I'll tell you the worst time to have a cop see you do anything.

It's between the hours of 2am and 7am.

The city starts to die down, most troublemakers are settling down for the night, traffic is light. This, is when LEOs are bored, and looking for something to occupy those last few hours of the shift. I work private security, we patrol different accounts and also do alarm response. I am out on the streets all night, I see it and hear the radio traffic. The last half of the night we often end up chatting with the PD at a gas station or store parking lot. It's amazingly regular, when the emergency calls start dropping off. Sure, once in a while there is a burg or a 211, but after 2am 90% of the time officers are doing nothing but traffic stops.

Also, amazingly Saturdays and Sundays are not the busiest nights of the week for LE. It's actually Thursdays and Fridays.

Again, my point is.. You don't want to run into any cop when he's bored.

Another common myth: CHP is always busy. Not really. During the daytime they are, but at night, they are not that busy. Some people think the CHP answers calls to fights, robberies, etc.. No, they don't. Other than respond to accidents, all they do is pull people over for vehicle code violations and the like. They don't have anything better to do than to mess with you and your car. That's their job.

Yeah, those two officers you saw were either 10-10 (on a break), 10-7 (lunch), or 10-87 (they were BSing)

Also.. People (earlier in this thread and other threads) dismiss cops like they know nothing about cars. Don't kid yourself. You don't think some cops are gearheads? I know tons of officers that have F-bodies, Chevelles, Novas, 5.0s or a Mopar at home in their garage.

 

Kick z tail out,
You have some really good points there in your last post.

Back in 1990 I got busted for my first DUI. I was driving my V6 Vega with a friend of mine. It happened late at night, like 2am.
I have also worked nights a few times and drove home on the freeway at like 4:30 or 5am. I remember CHP's following behind me because I was the only guy on the road. One time, this guy followed me almost all the way home. This is when I didn't speed at all, I felt like I was being watched all the time coming home from work.

Anyways, if I ever get pulled over for something related to mods or smog, I keep a copy of my last smog test in my glove box in case the officer has his doubts.

 

Yup! That happens about every night in my city. Between those early morning hours, you have 30-40 officers out on patrol with nothing to do. I've listened to them coordinate before to throw people off, and most of the time it works.

One will follow a car, forcing it to drive the speed limit (they know the person would rather be speeding) ... Then, the cruiser will turn away after a couple blocks. The person naturally, feeling they are safe, speeds up again.

Suddenly the other unit, who was in contact with the first one, is sitting in a parking lot up ahead waiting. BAM.


But yeah, at that time of morning, when they are bored enough, they can afford to follow you for a while. There are so many things they can use for probable cause to stop, that it's just a matter of time before you do something wrong.

Luckily they don't bother me when I'm in my cruiser.. They know when I'm driving a little fast it's usually for good reason

 

Here's what the CHP is doing right now, @ least in my city...

Usually - Not much....

http://cad.chp.ca.gov/default.asp