Are the traffic cops getting aggressive in your area? It's beginning to feel like a police state around here!

policeman--

has a 4 year degree in criminal justice; has never been in the military; is a 'family man'--

and we have a family member who sometimes walks in an area where cars are watched (there is a footpath near there as well)--

this family member and the policeman are known to each other, but not familiarly--

but the family member a week or so ago--lifted a hand and smiled broadly and waved at the policeman--

saying (yes, this is our child), "you taught me to look them in the eye and not show fear"--

and the policeman, whom we DO know--

looked away--

a couple of weeks later--

our family member was walking in the same area and saw the car and wondered if the same person was in it--

and before he/she could smile and wave, the policeman turned and looked at him/her, smiled broadly and waved--

not sure what it means, but our family member thinks that person spends entirely too much time in the car waiting for speeders--

I think it's not so bad here, but I'm always watching, always wary.

It would be funny if, when pulled over by the police, the people would bleat in response to their questions.

and working with "Ban the Van". The sheriff here is ridiculous with his attempts to take jobs away from real live cops. We have only a very few bad ones where I live but they don't work as cops long.

Ever since we have had quotas, the head has to peer over the shoulder, looking for cherries, when, I might add you are completely in the right.. Night time is very bad here as well, as some have said bellow. DUI enforcement is huge! ..There must be some kind of federal money going to DUI enforcement if it is so universal.. I'm not saying DUI enforcement is bad, but I am more fearful of getting pulled over at night then I am of getting hit by a drunk driver.

Absolutely.

So much so that i traded my car for one with about twice the 0-60 time, and now use cruise control stalks and buttons for gas pedal, instead of attempting to flow with traffic; with complete and utter disregard for how many people end up swerving around me as a result. I'm sure everyone else is less safe as a result, but what the heck. Even idiotic laws are enforced vigorously, hence must be complied with in our once great police state.

I really only drive about once every two weeks, but a good advice to those who drive a lot is to get the latest Prius, as it is cheap to run, and can be had with both radar cruise and lane keep assist. On a freeway with lane markers, it will basically drive the speed of traffic, up to a set max, and keep itself in its lane at the same time. All unattended. If you keep a WWAN laptop on the passenger seat or your lap, you can keep up with DP while the car commutes you :)

For those on the opposite side of the political / enviro spectrum, another option is to get the new F150 Raptor, and just drive as fast as you darned well please, where no police cruiser can hope to follow.

Either alternative works, and neither makes anyone any safer; but both keeps revenue out of the hands of our oppressors, and that's the most important point.

I live in a nice part of town (Queen Anne) and I have noticed an increase in their numbers. On Aurora Avenue (Highway 99) they have posted signs suggesting that there is a traffic safety program in effect. Right. Sometimes at night on Queen Anne Avenue they will park outside of a local establishment with headlights on pointing in at the patrons. I have never felt threatened in my neighborhood before but now I do. I have begun to rely on the bus and taxis when I go out at night. The increase in cops was freaking me out.

Uniformed presence is the first stage of projection of force on the use of force continuum.

I know a young lady who just got pulled over tonight for speeding, had her car searched, and was generally harassed. She, like another friend of mine, are pretty sure they weren't speeding to the extent they were charged.

There's some fishy things about.

Yes. Revenues are down, call it job security...Yesterday while on a 100+ mile trek from PA to NJ my wife remarked on the increased activity that she has noticed lately(she gets out more than I do). We saw a car pulled over, which is what sparked the conversation. Wouldn't you know it, about 60 miles into our journey, I got pulled over for "doing 41 in a 25..." When Officer B. explained that, I/we immediately asked for "warning"...Maybe it was the Ron Paul magnets, C4L magnets, or the "don't blame me I voted for Ron Paul" sticker, but, as luck would have it, Officer B. gave me a written warning...It is a pain in the a$$ going to municipal/kangaroo court in NJ to fight a ticket. They drag it out for 5 -6 hours even if your are being granted a dismissal, continuance, etc...Thanks Officer B.

Many more young rookies are seen in my area, which is a village and is nothing but a part-time police department. When I mean young rookies, I mean crew cut 20 year olds and most of them have replaced the long timers in the village. They are pretty good guys and I haven't had any particular issues with any of them. They act as the fire department really, since they only come when called for the most part.

Outside of my village the incorporated city cops tend be the code enforcers. They spend their time really going after Ohio revised code breakers and then use their fund generating activities of ticket writing.

Here are a couple of ways to deal with traffic stops that I have used or understand. This video is from an encounter I had about four months ago - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=443LDl7sy9s

and this one is something different, but important to understand in dealing with a police encounter - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN0B2VFEmJk

people don't care till it effects THEM PERSONALLY. Don't give a squat if it happens next door, just NOT TO ME ?
Read the "Gulag Archipelago" Yes this DID HAPPEN
""And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward."
— Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

All traffic citations are an illegal executive equity excise tax assessment issued by an INTERPOL agent who has no bond, oath of office, driver's license, scope certification, appointment affidavit or loyalty to anyone but elitists that run the international banking cartels who drove this country into insolvency.

The county sheriff takes a dim view of stuff like that. As far as the city cops go, this afternoon I drove by the cop shop and all the cars were in their parking spots, save one.