Officer Richard Cranium

"Do you know why I stopped you?" asked the officer after boldly announcing that he is on the Traffic Team.

"Nope," was my simple reply that apparently struck a nerve with Officer Richard Cranium.
It was a pleasant Monday afternoon as I was stopped in the left turn lane. Traffic was heavy and while waiting for the green arrow, I noticed the police car also in the turn lane ahead of me with a car between us. Patrol cars are a good thing to notice as it makes everyone drive a little better.

At the green arrow, the left turn only cars began to flow through the intersection. As the police car entered the intersection, the green arrow turned to yellow. The car ahead of me entered the intersection on the yellow arrow as I focused on the color. As my front tires entered the intersection and I begin to turn, the yellow arrow disappeared. I never saw the red arrow as I proceeded out of the intersection.

Suddenly, the cop car jerked across the double yellow lines and entered the lane for opposing traffic.  The car in front of me passed the police car and as I passed, I glanced over and saw a pedestrian walking nearby and I assumed the officer was going to contact the person.

Wrong.....

The police car whipped behind me with red and blues flickering and I pulled over into a parking lot.

Hmmmm.....

I rolled down my driver's door window and placed both hands on the outside of my steering wheel, clearly visible to the approaching officer that I watched in my side view mirror.

"I'm Officer So-&-So and I'm on the Traffic Unit for the XX Police Department," he began as he stopped at my driver's door.  "Do you know why I stopped you?"

"Nope," was my reply.

"You ran the red arrow!" he fired as his confident and calm demeanor had vaporized.

"No I did not!" was my honest reply that only fueled the heated exchange.

We traded a few childish, "Yes you dids" and "No I didn'ts!"  And then he changed tactics.

"You cut off traffic!" he added to his lame attempt for me to incriminate myself by submitting to his verbal blitzkrieg by saying "I'm sorry" so he could use it against me because who says they are sorry unless they did something wrong?

"Oh no I didn't!" I shot back as he grasped for straws.

"Okay, okay, we can agree to disagree," he tossed out as he proceeded to lecture me how the intersection was a high crash location and he didn't want anymore accidents there.

"And I thank you for your efforts," I extended to him.

"Well... I'm not writing you a ticket...I didn't see the arrow," he finally admitted as he withdrew his business card and handed it to me.

FINALLY!  The truth came out!

He knew he had reasonable suspicion to stop me as he "thought" I may have run a red arrow.  But, he also knew he did not have probable cause and craftily confronted me to admit being at fault where I believe a traffic ticket would have been issued. 

BUT, I was legally in the intersection on the yellow and had done nothing wrong.

Regardless of the profession, no one likes a bully.