[ilbegone]

I once had an officer stop me and tell me that my tail lights were out - and he refused to allow me to exit my vehicle to verify his allegation.

However, the only offense he wrote me up for was having a cracked windshield, an impossible probable cause when I was traveling at fifty or so miles an hour at about 1:30 am with the officer parked some distance down a side road.

And when I stopped again a mile or so down the road to check my tail lights, they functioned just fine, and did until I disposed of the vehicle a few years later.

The town had a reputation for an out of control, scandalous police department (which has since been disbanded with contract with Sheriff's department).

I think he was looking for a drunk driver or maybe someone in particular, and was an A-hole when he found he didn't find what he wanted with my stop. It wouldn't have mattered what probable cause he alleged if I had been impaired.

I did drink a couple of beers about 90 mile up the road with some friends I had been visiting, but knowing the town's reputation and feeling paranoid, I pulled off the highway a few miles north of town up a utility right of way and took about a three hour siesta before I rolled through town.

There's always one excuse or another for a cop to trot out to make a traffic stop.