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Leaving my daughter's school this evening, my wife and I pass a cop sitting in a parking lot at the corner of the intersection. He jumped in behind me and followed for three blocks including one left hand turn. He finally lights me up. He approached the car and I was prepared with DL and CHL in hand. He advised me he stopped me because my license plate light is not working. He went and ran his checks. When he came back he acknowledged my fairly recent attendance at the Sheriff's Citizens Academy. Returned my license and chl along with a written warning. Very pleasant guy and never mentioned my weapons, which I had two with me. It was obvious he was just looking for a reason to stop me and see if there might be something up. I got home and checked my license plate lights and yep, one of the two is burned out.

No harm no foul.

mojo84 wrote:Leaving my daughter's school this evening, my wife and I pass a cop sitting in a parking lot at the corner of the intersection. He jumped in behind me and followed for three blocks including one left hand turn. He finally lights me up. He approached the car and I was prepared with DL and CHL in hand. He advised me he stopped me because my license plate light is not working. He went and ran his checks. When he came back he acknowledged my fairly recent attendance at the Sheriff's Citizens Academy. Returned my license and chl along with a written warning. Very pleasant guy and never mentioned my weapons, which I had two with me. It was obvious he was just looking for a reason to stop me and see if there might be something up. I got home and checked my license plate lights and yep, one of the two is burned out.

No harm no foul.

I sure do wish I could get paid for fishing.

Me too!

mojo84 wrote:Leaving my daughter's school this evening, my wife and I pass a cop sitting in a parking lot at the corner of the intersection. He jumped in behind me and followed for three blocks including one left hand turn. He finally lights me up. He approached the car and I was prepared with DL and CHL in hand. He advised me he stopped me because my license plate light is not working. He went and ran his checks. When he came back he acknowledged my fairly recent attendance at the Sheriff's Citizens Academy. Returned my license and chl along with a written warning. Very pleasant guy and never mentioned my weapons, which I had two with me. It was obvious he was just looking for a reason to stop me and see if there might be something up. I got home and checked my license plate lights and yep, one of the two is burned out.

No harm no foul.

Most the officers here are pretty nice. There is one though... I'll just say he's a master angler.

I've been here 6 years. No really bad interactions with the LEOs here. But some were more pleasant than others.
5 years ago while I was quitting smoking, I did get "Pulled over" while I was walking off some cravings. He explained that he wanted to make sure I hadn't been drinking. I kept thinking, if I were drinking shouldn't I walk home as opposed to drive?

Some are young and gungho looking to rid the world of high crime. Small town police work can be mighty boring about 99% of the time. You never know when that middle aged couple in a Tahoe is going to turn out to he the next Bonnie and Clyde. I do feel Boerne is much safer now.

jmra wrote: I sure do wish I could get paid for fishing.

AMEN!!!!!

I've had pleasant run ins with Boerne PD at the Walmart there, just friendly chitchat while waiting in line. A friend of mine did the Citizen Sheriff's Academy there and did a ride along and was truly bored out of his mind which I guess you can't complain about since it means all is safe.

I did notice that they've been a bit more active in patrols recently including sitting on the highway running radar or whatever.

jmra wrote:I sure do wish I could get paid for fishing.

Not fishing. There was a legitimate issue (light burned out) and the officer pulled over the car to inform the operator of the issue. As OP said, no harm no foul.

A-R wrote:

jmra wrote:I sure do wish I could get paid for fishing.

Not fishing. There was a legitimate issue (light burned out) and the officer pulled over the car to inform the operator of the issue. As OP said, no harm no foul.

From the OP:
"It was obvious he was just looking for a reason to stop me and see if there might be something up."

Fishing.

Not fishing. There was a legitimate issue (light burned out) and the officer pulled over the car to inform the operator of the issue. As OP said, no harm no foul.

Is there a law that says you need to have two license plate light? The OP said that when he got home he checked and only one was out.....

Sounds like fishing to me.

A-R wrote:

jmra wrote:I sure do wish I could get paid for fishing.

Not fishing. There was a legitimate issue (light burned out) and the officer pulled over the car to inform the operator of the issue. As OP said, no harm no foul.

Then there are those who think that stopping someone just to point out that one defective bulb on a license plate is a bit silly and is more often than not used to indeed fish for other "legitimate issues". The law the legislature passed ten years or so ago that outlawed license plate frames was such a law and was vetoed because it would have served such a purpose.

But then, these scofflaws that drive around with burned out bulbs are a dangerous lot.

Cops use the excuse often to stop someone for not using a turn signal. I see LEO do it all of the time. Can I make a citizen's arrest next time?

Anygunanywhere

Since he followed me for three or four blocks and waited through a stop light for me to turn left before lighting me up made me think he was looking for a reason to stop me. There is no way he could have seen that my light was out when he initially decided to get in behind me as he was to my side and not rear.

As been indicated in here and to me personally, at times cops look for any "legitimate" reason to stop someone so they can see if there is anything else going on. It's common. I believe minor equipment and traffic code infractions are used all the time for cops to go "fishing". Some consider it a bad thing and some don't. I don't like it when the motivation for making the stop is hoping they will uncover something more. If they stop a person with the motivation to make them aware and give a warning and they happen to discover more, so be it.


On top of all that, my son and his Explorer post comrades saw me get pulled over. Fortunately, they couldn't tell it was me. That would have earned him some razzing. Daddy making son proud.

Some people call it fishing. Other people call it "good police work" when such fishing results in the arrest of a Timothy McVeigh.

I think it was a slow night, and the LEO was just lonely....

Jumping Frog wrote:Some people call it fishing. Other people call it "good police work" when such fishing results in the arrest of a Timothy McVeigh.

Timothy McVeigh didn't have a one of two license plates out....he had NO tag at all. To me having no tag at all is much more indicative that a crime may have occurred (auto theft, etc.) then one of two taillights beings out.

Edited: I said taillights not license plate lights in my first post.