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"Police have discretion on enforcement." - That is perhaps one of the underlying problems. Many of the laws as written rely on 'discretion' to be functional.

"Police have discretion on enforcement." - That is perhaps one of the underlying problems. Many of the laws as written rely on 'discretion' to be functional. Nearly every driver in the US who has been driving more than a few weeks is a yet to be convicted multi-time felon.. by the very nature that the laws around driving only work when paired with sometimes arbitrary discretion. Imagine if you go over the speed limit even .1mph, which will happen to almost every car many hundreds or thousands of times per day, and you are sited for such. Consider rules like turn signals needing to be indicated 100 feet before a turn. 99.9 feet and you are violating the law and due a citation. Multiple citations and you should automatically have you license suspended. There is a never ending collection of officers saying that if they want to pull someone over, all they have to do is follow them due to it being impossible to drive with 100% legal compliance. Until we reduce that ability ( which is in the hands of our elected lawmakers), the movement of the 'discretion' just moves where the power target is.

genewitch 4y ago
the supreme court in 2013 or 2014 actually ruled that police cannot follow you in such a fashion to cause you to violate the vehicle code or other laws. The actual case in front of them was someone who was alternately tailgated then cut off by a police cruiser over the course of ~3 miles, and due to that did some traffic infraction. Once detained, a request to search was asked and granted and they found dozens of amphetamine pills. This happened in either Colorado or Utah. The decision was a very good read but i haven't been able to find it since, because i want to get something removed from my record that happened a couple of months before the supreme court decision. Ford's "tap the signal" flashes your blinker three times, which is not enough flashes to be legal in any state i've ever lived in. However, i was being tailgated on a single lane divided highway for 5 miles, and once a lane opened up, i tapped the signal, waited three flashes, and moved over. Boom. Tickets galore. Reason for stop? I didn't signal enough. It was like 01:30 and ourselves and the police were the only people on the road the entire time we were on it. There was no safety issue. Anyhow, that's an example of what the supreme court said is not probable cause. You can't manufacture it by harassing someone in a vehicle for miles.
- etherealG 4y ago
  I live in France. We have no probable cause. Lucky you it takes them that much effort.

genewitch 4y ago

the supreme court in 2013 or 2014 actually ruled that police cannot follow you in such a fashion to cause you to violate the vehicle code or other laws. The actual case in front of them was someone who was alternately tailgated then cut off by a police cruiser over the course of ~3 miles, and due to that did some traffic infraction. Once detained, a request to search was asked and granted and they found dozens of amphetamine pills. This happened in either Colorado or Utah. The decision was a very good read but i haven't been able to find it since, because i want to get something removed from my record that happened a couple of months before the supreme court decision. Ford's "tap the signal" flashes your blinker three times, which is not enough flashes to be legal in any state i've ever lived in. However, i was being tailgated on a single lane divided highway for 5 miles, and once a lane opened up, i tapped the signal, waited three flashes, and moved over. Boom. Tickets galore. Reason for stop? I didn't signal enough. It was like 01:30 and ourselves and the police were the only people on the road the entire time we were on it. There was no safety issue. Anyhow, that's an example of what the supreme court said is not probable cause. You can't manufacture it by harassing someone in a vehicle for miles.

etherealG 4y ago
I live in France. We have no probable cause. Lucky you it takes them that much effort.