Purpose

This supplements Police Stops which is part of Guilty Until Proven Innocent (never plead guilty) and Until Proven Innocent - the process, and describes police stops.

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Diesel Smoke

Late in the afternoon I was driving my 20 year old W123 Mercedes on a back road of Lower Merion Township, Pennsylania (US), when I was pulled over. The policeman stated that my car was smoking excessively and he wrote an "equipment violation" ticket. This is a "fix-it" ticket, meaning the charge would be dismissed if I could show the item was repaired. The "equipment violation" was for a defective muffler (because of the smoke).

Rather than argue with the cop, I just accepted the ticket (which is of course required), and figured out that I would resolve the issue later.

So Now What?

There was no car repair involved. I could take the car to an inspection garage, and they could certify the equipment was proper. Then I could take some sort of receipt to the police station and the ticket would be dismissed.

All of this made no sense. Pennsylvania did not have a diesel emissions program. (This is because, despite opacity, diesels pass emissions tests intended for gassers.) Whatever I did, it would still be relatively painless.

Then it occurred to me. Just go to the police station, and tell them, "There's nothing to do."

The Station House

I drove up to the Lower Merion police station in Ardmore. There happened to be a few cops hanging around in front. By now, I had enough time to think through what I would say, and what I would do if the police objected.

I had the W123, but this was around noon, and so the smoke visible in the late afternoon sun was no longer visible.

"I got this ticket for an equipment violation. The problem is, there's nothing to do."

"Let me see this"

It says my muffler is defective, because the car was smoking. That's the normal operation of the muffler. I was going westbound, at at that time of day, the dust from my tires would be visible!

"Okay, we'll take care of it."

Obviously the outcome in this case was especially easy, but that's the point. Even if this were a more serious offense, if something could have been done to resolve the situation, it could be resolved later.

The Dynamics

The idea is to "argue with the cop after the procedure". In most cases, the police at the station (at least at the front desk) are not in a "field tactics -- let's git ourselves a bad guy" mode. They may have good or or bad attitudes toward civilians, but the worst you'll run into is a tendency to support their buddies.

Could Have

Theoretically, if I were thinking quickly enough, I could have told the cop who pulled me over,

"I could have at the time politely stated, "It's 5:00 (17:00). I'm headed westbound in a diesel car. With all due respect, what-do-you-expect?""

Well, I wasn't really expecting a cop to question the opacity of my exhaust (neither was he because he got it wrong). Probably the cop wasn't really interested in resolving anything, so I don't think even that would have helped. Worse yet, if the cop were irritated for some reason, xe may have been inclined to find something different to write a ticket about.

It was best to do what I did, which was to let it go and deal with it later.

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