TexasCHLforum.com

An LEO needs probable cause for an offense to pull you over in Texas. Probable cause is not a dead certainty. It has been defined as that set of facts and circumstances known by the officer at the time that would warrant a reasonable man to believe that a crime had taken place.

So, yes, the officer could see the window tint and think it looked too dark and be justified in pulling someone over.

The reason the officer needs so much on the radar ticket is the fact that radar is a search. The officer needs probable cause to perform a search (electronic devices are almost always a search since they are not enhancements to normal vision). Then he uses the radar reading as evidence of your exact speed. The tracking and audio are used to help bolster the officer's testimony that he had used the radar properly (most radar tickets that have problems are really bad users).

The radar is not really needed though. I went years writing speeding tickets on a regular basis when SAPD did not issue its officers radar guns (until about 1995, radar was just for the traffic officers, the rest of us were not allowed to use it). what I did was watch traffic and see if I saw someone I thought was speeding. Then I would get behind them and pace them. If my speed matched theirs, I could then testify how fast I was going. If we stayed equal, they were going the same speed. If they pulled away, they were going faster. I always figures that if I could drive behind you for 1/4 mile and you did not slow down, you were not paying enough attention to be driving that fast, so I did not feel too bad about writing a ticket.

My favorite answer was when they would yell that I had not clocked them since their radar detector had not gone off. I would always ask how good it was and what bands it covers. They would almost always say it covered all three (X, K, and Ka). I would then say that was the problem, I was using the new "P" band and their detector could not catch it. If they questioned me about it I would explain that the P stood for pacing (which was written on the ticket anyway) and they needed to look at their P band detector - the rear view mirror. It usually got them to laugh and accept they were not paying enough attention.

O'douls is not beer in the state of Texas. The legal definition of beer (or any alcoholic beverage) is that it must have more than .5% alcohol by volume. O'douls has less than that amount.

Based on those two facts, it is not illegal to have an open container of O'douls while you drive and this is why he let you go. It is also why you can by O'douls when you cannot buy beer.