoided a traffic ticket because they are a journalist?
The last two times I've been pulled over by police, the officer did not write me up because of my job.
A couple years back, the officer saw my state-issued press card, asked me where I work, said he knew our longtime cops reporter, and let me go with a warning.
The other night, I was pulled over for speeding and recognized the officer as a former local athlete, who I had covered years ago.
After I greeted him and told him who I am, he told me to slow down and returned to his cruiser.
As journalists, we shouldn't accept favors, but I had no problem avoiding what would have been multi-hundred dollar fines and whatever else goes with a ticket.

I have no stance on the moral issue....

But maybe you could, y'know, slow down. Then you wouldn't need that kind of help.

 

[MTM]

72 in a 55 at 11:50 p.m. on a two-lane highway with no other vehicles in either direction, except, apparently, the cop.

 

[User 1019]

I'll get the popcorn.

 

[Fudgie the Whale]

Job keeps me from getting laid

Fixed.

 

[Armchair_QB]

We get taxed enough as it is. I don't have a problem with skating on a speed tax.

I've found that the decal that you get for joining the local sheriff or police association can be a big help in avoiding minor violations as well.

 

[RickStain]

Clergy sticker FTW. My dad *never* got ticketed for anything, and he was an awful driver.

 

[Steak Snabler]

I've been pulled over a couple of times and the cop started talking sports with me after he saw my work ID or if I answered that I was "coming from/going to a ball game" when asked where I was heading in such a hurry. But I'm not sure that I would have gotten a ticket in either instance.

But my best story on the subject involves not being pulled over at all. When I was covering preps for my hometown paper years ago, I would always go eat dinner with my grandparents before I went to cover a Friday night football game.

One week, I was assigned to our most-remote school, about an hour's drive from the office. Dinner ran long and I had to speed or I would miss kickoff.

I was whipping it up a two-lane country road going about 80 mph, when I saw a state trooper pull out of a side road. Immediately, I thought I was dead, and the trooper pulled in behind me.

He never cut his lights on, though, just followed me as I approached the stadium. He turned in after me, and I kept thinking he was going to write me a ticket in the parking lot. But he parked near the gate and went in the stadium.

I knew what the officer was thinking: "You know, I could write this SOB a ticket, but then I'd miss kickoff." He was standing on the sideline the whole game, as I tried to avoid eye contact with him ...

 

[JackReacher]

I've gotten out of three traffic tickets that way. Every time, I was coming home from a game and the cop was more interested in who won than writing a ticket.

It was funny to the guys in the newsroom, who heard it on the scanner.

 

[alleyallen]

72 in a 55 at 11:50 p.m. on a two-lane highway with no other vehicles in either direction, except, apparently, the cop.

Yeah...sorry...not feeling the sympathy here. I drove a lot of backroads and dark highways in my days as an ASE, and if I wasn't sure of the level of leeway and police coverage, I went much much closer to the speed limit than that.

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

Only happened once. I was interning in Alabama a few years back. Got pulled over coming home from a game.
Cop asked what the hurry was and I explained I'd just covered a football game and was trying to avoid blowing deadline.
He looked at my car -- which at the time was an '85 Dodge Diplomat (this was 2002, by the way) -- and let me go.
I think he just felt sorry for what I had to drive.

 

[Norman Stansfield]

Add me to the list of those saved by their jobs.

Twice it's happened to me. Once I actually had a copy of that day's section in my front seat, with my front-page story on the local NFL team prominently displayed.

I showed it to the cop, encouraged him to take it, and he let me off with a verbal warning

 

[beanpole]

Only happened once -- very early in my career when I was a cops reporter, and I had spend Friday night at a girlfriend's apartment about 30 miles away. I had to be back in the city at 9 a.m. Saturday to cover a state police bust (cops had sent fake letters to people wanted for misdeameanors and felonies and invited them to the civic center, saying they won free season football tickets to the local U. You should have seen their faces when they got busted).

Anyway, I got pulled over driving 70 in a 55. When the state trooper asked me why I was in such a hurry, I told him what I was supposed to be covering. He gave me a double-take, ran my plates and let me off with a warning.

 

[RossLT]

I am fairly certain I got a ticket once because I was a journalist. Cop had the same last name as a local athlete who thought he was a lot better than he was. I found out later he was an uncle or something who my SE said was "The biggest asshole you may ever meet".

 

[Gutter]

Pulled over after covering my first game at my first full-time job out of college. Told him why I was going a little fast (game went into double OT) and where I was headed.

Let me off with a verbal warning.

 

[Oggiedoggie]

I got pulled over doing 103 in a 45 with an underage girl in the car.

I ended up putting the trooper's son on our all-state second-string team.

If the drug-sniffing dog wouldn't have had a cold, the kid would have made varsity.

 

[The Big Ragu]

Job keeps me from getting laid

Fixed.

It's not the job.

 

[Trey Beamon]

Given my luck, the cop would tack on additional charges for not getting his kid's name in the paper enough.