license plate

Bedlam wrote:

deltabravo wrote:

Bedlam wrote:
If my post came off that way, it was not my intent. I work with number of retired LEO's.

Your post was useful.

The kicker to that traffic stop was that the little 1-7/8" ball had been used less than one year before I installed a Class III 5000 lb receiver under the bumper - The bumper mount was only rated for 2000 lbs and too high for most small trailers. I never removed it because I had no use for the ball elsewhere.

I was never rude or curt to the officer, but was surprised by the lights (I saw him following me). After I told he officer everywhere this little truck had been and how well it was still running, I think I could have sold it to him right there. It was '89 Mazda 4wd extended cab with a 2.6 FI L4...

Hopefully you will be able to get past the “HitchBallgate” someday. You seem to be still worked up over it.

While it comes as a surprise to many, LEOs work towards something more than just harassing the public, but using different probable cause reasons to initially contact people, in this case, in motor vehicles. LEOs are often checking out vehicles and drivers for information that they have been alerted to (BOLOs) or searching out individuals that don’t need to be on the road with your family and mine, DUI/Felons/Drug Runners/Driver’s Without Insurance/Murderers/Escapees/Wanted Pedophiles/Posse Comitatus/Using one plate for multiple vehicles and many more. All of these noted I have pulled over using Registration violations, including the hitch ball reason, and arrested the driver for another then found reason and one was on the FBI’s most wanted list.

One of the Drug Interdiction possibilities, we were keyed into, was that many drug runners, and Colorado was a big issue, was that they used RVs. All types. I am not saying you, Bedlam, were stopped for this reason, but I did mention pages ago in this thread the statute and reasoning for stopping people with License Plate display issues. That is, minimizing a reason for drawing attention to yourself and having a reason to be stopped. The Supreme Court has determined that a LEO may stop and question a motorist for a brief time in a probable cause stop. So no matter how you might justify it to yourself, LEOs with the right PC can and will make a brief stop to verify many factors. Often times other situations reveal themselves during that stop. That is good policing. So is getting the person back on the road, quickly. By all means, don’t lie or fabricate a story when being stopped and questioned. It can only backfire. How you choose to display your plates and your own rationalization is your business. But the law is clear in how and where one is to display a vehicle’s registration plate, from that particular state.

Safe Travels.

b