Posted on 07/15/2010 3:16:44 PM PDT by FoxPro
This how the cops in a certain county, in Arizona make a little extra pocket change (a lot of change). And the unintended consequences of DUI laws.
This is the long version, no exact locations or names are revealed. You might want to quickly make note of my user-name and make a copy of this, because it might get pulled.
I was living in Las Vegas. My beloved aunt and uncle live in Phoenix, Arizona. My aunt Mary has terminal cancer, so I decided to basically drive down one Saturday morning and say goodbye. So many wonderful memories because of her.
Well, after a nice lunch, and an unstated, but emotional farewell, I headed back North. It was around 4 in the afternoon when I hit an Arizona county southern border. At the time, of course, I was not aware of the significance of this, that I would figure out later.
I was, admittedly going a little fast, maybe 5 miles over the speed limit. Not really probable cause for stopping me. And then it happened, and it happens to all of us at some point in our lives, seeing the flashing police car lights in the rear view mirror. I pulled over, and was a bit nervous. They didn't radar gun me. So they were just pulling me over out of boredom, I assumed. Or just to flex some muscle. There is these 2 young cops with guns, out here on this lonely stretch of dessert highway. I gave them my license, registration and proof of insurance. They told me to step out of the car, which I thought was kind of odd. One of them told me he was going to write me a warning, and began doing so. The other one stood about 10 feet away staring at me. The officer writing the warning asked me how I pronounced my name. I answered him.
Then, which in hind-site I figured out was, I believe, a carefully choreographed set of procedures began to unfold.
They asked me what I did for a living, and then who I worked for. I told him I was a computer programmer, and I work for a number of companies.
Officer Smith (not his real name), the one staring at me, suddenly said “Sir, how much have you had to drink today?” I looked up at him, and without missing a beat said “Nothing, why?” At this point the cop that is writing me the warning looked at officer Smith with a look of resignation, like it was time to do the whole drill again.
So officer Smith pulls out his little breathalyzer thing and I blow a flat out zero (don't believe me, I will fax you the police report). At that point I ask, “Well, can I go now?” No, Smith says, we are going to do some tests. He asks me to open my mouth, into which he shines a flashlight. And I am not going to go though the various DUI gymnastics of standing on one foot and counting and so forth. I actually thought I did pretty good, considering the past broken legs and my uncoordinated nature.
Well, when they put the cuffs on me, I was really surprised. At that point Officer Smith said “We need to do this to protect you and the other drivers on the road.” I said “You cant be serious, I am completely sober” I remember saying this about a dozen times, as they put me into the squad car and drove off. They said nothing to me for the next 45 minutes or so, it was a long drive to the jail. And I would later find out, this was by design.
Well, after my 24 hours in jail, trying not to touch or eat anything, I am arraigned and given some papers indicating where my car had been towed. Of course it is like 6 miles away, which I walk.
I walk into the impound lot, hand the girl my papers. She types some numbers into her computer, looks up at me, and says, quite matter of factly “That will be $600” At which I say, again, without missing a beat “You have got to be kidding.” You see the towing rates for DUI in Arizona are like $7 per mile. It is seen as part of the punishment. It is another fine. I hand her my credit card, I just want to get the heck out of here.
I follow the owner of the impound lot out to unlock the gate, and as he hands me my keys, he says to me “What do you think of my brother in-law/good friend/good buddy, Officer Smith?” I don't exactly remember what superlative he used in describing Officer Smith, I just remember it was a non-casual term of endearment. And then it immediately dawns on me. The police have just kidnapped me, held me against my will, stole my car, and then mugged me for $600! Ironically, the guy that opened the gate seemed a bit intoxicated himself.
I don't reply. I get into my car, and drive away, very carefully, back to Las Vegas.
Analysis:
This is what really happened.
1) The police hang out at the southern border of their jurisdiction in this county in Arizona, which will incur the highest possible towing fee, charged by the mile. 2) They wait for cars with single occupancy and out-of-state plates. 3) They stop cars and give some sort of lame excuse for stopping you like going a little fast, or following to close behind, really any number of things. 4) They need to profile you, to assess whether you are a good mark. They ask you to step out of the car, ask you about your career. They write a “warning” ticket to have time to decide whether you are a good extortion target. 5) If your car is to nice, or you say your a lawyer or retired cop they let you go. 6) If your a working stiff, like me, that has a car with missing hubcaps and some scrapes, and are a single white male from out of state, then you become a perfect candidate. 7) If your car is worth less than $600, in their judgement, they would probably let you go, because it isn't worth towing if you might refuse to pay a towing fee that is more than the cars worth. 8) It doesn't matter how you do on the DUI gymnastics tests, you didn't do them perfectly, so you are automatically considered impaired, in their judgement. 9) They call their buddies at the towing company, and inform them that they have another score for the day.
The calculation before all this happened goes like this:
Mother Against Drunk Drivers lobbies state politicians to raise the towing rates for DUI. It is part of the punishment, and is non-refundable, whether you are found guilty or not. It is a fine of suspicion. On the other hand, towing companies also lobby for per mile towing fees in states with wide expanses, like Arizona, because of fuel costs and wear-and-tear. The combination of these 2 can get towing fees into the $6 to $10 a mile range in the western states. This has the unintended consequence of creating a very lucrative extortion ring. The cops and the towing companies work with each other, every day. They eventually figure out that they are only making $40,000 or so, and that it would be very easy for the cops to be a little more strict over time, they could both benefit each other greatly. All they need is to have the cops tow more cars more frequently. In fact, there is so much money to be made, it almost becomes inevitable for this to happen. Double your income by being a strict cop. Protecting your community. The newspapers will print “Officer Smith made and outstanding 450 DUI arrests last year.” And officer Smith is lauded and celebrated, not only by the government, but at his church and the local VFW. Officer Smiths wife and kids are also happy with the brand new in-ground pool at there new $350,000 house he bought recently. Nobody seems to question were he got the money for this. He’s a cop, you know. Maybe he inherited some money from Grandpa or his wife is very proficient on Ebay. Officer Smith is “The Man”.
The calculation of the victim, after the fact, one month later:
This whole charade revolves around the fact that the cops, that do this, do not ever want to see you again. They don't want you to show up in court. They already have your $400 to $600. And the whole thing works out to make this happen. They don't take you drivers license. So you are all set in that respect. You check your local states DMV, and you notice that your drivers license hasn't, and probably will not be affected by this. There is absolutely no reason to show up and fight this. After you think about it for a while, and 2 months after the incident, you come to the conclusion that:
1) Why would I pay an attorney another $1500. 2) Risk being found guilty (he said vs he said) in front of a local jury, basically calling the local beloved cop a liar, and incurring another $1500 fine and jail time. 3) Am I really going to get up at 3 AM in Las Vegas, to appear in court at 8:30 AM on a Monday morning, to be subjected to points 1 and 2? Maybe spend a further $100 on a hotel room Sunday night, and wreck my weekend, for something I didn't do? Better yet if you live in Maine or Alaska. 4) You still have your license, and after 2 months, you have checked with your states DMV, and Arizona has not put you into the “Driver License Compact” (suspended license in all 50 states), and probably never will. So your not trying to get your drivers license back. 5) Why would you go back to a place where you know the cops are more than willing to throw you in jail and steal your money for no reason at all. What would happen if you won your little DUI case. After leaving the courthouse, would they follow you? Would they be pissed off you fought them, and potentially jeopardised or exposed their very lucrative extortion ring? Is there not a zillion places in the desert where they could bury your body? They are the cops, dont-cha-know.
Really, at this point, you just tuck it away as either a big mistake, or a con that it is, and that you cant do anything about, unless your a “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” type, and I am sure if the cops thought that you might be, when they were profiling you in the first place, they would not have arrested you.
So if your driving between Phoenix and Las Vegas and your a single guy, with out-of-state plates (and your at the very edge of the county), it may be your turn at reverse highway robbery. Because all they have to do is pull this off once a day, and twice on weekends, and it is nearly a quarter of a million dollars worth of extra income for these folks.
And it would be easy to identify the cops that are doing this:
1) They have an inordinately large number of DUI arrests 2) Most, if not all, happen at the furthest possible place from where the impound lot is. 3) They have an inordinate amount of out-of-state DUI arrests. 4) They are living beyond what you would expect their salary would dictate. 5) They have an inordinate amount of DUI court no-shows.
If you would like to know the name and location of the cop that did this to me:
1) You have to demonstrate that you have the ability to help make this stop (official, journalist, defence attorney). 2) You may not know my identity 3) You have to assure me that you are not part of this extortion
If you can do this, You may freepmail me your email address, and I will reply with a name (of the officer) and a location from an anonymous email address, created at a hotel, that I have never stayed at, from a computer in the business center, that I used once.
We have to stop this from happening to anyone else.
And officer Smith (not your real name), you know who you are. I am going to post this relentlessly, everywhere. I know who you are, and you don't know who I am. So I have the upper hand at this point. I am going to personally make sure, that what you are doing, stops. I wish you no ill will. I know the temptations are almost overwhelming. You and your buddies need to search your conscience and desist. You know this will eventually catch up with you. I will not stop until you do.
May God have mercy on both of us.
Sounds about right.
I expect that you have a warrant out for Failure To Appear. These scams don't just end. Wise County, Texas took every case to court and some victims ended up in the County Hotel for a year or more plus fines before everything was overturned.
The FBI, or even some intrepid journalist, set themselves up to be victimized and nail these corrupt county Mountie punk law enforcement types. Bad enough we have local & state police who are in constant revenue enhancement mode giving out chicken s*** tickets that have little to do with law enforcement. Now we have this ... which, by the way, has been around for a long time in one form or another.
Why? Is it against the rules now to criticize the Holy Boys in Blue?
I'm just glad we were not caught up in it or there may have been a gunfight.
Sounds an awful lot like Russia. I’d say you sue them in Federal civil court...and see how they like it.
That is a lot like those small town speed traps that are out there.
That’s just north of me.
I don’t know about a gunfight, but if that had happened to me, I’d have gone back for them.
5.56mm
This was an episode on the Rockford Files several years ago. I remember it well. Hope you can bring these cops to justice.
All I get are motels....
We discussed after the scam was revealed, what any of us could/would have done. One person was always left securing the vehicle and area.
Try valdosta ga speed trap
I don't want, nor do I expect any justice. I have never gotten justice my whole life.
All I want is this to stop. There is probably one or two guys sitting in jail tonight, having no clue what has happened.
This is for them.
Actually, just find some ambitious civil rights lawyer who wants to do a class action suit. He can sue the county, city and state and begin discovery. There are some things like this that have been proven just by statistics.
Heck, the FBI might want to investigate this. They enjoy putting local public officials in the slammer or out of a job.
I don’t doubt your story at all. I have had a few dubious stops over the years. Locals know where the traps are and who is filling a quota, so I rarely get stopped close to home or work, but roads trips are dangerous. I even got stopped by a city cop who said a highway patrol radioed him to stop me for speeding. He admitted I wasn’t speeding when he saw me and then asked me where I lived and could he call me. I was seriously freaked out about cops for a while after that.
I’ve found that it’s difficult to obtain more Justice from the legal system than I was willing to pay for.
Apparently it was last night.
Fox, why post this here when you should be at the Las Vegas Division of the FBI, talking to a public corruption agent? If this did happen, you may not be the only victim.
A tow truck company in the area I work was doing somewhat the same thing, towing cars for BS traffic stops and then charging incredible fees, all the while working on a salvage title.
Even worse, when they learned of a rival dope dealer having a shipment come in, they would have the cop they had in their pocket to pull that car over, seize the car. The tow truck driver would come get the car and the dope and then sell it.
The FBI would love to sting some dirty cops, you may be able to help them.
One I had was on an Indian reservation, by the "Iroquois Nation Police" or some bogus bunch like that; the highway passed through it for a mile or so. I would have been treated better in Tijuana.
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