Being tailgated by a cop for going the speed limit

April 12, 2024

[SamAdams76]

One of my walking trails is right by the police station in Brookfield, CT. The parking lot for the police station abuts the parking lot for the walking trail (by the Still River which often floods into the trail).

Once in a while after a walk, I get in my car and leave the walking trail to head home and immediately a police vehicle, evidently going on shift, leaves their own parking lot and slides in behind me.

What to do in this situation?

The roads leading back home are in either 25mph or 30mph speed zones. Ridiculously low speed limits, especially when in good weather conditions, you can safely go 40-45mph.

When this happens, I immediately slow to the the posted speed limit. After a while, the cop gets impatient with me and starts to get right on my tail.

I keep waiting to get lit up because I know the cop is running my plate and looking to see if I have any outstanding warrants or such. Having a clean record, the cop is now looking for me to make any mistake at all. Maybe a "swerve" or a sudden braking.

Now I have my hands clenched to the wheel in the 10 and 2 o'clock position, studying my rear view as the cop gets right behind me, obviously irritated by my strict adherence to the posted speed limit.

I know that if I speed up just a little, say to 33mph in a 25, I will perhaps get lit up and pulled over for speeding. So I'm not taking that chance. But I know the cop behind me is super pissed that I'm going out of my way to stick to the speed limit. They want to pull me over so badly.

I hate these situations. Sometimes the cop will light up and just pass me out of sheer exasperation with my slow driving. They have that right. I obviously don't.

[Zathras]

This happened to me back in the late 70’s.
He just sat there until I got frustrated and pulled away from him