“It’s ridiculous,” Peter Schulte, a former Texas police officer and prosecutor, told the New York Daily News earlier this year. “I was a law enforcement officer for 16 years and I never saw anything like it.”
About 8-9 years ago they were doing this in Florida. Initially they were using off duty but in uniform law enforcement to do it.
They would pull people over at random (think traffic stop on the highway) and ask for these same things. When people got pissed they switched methods.
I once got a letter in the mail saying I was observed at a certain location, they included mile market, time and date. They asked what the purpose of my trip was, where I was going, and where I was coming from among other things.
Almost a trend.