Ask for any recorded video from the cruiser as a part of Disclosure.

Sometimes police do have to get close to vehicles and appears to be "tail gating". The reason for this is to read a licence plate. If plates are faded, dirty, obstructed by tinted plate covers, rusty, etc..... OR licence plate light is burnt out, it makes it very difficult to read, even more so at night. Once plate is called into dispatch officer can back off and make a stop.

My car is a 2009 vw, the plate lights are fully functioning and the plates are clean. I just washed the car 2 days before the incident.

Couldn't police just lite their lights? I would pull over immediately if I see those behind me, then the officers would have more than enough time to check my plates after I stopped my car.

I think the plates are called in before a stop in case the car tries to run.

Ic, also, any information on how insurance reacts to these type of stuff generally?

Thanks

42 km/h over the limit is still a minor conviction, and I think most insurance companies will forgive one or two of those. I was with Motors Insurance (GMAC) and they forgave two minor convictions I got when I was 16 and 18, while FiReSTaRT had his rates increased.

The OPP's LED bars are the best.

I must admit you can see those from very very far away. They look cool to.

Off topic but i really hope you guys give tickets for those that fail to move over. You guys have a dangerous job as it is pulling people over all day on crowded highways with a bunch of drivers all in a hurry driving as fast as they can and you guys sit on the side of the road.

I hope you guys pull people over for that cause those lights are really easy to see !!!

I don't know how some of those guys put up with it especially in the GTA region.

I have no idea how they do it in toronto especially with that collector/express system and all the construction, what a mess.

GTKY wrote:

My car is a 2009 vw, the plate lights are fully functioning and the plates are clean. I just washed the car 2 days before the incident.

Couldn't police just lite their lights? I would pull over immediately if I see those behind me, then the officers would have more than enough time to check my plates after I stopped my car.

Our safety is first, I know our policy is to check plates prior to stop. Which is calling it in to dispatch and waiting for the information to come back about the owner, whether the vehicle is stolen or not, was it just involved in an armed robbery, plates are not "authorized" etc.. (sometimes checking plates takes time/ a few kms)

- Should the vehicle decide to run (Squishy thoughts), we now have a plate and less likely to initiate a pursuit.

- if the vehicle has problems as mentioned above, we will wait for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th unit to assist in the stop and not endanger our lives

was busy for some time, not back again.

with all due respect, I do understand that there are barriers and safety issues to consider at the officer's point of view.

However, i think that was not the case (which i might be wrong)

but here's what i think:

With what ever reason, when a police want to check a plate of a vehicle, all they need is to know the plate number and call in. It takes like a few seconds to do so. In my case, the officer behind me tailgated me for a few kilometers, is that absolutely necessary?

If there are safety issues for the officer such as the unknown identity of the driver, is any crime involved, shouldn't it be a reason for the officer to keep a safe distance? Also, even if the officer thinks that the vehicle in front is speeding, why would you want to tailgate that car to scare/ influence the car in front by shining the front lights at the rear view mirrors of the car in front?

In my situation, there was only one police car what followed me. I fully understand that the officer who was driving it had the full rights and responsibility to serve and protect all that are on the road, but wouldn't tailgating for a long period of time be against that?

Keep in mind that I tried to changed lanes so that the front lights aren't on the mirrors, and once I did that, the officer stopped me. If he thought I was speeding, shouldn't he stop me right after he checked my plate and driver background? instead of letting me speeding and endangering other drivers on the road?

I fully understand that checking one person's information out of the whole population in Canada takes time, but that does not mean that one can forget that other's might be endangered during the process, and would hope that that could be taken into consideration.

Also, on a side note, about another post that I read

Its just like another post on this forum, a 18 year old kid got a $800 fine from multiple tickets just because of thinking that the car behind him was being a jerk, which instead turned out to be a police car. If the police are truly to serve and protect, why would the guy be allowed to drive drive in the middle of the road as a result of speeding? And now the kid doesn't really even feel the punishment yet, its just that his parents have to pay the fine and increased insurance premiums. Who's being punished then?

Those are my thoughts. not sure if its right thou.