Maybe it's a regional thing, but around here the question is always "Do you know why I pulled you over?" to which I've answered, "no, sir." To answer anything e

Maybe it's a regional thing, but around here the question is always "Do you know why I pulled you over?" to which I've answered, "no, sir." To answer anything else is to incriminate yourself, and officers will write in the comments section of the ticket (for the judge to see) that you affirmed your offense, essentially pleading guilty on the spot. For example, let's say you're going 10mph over the speed limit and you're aware of that, but you don't know your tail light is out. The officer pulls you over for the tail light, asks the question, and you answer "because I was speeding, I guess". Now he can not only write you the ticket for the tail light, but you just gave him a confession for the speeding too. Now you've guaranteed that you'll get two citations when you might have just gotten off with a "fix that tail light" warning.