agusus

I thought this was a pretty clever strategy (despite the fact it'll cost me $350 to lawyer up), and I couldn't find any websites listing police pacing tricks (anyone know of one?), so I'm posting it here in case it helps someone some day.

I'm driving along I-90 W on a 40 mile return drive to Seattle. Traffic is light, the usual left-lane hoggers are relatively scarce, so I'm averaging 75 or so (in a 60). I come up behind a patrol car in Issaquah, a town near Seattle famous for giving out 1000's of speeding tickets per year, so I of course slow down to ~65 and stay behind him. He's traveling at ~70, tailgating a pickup truck (I thought he was pacing it, but apparently it wasn't worth pulling over or he wasn't on speed enforcement duty I figured).

Finally after 5 or 6 exits, at the last exit for Issaquah, he exits the highway. Of course at this time you think, whew, he's finally gone, I can stop chugging along like a snail. I go back up to 80, which was perfectly safe for the conditions (no cars near me, clear lane for 1/2 mile ahead).

Turns out he had been watching me as he exited the highway, and he then reentered on the other side. He must have gunned it to catch back up, and must have only paced me for a few seconds at a fairly long distance (I check the mirror very frequently).

He probably saw the sports car and my radar detector on the windshield, and decided he was out to get me.

So remember, just because they exit the highway doesn't mean you're clear. I'm going to try a new position for the radar detector.

Stavesacre21

man...he musta had his eyes on you from the start. That's one heck of a manuver to pull for one car.

CarAndDriver

Duh....I always look to see if cops re-enter the freeway after exiting.

malfere2

I have actually seen cops come off the freeway and come back on right away but I never realized why they did this.....now I know.

agusus

Yeah, it's pretty obvious to me now but before wasn't something I would have thought of. Anytime you exit a highway you would generally never get right back on going the same direction. If I saw someone do that I'd think boy that was dumb, they got off too early.
I also read that police in some areas are actually instructed to drive 10 over the limit because otherwise they'd cause a rolling blockade. (even at 10 over they sometimes still do, which is where the exit/reenter trick comes in handy).

tajabaho1

there are also the ones which pass u by on intersection and u turn immediately to pwn ur ***, and the ones who turn into a corner then U turn and catch you

Krankor

Thanks for the tip about Issaquah, I just moved to this area this year.

Ronn

I had ununiformed cop tailgating me couple weeks ago on I94. He expected me to take off and then he would flag me down. Well I didn't. I rolled down my window and give a hand signal for the guy to pass. Well he didn't for couple mins until I got really annoying so I slowed down to 60 mph in 70 mph limit and finally he went by me. What an idiot. I knew something was up with that car because it has too many attenna sticking out from the trunk. Cop should not be doing this sort of thing. It is toally illegal and it could cause accident.

toxin440

i agree -- cops shouldnt be trying to antagonize people to speed. I will admit especially with my RX8 that I speed like crazy sometimes, if I get caught I realize its only my fault and I will pay my fine.

Huhwha

When I lived in CT, there was such a thing as "shadowing". The law read that if you followed a marked police car down a highway at any speed, they could cite you for shadowing. Another great money-maker.

The one I liked was the CT trooper who thought he could tailgate me when I was doing the speed limit on the highway. The he had the ***** to pass me on the right with, of course, no signal light. I guess the dumbass didn't realize that I knew the barracks was just one exit down. I stopped and turned his *** in.

dmp

I remember doing research - W$P policy is to pace for 1/3 of a mile, with no turns and no change in distance between the two cars.

New Yorker

What is "pacing"?

nycgps

iTrader: (1)

that means in order for them to prove that you're speeding, they have to follow you for a while at your speed.

Lets say if you're going for 70 mph on a 60 speed limit road, the cop has to go around the same speed as you do in order to prove that you're speeding.

Actually this is the most pathetic way for a cop to do, I read it somewhere that its very easy to get rid of pacing tickets. I forgot the site tho.

Rhawb

I got screwed via a pacing ticket. I was accelerating from a light up to about 5-7 over, with the flow of traffic - not blasting around town. There was a shopping center about 100 yards before the next light where this one particular cop would always camp. The cop that was camping in there pulled out, lit up and pulled me over just about that quickly, seeing as I was pulled over and stopped about 1/8 of a mile past that red light, at best. I got a ticket for 68 in a 45 (not a chance) - I asked him how he got me and he said he paced me. NO WAY. The ONLY way he could have gotten 68 was due to the fact that he decided to go that fast to catch up to me quickly! Either way, in that short distance, there's no way he got up to speed, paced me and pulled me over. What a toolbox.

tdiddy

How do you know if the ticket was a "pacing" ticket?

PhotoMunkey

In court, the prosecutor must produce documents showing when the speedometer was last verified AND that the patrol car TIRE PSI must be set to exactly the right pressure. If not, then the pacing is invalid. If the tire PSI was not verified before and after his shift, then the judge could through the ticket out.

It's called "trial by ambush" where you first ask for a delay, which they'll allow for something like 60 days. Then, if possible, you ask for another delay (all in writing of course) immediately before the next court date. Then, on the day of the proceeding, if the officer is in the courtroom, get up and leave. You'll have to pay a small fine to get another court date, but generally the officer will throw out his notes, thinking he has a "no show conviction". When you get your date, you're allowed to ask for proof that the speedometer has been verified within the state standards, and proof that the tire PSI was checked before and after the shift (as inflation can affect the MPH which registers on the speedometer). Generally the prosecutor will not have one or the other. If he/she doesn't, then you have the right to immediately ask the judge for a dismissal, and he/she has to grant it. It's a point of law that you have the right to face your accuser in court, and verifying the department records is one method of doing this.

Of course, if they have the records, then you've got to ask the officer, on the stand, to recount the event WITHOUT using his note (i.e. from memory). If he's thrown them out, he won't be able to remember you (unless you were really stupid and argued with him on the side of the road). If he can't remember the specifics then again, you can ask for a dismissal.

This is all still a very dicey proposition, which is why most folks simply pay the fine.

agusus

The ticket has a checkbox checked off that says pacing. In WA the 3 checkboxes listing the possible speed detection methods are SMD, Pace, and Aircraft. SMD is Speed Monitoring Device (radar, laser). Also usually the cop will tell you when he pulls you over.

Jedi54

iTrader: (7)

unfortunately, that's a very common tactic by California Highway Patrol. Bummer to hear that he got ya.

saturn

This is exactly why I violently alter my speed and lane every 4 or 5 seconds.

corners

I doubt you are going to get anywhere with this, that's a pretty common tactic in Wa.

½mv²

If you have nav, you can try my setup. I don't have any way to prove that it perfectly hides the detector, but so far all of my friends agree that it blends in nicely with the nav from every angle. The only time you really notice it from outside the car is when you're standing next to it.




Let me find the thread where I posted pictures/how to and edit them into this post in a second...








EDIT (found the thread... holy crap it was MUCH futher back than I thought!)

Unlike most radar detectors, this one didn't come with the standard curly wire that scrunches up for easy storage. For some reason it decided to come with a 4½ foot long straight cord. After about 3 weeks of failed attempts at quick'n'easy knots to make storage/setup simpler, I gave up & was bound to find a way to make this damn wire work how I wanted it to.

If your current detector has a curly wire, I would suggest you get rid of it. I know my setup isn't flawless, but the RX8 dashboard/center console has no grooves or edges to tuck the wire behind, and I'm pretty sure no one likes having that thing blocking their head units and/or navigation while they drive.



(FYI - not everything I mention is shown in the pictures. The pictures were taken before I really "road tested" the setup, so it's been tweaked since then)



1 - Plug detector into the outlet located in the driver console. You will almost never unplug this, so if you had gotten used to using this compartment as a holder for something, you might end up having to find a new location for it...


2 - By using a screwdriver you can pop out the plastic section located at the front of your cup holder. Reach into the hole and to the right, and locate where the flooring/apholstry/carpeting ends (you will have to reach over or around the rubber base of the handbrake).
Fortunately, Mazda does not glue the edge of the apholstry to the side of the center console, so you will not have to rip or tear anything while feeding the other end of your cord through.
(After completing step 3, you should use electrical tape or rubber glue to hold the wire flush against the side of the cupholder. If you don't the wire will hang directly over the cupholes, and you will either unplug the detector everytime you put in a heavy cup, or spill the contents of a light cup when the holds the cup too high up)


3 - Once the other end of the cord is visible, pull all of the slack through. You will then want to slide the cord back away from the handbrake to eliminate any possibility of the wire ever getting snagged on the rubber base. As seen in the pictures, leave just a *hint* of wire sticking out. You want it to be hidden enough so that a half-wit passenger never notices it and gives it a tug, but reachable enough so that everytime you get in the car you can easily slide your finger along the center and make sure that the wire hasn't started creeping up near the base of the handbrake.


4 - Simply tuck the wire underneath the side paneling just enough so that it can't be seen. You don't want to tuck it in too far or else you put it at risk of getting snagged by the handbrake and/or transmission.


5 - (You may need the help of another person, or a bent coathanger for this part) Pop out the screwgard located to the left of the glovebox. Feed the other end of your wire up and through the hole. If your wire is exceptionally long, you can use the hidden space behind this hole to conceal any extra wire. Just be sure that the slack is tucked safely away so that a passenger's foot wont ever catch it and pull your whole setup apart.
Unlike the screwguard in the cupholder, this one will not fasten securely into place with the wire running through it. You can still put it snugly enough into place that it'll stand up to any type of drivng, but any human passenger, being the curious creatures that they are, will 'pick' at it as soon as they get in, and it will drop to the floor, where it is a real pain the *** to find, if you can find it before it's destroyed (95% of the time it falls into the slide-rails of the seat... A passenger of mine backed their seat right over it because they thought it fell under the seat)
I know it looks tacky, but you'll want to fasten it into place with tape. Yes, it looks like something is broken, but that's a good thing because passengers will ASK why it's there, rather than investigate it themselves.


6 - The dashboard curves just enough so that gravity can nicely hold the wire up and out of the way. Play around with the location of the detector long enough and you can place it so that the display is visible from your angle, but mostly blocked to anyone who's looking in from the car behind you. This will also mask it's location to anyone looking at it from the front in their rearview.


7 - After each use, detact from the suction cups & drop it in the glovebox. The length of the wire should be just right so that no wondering mischievious eyes wil ever know you've got a detector, unless they're really REALLY keen on details.

FoxyRoxy

It has been a few years now, but there was an insurance scam going on where you would be blocked front, rear, and both sides. Then the car ahead would have a reason to suddenly lock their brakes (after pulling you in) and BAM. Well, I am driving home in VA and end up on a fairly open road with cars on three sides of me. The car behind is practically in my trunk and a car is closing off my only exit to the left. Remembering this scam being reported on TV, I dropped a gear and accelerated up and in front of the car to the left. He was a cop (naturally) and he radar'd me.

StewyRX8

Sry to hear, unfortunatley there are some sneaky tactics being used by PoPos...

Krankor

The other BS thing with people giving these elaborate stories of how to beat the legal system is the obvious fact that this stuff varies by state. It is, in my opinion, outright irresponsible to be telling people to do this or that because the system works like this or that when they live somewhere different where they could get themselves screwed by following your advice. If you haven't prefaced your advice with "In Vermont..." or "In Wisconsin..." or "In Sosnowiec, Poland...", you are doing more harm than good.

Cattywampus

Where the hell did you hear that stuff. No judge in their right mind can throw out a pacing ticket for tire pressure and odometer reading. No agency requires to have your tire pressure documented. Pacing tickets are very easy to get thrown out. What is "trail by ambush" and "no show conviction"? No officer will throw out his "notes". If they do they are stupid. Most will hold on to their ickets for life in a folder when the citation booklet is used up.