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mojo84 wrote:I think many take the questions about where are you headed, where are you coming from, where do you work etc wrong. While it is not just idle chit chat to build rapport, it also isn't the great violation of the 4th Amendment some seem to think it is. It is a way for the cop to engage you so they can assess your condition and determine if there may be something nefarious going on. When they ask these questions, they are listening to your voice inflection, speech pattern, watching your physical response etc to see if you are intoxicated, excessively nervous, abnormal eye movement etc.

Like it or not, it's just them doing their job. I don't mind it as I've never had one question me to the point I thought it excessive or had become an interrogation.

By the way, getting defensive can also cause them to want to dig deeper and ask more questions as they can take that as a sign of someone hiding something.

Ruark wrote:

mojo84 wrote: I also believe cops typically respond to respect with respect. I've said elsewhere that I will go along with showing ID if I chose to open carry and get stopped till the newness wears off and people get more accustomed to open carry.

I disagree. The overwhelming majority of cops I've encountered have responded to my "yes sir, no sir" respect with a litany of personal questions. Where are you going today, sir? Shopping? Do you work in Austin? Oh, you're retired? Where did you retire from? When was that? What did you do there? etc. etc. etc.

Just for the record, I'm never, never belligerent or rude to LEOs. I might say, with excruciating politeness, "Uh, sir, we'd like to be moving along here, is there anything else I can help you with?" From there, depending on how it goes, I might proceed to the "am I being detained?" script. But again, always with extreme politeness. Regardless, I have a very clear limit on how far I will allow such a conversation to go.