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Old 07-24-2012, 08:28 AM
 
Location: Chicago
3,918 posts, read 6,830,689 times
Reputation: 5471

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I have always heard the phrases "When in doubt find a scout?" or "I need a dummy" when referring to following a fellow speeder. This way they get caught by police and you will be let free because they have to pull him over. Is it even true that the first car always gets pulled over? My gut tells me no. Obviously, speeding in itself is wrong, but I was curious if this holds any weight. Any cops available who can give input?
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Old 07-24-2012, 08:44 AM
 
Location: Metro Washington DC
15,427 posts, read 25,799,414 times
Reputation: 10450
The first time I ever pulled over, the cop pulled over two cars (me and the other guy) at the same time. I don't know if I had ignored him and kept going, whether he would forget the other guy and chase me down or not. I pulled over and didn't find out.
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Old 07-24-2012, 08:57 AM
 
Location: Northern MN
3,869 posts, read 15,167,411 times
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He doesn't need to pull any of you over or he can chose the speeder(car) he wants to pull over or he could attempt to pull all of you over.

What this is referring to is if you are using a radar detector.
You let someone go in front of you that is speeding and hopefully the cop uses his radar or laser on him, this will set off your detector giving you more time to react.

or they could use a few cars and a plane or a helocopter and pull the whole line of speeding cars over.

What you are referring to is one cop can only pullover one car.
But it doesn't have to be the first car.



Quote:
Originally Posted by ChiGuy2.5 View Post
I have always heard the phrases "When in doubt find a scout?" or "I need a dummy" when referring to following a fellow speeder. This way they get caught by police and you will be let free because they have to pull him over. Is it even true that the first car always gets pulled over? My gut tells me no. Obviously, speeding in itself is wrong, but I was curious if this holds any weight. Any cops available who can give input?
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Old 07-24-2012, 09:29 AM
 
19,116 posts, read 25,313,763 times
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The trick is to never be the fastest car on the road.
Even if you are going somewhat over the speed limit, the car that is going the fastest is the one that will attract the most attention.

So, if you stay out of the left lane as much as possible, and if you limit the amount of lane-changing that you do, you can usually go 5-7 mph over the limit without attracting attention, while the guy who is driving 10-15 mph over the limit does get pulled over.

Do I ever go faster than 5-7 mph over the limit?
Sure, but I still make sure that I am not the fastest one on the road.

And, a radar/laser detector helps somewhat also. Just don't rely totally on it.

Does this strategy work? Well, since I haven't gotten a speeding ticket since 1967, I think that it does work.

Last edited by Retriever; 07-24-2012 at 10:13 AM..
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Old 07-24-2012, 09:29 AM
 
Location: SF Bay Area
5,994 posts, read 20,072,505 times
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In the places that I typically drive through (California, Nevada) the most common scenario is a single highway patrol officer parked in a well hidden place. They just scan traffic until they either find the single standout in terms of current average speeds or gets bored after waiting too long and just stops one at random. I always make it a practice to follow someone else if I intend to travel at 80mph on the highway. If I'm the only car on the highway I'll probably do around 70mph. The last time I got stopped was a few years back on 80 West, I was following the flow of traffic (about 72mph) and I switched one lane over to pass and I got popped for 74mph (put me down for 70mph on the ticket) which I thought was pretty ridiculous considering that on this same stretch of road 80mph is the norm during many times of day. I think traffic was generally moving slow enough that he had a hard time finding a worthy offender and just went with the next best thing. I pass CHP at 80mph on a daily basis driving home from work and have never been stopped (in a bright red car no less) because I’m always behind someone else.

What I have been noticing more of lately are CHP officers stealthily parked on onramps and highway entrances particularly on highways where you'd rarely see highway patrol. I'm sure they do this to catch people off guard but its still odd seeing CHP on small two lane HWY 1 passing along the California coast because they are almost never there.

Last edited by iTsLiKeAnEgG; 07-24-2012 at 09:51 AM..
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Old 07-24-2012, 09:48 AM
 
3,183 posts, read 7,201,358 times
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Cops stopped my brother for speeding and my brother said he was just going with the flow. cop said "son do you ever go fishing"? brother said "yes" Cop said "did you catch all of the fish".nuff said
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Old 07-24-2012, 10:32 AM
 
4,761 posts, read 14,282,203 times
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I drove over a hill in California and there was a cop with a radar gun and radio. Further up there were 20 cop cars waiting! They pulled over EVERY car that was speeding. ($$ for state.)

Glad I don't speed. (Can't afford the increased insurance rates. The fines are getting up there too, but the insurance increase is a many year penalty.)

Also how much time do you actually save? In many cases it is just a minute or two. Leave a minute early...
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Old 07-24-2012, 11:23 AM
 
4,500 posts, read 12,338,870 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Billy_J View Post
I drove over a hill in California and there was a cop with a radar gun and radio. Further up there were 20 cop cars waiting! They pulled over EVERY car that was speeding. ($$ for state.)

Glad I don't speed. (Can't afford the increased insurance rates. The fines are getting up there too, but the insurance increase is a many year penalty.)

Also how much time do you actually save? In many cases it is just a minute or two. Leave a minute early...
On a drive from Dallas, TX to Fort Collins, Co, I saved a few hours, held a steady 80-90mph through the night, except for the towns I went through, and compared to the speed limit, it sure went faster 60-65mph speed limit. Only thing that happened was a cop car going the other way flashed his lights at me a little, didn't turn around though.

In all essence, you just need to pay attention if you're going to speed more than everyone else, keep an eye out for certain cars and antennas etc etc, but it certainly can be done, that being said, everyone's caught sometime.
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Old 07-24-2012, 11:24 AM
 
Location: Ontario, NY
3,516 posts, read 7,779,706 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dkf747 View Post
The first time I ever pulled over, the cop pulled over two cars (me and the other guy) at the same time. I don't know if I had ignored him and kept going, whether he would forget the other guy and chase me down or not. I pulled over and didn't find out.
I know someone that was pulled over by the police and he signaled her to follow him so he could pull someone else over. She assumed he meant it was OK for her to to go, so when the police pulled over the other driver, she kept going. Yes he did chase her down again and was very hot when he got up to her car.
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Old 07-24-2012, 11:33 AM
 
Location: NJ
17,573 posts, read 46,130,040 times
Reputation: 16273
I was told a long time ago by a friend that was a cop they would always stop the car in the back if there were a pack of cars speeding. Said that would be the easist to pull over. No idea if that was a local thing or not.
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