Can This Really Be Done

[Speterson77]

My Fieance and a bunch of her friends were driving trucks to denver when they decieded to pull over to the side of the road in south dakota just past hot springs. They were off the road and had the flashers on and The cops turned on there lights and instead of making sure everthing was all right they made a traffic stop. When the cop was confronted what they were getting pulled over for the cop said " It has been a little slow around here" That was his excuse was for pulling them over when i personally dont think that he had the right to do so. They were not in the wrong and the cop didnt have a reason to pull them over. What do you think?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

What happened? Did they receive a ticket? If so, for what? Additionally, I'm not sure what you mean -- were they driving on the side of the road off the main road with their blinkers on or were they stopped (which doesn't make sense that they were then pulled over by the officers).

If the only reason the officers pulled them over was because it was "a little slow" then yes, that doesn't sound like reasonable cause. However, it doesn't seem that this is the case and that there is quite a bit more we don't know or understand to come to any conclusion.

 

[iwood51]

In NY you are not allowed to stop in the breakdown lane unless it's an emergency. By asking if all was okay the officer established that no emergency existed and therefore they were illegally stopped. Just an opinion by a layperson.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Originally posted by iwood51:
In NY you are not allowed to stop in the breakdown lane unless it's an emergency. By asking if all was okay the officer established that no emergency existed and therefore they were illegally stopped. Just an opinion by a layperson.

Excellent point.

My post, perhaps stated a little more directly, is meant to point out that while things might have been a bit slow, that fact is only secondary to the facts as a whole. If it is illegal to stop roadside unless in case of emergency then it does not matter if things were slow so they decided to cruise for those who violated the law. Sure it is annoying that it seems you are a victim of timing but that doesn't change the fact that it was a violation. My In most cases I don't find officers making up violations just to write tickets -- in few cases they may exaggerate but there is usually some conduct that brings you to that zone of questionable culpability.

Your case might be outside that zone of culpability but we need to know more about what happened to determine what the results might be.