TROOPER SATURATION

[#Boater#]

Minnesota State Patrol and 400 other Law Enforcement agencies start Maroon Friday today by adding several extra enfrocement saturation areas around the state. Today is the biggest day with Safe and Sober and with continued extra patrol through Jan. 5th. Everybody please drive safely and have a safe and joyful Holiday season.

[RuKiddingMe]

I was just out over lunch and there were 5 trooper on the entrance ramp of County Road E and 35w. I also heard on the radio that 169 was loaded with Troopers. A ticket would be a pretty lame gift from the state.

Matt

[Ed Carlson]

ND, SD, and MN, are doing state wide DUI saturations for the next 2-3 weeks. Most local department are also doing the same.

So please, do be wise and use a designated driver ANYTIME and ANYWHERE you celebrate by consuming alcohol.

I wish all a safe and Happy Holiday Season!

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Here is a link you may find usefully and/or informative. You may calculating approximate blood-alcohol levels by weight and gender.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/4062/dui.html

Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding
"ED on the RED"
[email protected]
><,sUMo,>

[This message has been edited by Ed Carlson (edited 12-19-2003).]

[iland99]

So you're saying it wouldn't be a good idea to set the cruise at 79 mph on 169 heading north tonight??

[FoolNFish]

At least the line at the donut shop won't be so long!!! LOL

[shefland]

OUCH! 69 in a 55 south of Perham by a Ottertail County Sherrif, $120 fine on Thursday. What can I say? I was guilty, no break, matter of fact he said I was going 68 and wrote the ticket for 69, fine is the same though. Time for me to slow down and be safe.

[hawkeye43]

make sure you go and see the speed locked in on the rader gun, dont take their word on it. I had a trooper tell me I was going 69 when i had the cruise locked at 57. He checked me out and keeped saying was going 69, was going to write a ticket. I asked to see the rader and was getting out of the truck when he stopped me and he said that I should slow down, then let me go. With out the speed locked, its his word agaist yours. it helped me.

[NINETOE]

Officers are not required to show you any radar unit on a traffic stop. If you do not believe you were speeding then take it to court. Dont believe you have any right to see anything. Certainly a friendly request is ok but still you are then questioning integrity. 0.02

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" chaos , panic and disorder ... my work here is done. "
Upper Red Lake Area Association Member

[Lunker]

70 in a 55 today in Eden Praire. Guess I was in a hurry to get to the lake. Bad timing too, I am broke and out of work and was saving up for a portable

[say_der]

Ninetoe - you do have the right to see the radar. I've asked when I knew I was not going over 60 mph in a 55 and the officer claimed I was doing "almost 70." He let me go with a verbal warning and seemed a bit upset. It was the 30th of the month and he must have been short on his quota.

If you know you weren't speeding, why bother going to court to waste the troopers time and tax payer money? Sorry, but I don't have time to waste on letting something go that far that I'm not guilty of. I'd rather fish than spend a day waiting in court for something I didn't do.

Questioning an officer's integrity is OK in my book. They need to play by the rules too, like 99.9% of them do.

[joshb]

yeah, i'd always ask to see if the got you locked in, and if they dwon't let you see the gun that is grounds for your ticket to be dismissed in court but usually officers are to used to compliance from the public, i'm not saying be an *** to them. i just have a rule of questioning everything. another good thing to do is pay attention to the small details, i had an officer tell me i was going 82 in a 70 so i asked to see the gun and he did but his numbers were off from what he had said .............although just slightly i knew that the discepincy in his story would be enough to get out of it in court and so did he, no ticket.

[BLACKJACK]

I don't understand why they publicize the fact that they're doing saturation patrols. Why not just go out and nab a bunch of DWI'ers?

[Ed Carlson]

It's a deterrent, hopefully it is anyway.

It will make most think twice, others think once, and the ones that don't think at all..well, odds are they will get what they deserve soon enough. Hopefully without killing someone else in the process!

The overall hope is to protect the general public from dangerous drivers during a high traffic time.

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Ed "Backwater Eddy" Carlson

Backwater Guiding
"ED on the RED"
[email protected]
><,sUMo,>

[grab da net]

"I DON'T HATE COPS - BUT I SEEM TO FEEL BETTER WHEN THEY'RE NOT AROUND."

From: "Barfly" Charles Bukowski

[say_der]

Ninetoe-

My uncle was a police officer for 25 years. One of my friends I graduated with from high school is a sherrif's deputy.

If you want to dispute those experts you can. Both of them have confirmed for me that people have the right to see the locked in speed on the radar.

Show me a law that says I do or don't have the right to see the proof of what I am accused of. Without that it's my word against their's. Who is a judge going to believe?

When I got pulled over for speeding and I knew I was speeding I asked to see the radar. It was locked in right at what it should have been.

I don't believe absolutely everything I read on the internet or hear from people. This site looks a little cheesy but what the heck:

http://law.freeadvice.com/general_practice/traffic_law/speeding_radar.htm

[bogeyjoker]

I know that in Pennsylvania, troopers are not only NOT obligated to show you the radar gun reading, but are forbidden to do so. This changed several years ago when a trooper was killed when a speeder followed a trooper back to his cruiser "to check the gun" and shot him.

[rockhardinmn]

I personally feel that it is not a problem to question a officers actions .. who knows what his reason was for pulling you over .. many years ago i met my wifes brother inlaw at one of her family gartherings . his comment to me on this first meeting with out a word spoken between us " if i seen you walking down the street i would arrest you. " i will just say i was your average 18yr old in 1977 when this took place so yes i had long hair . now my comment to him was this " even if i had done nothing wrong? " his comment "yes cause i dont like the way you look "at this point i proceeded to inform him of a number of things till 1 of the other brother inlaws drug me out side and explained that he has always been a Dick.... i told him that just because you wear a badge dont mean that you dont have to follow the law also ,who do you think you wearing that badge god?, At this point 2nd bro inlaw took me outside .
So it is allwys good to ask them for the reasons , who knows ? why did he pick you out of the 10 cars that were doing 70 in 50? your looks ? type of car? your age? music you listen to?

[iffwalleyes]

Well it just proves to me that if an officer won't let me see their radar it just proves that the police or at least that officer is a *****. I never question if I am actually speeding but if I am not I want to see it. Screw cops being honest I think there are some cops that are more of a criminal that most of the public.

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Grip it and Rip it

IFFWalleyes
I Fish For Walleyes
[email protected]

[cliffy]

I have been a police officer in MN for over seven years and have handed out my share of speeding tickets. A person does not have the “right” to see the readings on the radar. Several motorists have asked me if they could take a look….and normally I say yes. The only times I have said no were due to officer safety issues or if it would be a danger to the motorist. An example would be heavy traffic on the particular roadway. I would hate to see a motorist get tagged by an on-coming vehicle. If you don’t believe me, just stand near the edge of the interstate for a couple of minutes and feel what it is like to see a SUV driven by some cell phone using soccer mom coming at you at 75mph. No offense to any soccer moms. Anyway, I would suggest just treating the officer the way you want to be treated. If there is any issue with the ticket, bring it to his or her attention but don’t be disrespectful. If the problem can’t be resolved on the roadside, take it to court. That is your right. Do mistakes every happen? Sure they do, police officers are human. To say that a police office needs to fudge or lie about the numbers seems unrealistic….in my opinion. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Guest]

Cliffy;

Question for you. Serious one......

It was rumor, urban legend, whatever,

That if you got pulled over for drinking, you had the right to decline the breathalizer, and request a blood alcohol content test, via going to the station or hospital and getting blood drawn.

This request used to be an option for alledged violators.

Does that option still exist, or are there repercussions for declining a breath test, in exchange for requesting a blood test?

[cliffy]

I just want to add one more thing…..

For those of you that seem to be a little anti-cop. I respect your opinion…that is your right.. but I would suggest perhaps asking your local Police or Sheriffs department if they have a “ride along” program. I have had many “just interested” individuals ride along with me when I was still a patrol officer (now I am detective). It seemed the person really enjoyed himself or herself. I also enjoyed the experience. It’s nice to meet the people that you work for and clear up any misinformation.

Rockhardinmn: I am sorry to hear that you had such a bad experience 26 years ago. I know such experiences can be hard to overlook. However, I would argue that today’s law enforcement officers are a little bit different than those from the “good old days”. More and more officers are entering this line of work with 4-year degrees in different backgrounds besides criminal justice. The trend has been to hire a “force” that is professional. With the national trend towards “community policing”, officers are taught that it takes a partnership with the citizens to battle crime and improve Everyone’s quality of life. There is no longer an “us vs. them” approach to law enforcement. Now, I am not stupid enough to say that ALL police officers are perfect. Yes, mistakes do happen. And yes…there are bad officers out there….but I don’t think there are as many as some people think. Trust me, nothing upsets me more than learning of a corrupt or abusive officer. These types of officers put us all in a bad light. Their actions fracture the trust that the vast majority of officers work so hard to build with the citizens that we serve. So, I would suggest to anyone that feels that they were mistreated/abused by an officer, to contact the officers supervisor and make a complaint.

Big G:

It’s been four years since I last did a DWI but I am pretty sure it has not changed. Once a person is arrested for DUI (at least in my jurisdiction in MN) the officer reads them the MN implied consent form. During this time they are told that they have a right to speak with an attorney prior to any test. Once they either speak with an attorney or decline to speak with one….they are usually offered a Breath Test. (It’s the easiest and you get the result within minutes) The officer only has to offer the breath test and if they refuse, it’s an additional crime. However, The officer does have the option to offer a Blood or Urine test instead of the breath test…..but the officer has to offer both blood or urine and allow the suspect to pick whichever one he/she wants. So, if the officer offers blood, he/she must also offer urine. If the officer only offers a breath test…then that’s your only option. I hope that is clear. PS: I am by no means an attorney…so I would suggest speaking with one if you find yourself in this particular situation.

I will close by saying that I hope everyone has a Happy and Safe holiday season.

[rockhardinmn]

Cliffy, i certainly hope you didnt get the opinion that i feel all cops were bad from this 1 experince . i feel that if i am doing something wrong fine do what you need to do be it ticket me or whatever , i have had 2 run ins over that last couple of years that which the last one realy left a sour taste in my mouth .. not cause of the cops actions so much but the reasoning .. both times it was with the same cop invivled which was odd to boot . time 1 heading to work in the citie 5 am .. going thru townm 4 cars in front of me hitting their brakes at every bump in the road . so a fly past all 4 at 1st chance . low and behold i get pulled over . he asks in hurry ? no not reAlly why? then asks why a past those 4 cars at 90? i saiod well i got sick of seeing them slam on the brakes at every bump as you got sick of seeing the chrome bumper comming at your hood every time i had to hit the brakes. said makes sense and checked insurane and ran DL and let me go . reasonable pulling me over? beats me ? could it be the old beat up looking truck with the hopped up drive train?may be ... about 1 year later comming thru rockford pulled over ... some Dick calls in and says i was drinking and driving ,, so the cop says ,,, i also waved the cop to a safe spot to pull over than on the corer he hit the lights on at .. it is about 10 am ... well i just said really and i can about tell you who called in ,, the same butt hole who was to busy talking on his cell phonein his brand new ford pick up that had 10 cars and a semi looking for places to go when he about rearened a car by medina ballroom,,, then to top it all off the Dick wouldnt even drive speed limit , but wouldnt let any one pass him .. He would speed up!!! Well i finiallyu got a chance to pass him and i did ,,, he didnt like it a bit i had to get up to 95 b4 i could get around him,,, so was it him that called on me odds are and all i got was the trouble of being stopped ... maybe Cliffy please consider this next time you pull over a guy driving an old wreck of a truck .. some of us drive those for a reason 1 my work will kill a new truck very fast . a work truck is just that, you kick the dump out of it and it dont hurt the pocket book to much.2 wanna hit a remote lake ,,, ok lets take my truck ,,, cause i dont realy care if i bounce it off the trees to get there...

down Fall of the old beat up truck .. be prepared to get pulled over for the stupidest reasons

[cliffy]

Rockhardinmn:

Those are some interesting experiences you described. I do want to bring one thing to your attention. Police officers don’t conduct traffic stops on vehicles just because of its appearance....unless there is an equipment violation or it matches the description of a complaint. To do otherwise would be a form of profiling and that is a very big NO NO. (That’s a whole other issue).

As a matter of fact, I drive a beat up ford myself….however I make sure all the equipment is in working order. So, I have no issues with those of us that have such good taste.

I know that this is a fishing forum and I am not here to try to convince everyone that cops are the greatest people. It has been my experience that idiots come from all walks of life. Of course people are going to have their experiences and thus, their opinions on this matter. I just like to throw out my views once in awhile and try to make a connection with people. I find it funny that when I meet new people, we seem to hit it off...and when they find out that I am a Law Enforcement Officer…that say, “I just cant believe you’re a cop. This makes me wonder why people have such a predetermined idea of what a cop should look and act like. The men and women that I work with are just like everyone else. Anyway, I have been on my soap box way to long. I enjoyed our conversation and I hope you don’t have any further problems. Again, have a happy and safe holiday season.

[NINETOE]

Well..Actually you do not have that right! I have issued a few speeding tickets and have never brought anyone back to my squad to show them that Im telling them the truth! Be on the wary side of so called experts telling you what rights you have..I also have experience dealing with people that were sure they had a specific right when in fact they were breaking the law and ended up in jail. As far as taking tickets to court, well isnt that your protection from the state or other government entity?
As far as Officers lying about speed , I dont know what to say other than that I dont know anyone who has or would. There simply are enough people speeding that it is not neccessary. Also "Quotas" are an urban myth and also illegal for any dept to impose.
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" chaos , panic and disorder ... my work here is done. "
Upper Red Lake Area Association Member

[This message has been edited by NINETOE (edited 12-23-2003).]

[hip_hop_fisherman]

I was pulled over last night when I was driving home from the lake. Cop said he was making sure I wasn't drinking and coming from the bar. Don't like the fact they can just pull you over around the holidays to see what your doing. Far as I'm concerned thats a violation of privacy.