A personal tale: I was on the phone with my wife as she was driving home a few months ago. A statie had come up behind and put on his lights so she hung up with me. She was exiting the interstate near the house, actually on the ramp. The statie’s first question to her was: Do you have a gun in the car? My wife said yes. He: Where is it? Wife: Why right her beside me officer. He: Is it loaded? She: Yes sir. He: Why do you have a gun? She: NYDB. (My wife is notoriously strong-willed.) He: You didn’t turn on your blinker when you exited. She: Yes I did.
He let her go with a warning. It was only later that we figured out that he had run her plate, saw that there had to be a CCW permit holder in the car, and pulled her over just to adjust her attitude. Mother of ten, Wal-mart shopper, church-goer... the Indiana State Police have nothing better to do?
I don’t know about Indiana, but here in Cali the CHP (our version of the statie/state trooper/state department of public safety etc) is primarily interested in writing tickets. It’s what they do. They’ll ticket anyone they can: cops, grandmothers, other off-duty CHP officers (no kidding) etc etc etc. They are tasked, in other words, with vehicle code enforcement, and can be, and are, subject to “corrective interviews” with the sergeant and lieutenant if they get mixed up in too many penal code issues. I imagine it’s pretty similar in your state.
And you have one plausible narrative, but strictly as an outsider, it’s also plausible that she didn’t actuate her turn indicator, — or turn it on soon enough? (perhaps distracted by a phone call? — Not saying it’s so, just that it’s plausible). That the statie decided to make the stop and then ran the plate? And then found out that the driver was indeed the CCW holder and, just as in my example — let her off with a warning.
OK, so that’s a bit of Roshomon, but there’s not enough evidence either way — maybe the guy did make an illegal traffic stop, lacking PC — his dash camera would tell the tale. Just sayin’ that there’s another way to look at it given the facts presented.
I don’t know about Indiana, but here in Cali the CHP (our version of the statie/state trooper/state department of public safety etc) is primarily interested in writing tickets. It’s what they do. They’ll ticket anyone they can: cops, grandmothers, other off-duty CHP officers (no kidding) etc etc etc. They are tasked, in other words, with vehicle code enforcement, and can be, and are, subject to “corrective interviews” with the sergeant and lieutenant if they get mixed up in too many penal code issues. I imagine it’s pretty similar in your state.
And you have one plausible narrative, but strictly as an outsider, it’s also plausible that she didn’t actuate her turn indicator, — or turn it on soon enough? (perhaps distracted by a phone call? — Not saying it’s so, just that it’s plausible). That the statie decided to make the stop and then ran the plate? And then found out that the driver was indeed the CCW holder and, just as in my example — let her off with a warning.
OK, so that’s a bit of Roshomon, but there’s not enough evidence either way — maybe the guy did make an illegal traffic stop, lacking PC — his dash camera would tell the tale. Just sayin’ that there’s another way to look at it given the facts presented.