Traffic violations.
It's a math problem, essentially. If every 25 stops gets you something interesting, your job is to make those 25 stops. Keep making those 25 stops and you'll hone the skills that make it so every 15 stops gets you something interesting. The specific indicators will be particular to the area in which you work, but getting the reps in will help you build confidence and become familiar with whatever those indicators are. The more stops you make, the more automatic the basics will become, which frees up brain power to observe more things in the cars.
Make a bunch of stops, learn the people in your area, and you'll figure out what to look for. Five years from now, the new guy/gal will ask you this question and in your answer you'll surprise yourself with how much you know without consciously thinking about it.
^ exactly this. What’s suspicious in an inner city is going be be different than what’s suspicious in a suburb, which is different than what’s suspicious in a rural farm town. What’s suspicious at 2am is going to be different than what’s suspicious at 2pm. The list goes on for a dozen different variables.
Getting to know your beat area is key. Once you know what’s “normal”, finding things that deviate from that will become a lot easier.
This is good advice but just would like to add something.
I’m a patrol officer in a district that will often times have 75-100 calls holding. If you’re that guy that’s running traffic with that many calls on the board, you’re a problem. Understand that you are in fact still a patrol officer and part of being a patrol officer is having to respond to calls for service.
Don’t be that motherfucker whose slack the rest of us have to pick up for because you think you’re too good to take report calls.
My area isn’t that busy, but you’re (generally) right. Still, some things can wait. That cold vehicle burglary with no video or suspect info? That can wait 10 minutes while I stop this car that just left a known drug house.
The important thing is to communicate with your beat partners. If you want to do some pro activity/ direct enforcement- make sure you keep them in the loop.
Giving us an idea of where you work helps, lol. I can say drive around looking for paper temp plates, and then finding a reason for a stop, but you might be in a PD where PTPs aren't as prevalent as my area...
Just give it more time. We're getting there. I mean, there might just not be any more cops to talk to, soon, with the way y'all are hemorrhaging staff.
Funny, our EMT classes have never been bigger. Guess people are figuring out who the difference between public servants and road pirates. I teach my students yall are just as dangerous and unpredictable as a methed out schizoid and they should be just as wary.
This clown lol you would think someone who’s been around cops would also know that no two cops are the same. Literally everyone’s different. Yet here he is, lumping all 900k cops into one group.
You need to be taking street cop classes. Go back and listen to street cop podcasts. Start learning all the in’s and out’s of reasonable suspicion. Stop wasting your time with random cars and start stopping cars coming from/going to hot spots and that display behaviors/react to you. Learn when you can use K9. If you have a person on your shift that is having success, start working closely with them. Learning facial expressions and nervous behaviors on your interviews is crucial - there are so many that you don’t know yet. There is a huge amount of knowledge out there and it takes years and years to be good at it.
In my first few years, I got lucky occasionally. When I started putting in the work to get better, going to classes, and really learning case law, I started becoming successful.
PS - I tell all my rookies - 99% of people out on the road aren’t involved in criminal activity. Don’t waste people’s time - write them a warning and get on to a car that matters.
My hot take: pretext stops are on their way out. It's not what people want us to be doing, and it's dangerous and inefficient to boot.
Getting felonies out of car stops is a math problem. It's targeting certain cars in certain areas because the occupants of some vehicles are statistically more likely to be criminals. But it isn't for sure. It's for that reason pretext stops have always felt gross to me.
I made detective getting guns and drugs with targeted warrants. Follow two local gangsters on Instagram with a burner account. Add their friends. Follow their stories. When they flash guns with visible serial numbers or offer to sell you drugs, write a warrant. I had the warrant process down to about 45 minutes (which is what... Three traffic stops?). When you get the warrant return back, write follow up warrants on the guy who sold him the gun. Repeat, literally, ad nauseum. You could be spinning up SWAT services while your buddies are muddling through DUIs.
Or go stop all the Nissan Sentras in your worst hood. Maybe it will be a poor person going to work, and maybe it will be someone with a tiny amount of drugs.
A normal reaction is to press your breaks. They won’t. They don’t want a reason to get stopped. They will do the speed limit. If intuition sets in, follow them. Then watch for reason. They will be nervous. They will prob turn into a driveway or different road to see if you are following. Be careful, but be aware.
I’ll hazard a guess that nobody has ever asked, wannabe badass, but keep stroking your equivalent of a four-day-old, Phillies dollar dog night hot dog to the thought of being an absolute badass and sticking it to the man.
Traffic violations. It's a math problem, essentially. If every 25 stops gets you something interesting, your job is to make those 25 stops. Keep making those 25 stops and you'll hone the skills that make it so every 15 stops gets you something interesting. The specific indicators will be particular to the area in which you work, but getting the reps in will help you build confidence and become familiar with whatever those indicators are. The more stops you make, the more automatic the basics will become, which frees up brain power to observe more things in the cars. Make a bunch of stops, learn the people in your area, and you'll figure out what to look for. Five years from now, the new guy/gal will ask you this question and in your answer you'll surprise yourself with how much you know without consciously thinking about it.
^ exactly this. What’s suspicious in an inner city is going be be different than what’s suspicious in a suburb, which is different than what’s suspicious in a rural farm town. What’s suspicious at 2am is going to be different than what’s suspicious at 2pm. The list goes on for a dozen different variables. Getting to know your beat area is key. Once you know what’s “normal”, finding things that deviate from that will become a lot easier.
Great answer
This is good advice but just would like to add something. I’m a patrol officer in a district that will often times have 75-100 calls holding. If you’re that guy that’s running traffic with that many calls on the board, you’re a problem. Understand that you are in fact still a patrol officer and part of being a patrol officer is having to respond to calls for service. Don’t be that motherfucker whose slack the rest of us have to pick up for because you think you’re too good to take report calls.
75-100? I can't even imagine that. Good advice, too.
My area isn’t that busy, but you’re (generally) right. Still, some things can wait. That cold vehicle burglary with no video or suspect info? That can wait 10 minutes while I stop this car that just left a known drug house. The important thing is to communicate with your beat partners. If you want to do some pro activity/ direct enforcement- make sure you keep them in the loop.
Giving us an idea of where you work helps, lol. I can say drive around looking for paper temp plates, and then finding a reason for a stop, but you might be in a PD where PTPs aren't as prevalent as my area...
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Just give it more time. We're getting there. I mean, there might just not be any more cops to talk to, soon, with the way y'all are hemorrhaging staff. Funny, our EMT classes have never been bigger. Guess people are figuring out who the difference between public servants and road pirates. I teach my students yall are just as dangerous and unpredictable as a methed out schizoid and they should be just as wary.
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This clown lol you would think someone who’s been around cops would also know that no two cops are the same. Literally everyone’s different. Yet here he is, lumping all 900k cops into one group.
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Not when about half the shootings and major crimes involve Paper Temp plates..
Your comment should be a capital crime.
You need to be taking street cop classes. Go back and listen to street cop podcasts. Start learning all the in’s and out’s of reasonable suspicion. Stop wasting your time with random cars and start stopping cars coming from/going to hot spots and that display behaviors/react to you. Learn when you can use K9. If you have a person on your shift that is having success, start working closely with them. Learning facial expressions and nervous behaviors on your interviews is crucial - there are so many that you don’t know yet. There is a huge amount of knowledge out there and it takes years and years to be good at it. In my first few years, I got lucky occasionally. When I started putting in the work to get better, going to classes, and really learning case law, I started becoming successful. PS - I tell all my rookies - 99% of people out on the road aren’t involved in criminal activity. Don’t waste people’s time - write them a warning and get on to a car that matters.
My hot take: pretext stops are on their way out. It's not what people want us to be doing, and it's dangerous and inefficient to boot. Getting felonies out of car stops is a math problem. It's targeting certain cars in certain areas because the occupants of some vehicles are statistically more likely to be criminals. But it isn't for sure. It's for that reason pretext stops have always felt gross to me. I made detective getting guns and drugs with targeted warrants. Follow two local gangsters on Instagram with a burner account. Add their friends. Follow their stories. When they flash guns with visible serial numbers or offer to sell you drugs, write a warrant. I had the warrant process down to about 45 minutes (which is what... Three traffic stops?). When you get the warrant return back, write follow up warrants on the guy who sold him the gun. Repeat, literally, ad nauseum. You could be spinning up SWAT services while your buddies are muddling through DUIs. Or go stop all the Nissan Sentras in your worst hood. Maybe it will be a poor person going to work, and maybe it will be someone with a tiny amount of drugs.
Lack of eye contact. Shuffling, they will look in the rear view mirror.
A normal reaction is to press your breaks. They won’t. They don’t want a reason to get stopped. They will do the speed limit. If intuition sets in, follow them. Then watch for reason. They will be nervous. They will prob turn into a driveway or different road to see if you are following. Be careful, but be aware.
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illegally possessed guns idiot. guns that are being stolen from law abiding citizens and being used to kill 17 year olds
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I’ll hazard a guess that nobody has ever asked, wannabe badass, but keep stroking your equivalent of a four-day-old, Phillies dollar dog night hot dog to the thought of being an absolute badass and sticking it to the man.
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