My 17 year old boy was driving his beater car the other day, with his girlfriend, and a county sheriff crowded up behind him, real close. He was trying to coax the kid into speeding.
I've talked to my kid a lot about the relationship between the cops and citizens. He was very calm about it, and maintained his speed. The cop passed and left after a minute or so.
Failing to signal. Infinitesimal failure to stop. Changing lanes just a smidgeon before the solid white line changes to dashed. These are all just entry points for cops to fuck with you, either just for the sake of fucking with you, or to escalate up into something that goes on their performance evaluation metrics. 'Cause you know that they get measured, and you can't measure "didn't pull that guy over because he wasn't doing anything." Their incentives are your peril.
I doubt if he needed to crowd that close. In fact if he wasn't a cop, and a cop was watching, he could have been pulled over for following too close. What if a dog jumped in front of my son's car?
I have often been tailgated by police, and I agree that it is dangerous. However, it is common, and I never felt like I was being deliberately goaded. At worst, they may have been hoping for me to make a mistake. Usually, they just hang out for a couple of minutes and then pass (driving well above the speed limit, I might add, if we are going to enumerate all of the moving violations regularly committed by the police).
And, I wish police would fine people for tailgating. I've never seen it happen.
I guess it depends on intent (and your perspective). I have never felt there was any malicious intent . . . they just seemed to be checking me out before going on to the next car. Maybe I am naive, but I think that assuming the cops are out to get you is a bad place to start from.
I've talked to my kid a lot about the relationship between the cops and citizens. He was very calm about it, and maintained his speed. The cop passed and left after a minute or so.
Failing to signal. Infinitesimal failure to stop. Changing lanes just a smidgeon before the solid white line changes to dashed. These are all just entry points for cops to fuck with you, either just for the sake of fucking with you, or to escalate up into something that goes on their performance evaluation metrics. 'Cause you know that they get measured, and you can't measure "didn't pull that guy over because he wasn't doing anything." Their incentives are your peril.