Followed. Why?

I know we have some LEOs here and I'd like to ask a question, if they'd be so kind to answer.

My wife drove my truck to work the other day and a State Police car followed her for roughly 14 miles. This was around 8:30 AM and he was sitting in a turn a round on the median, near the State line. He pulled out after she went by, followed her for about 10 miles, then stayed behind her down the off ramp, then through town another 3 miles to where she works. After she pulled in to the hospital entrance, he went on past.

Now, there is nothing wrong with my truck. I looked it over after she told me about it and there's no tail lights/brake lights out, turn signals work fine, tags are good, she wasn't speeding [ and if she had been, why not just pull her over? ]. There was absolutely no reason for him to follow her for that long.
So....Why just follow for 20 minutes? If it resembled a "wanted" vehicle, wouldn't they have the tag numbers and be able to tell mine wasn't the one they were looking for pretty quickly? If he was waiting for dispatch to run my tags, why was he running my tags? Why follow a random vehicle for that long?

Maybe they weren't actually following her.

Just an opinion though. I guess it is natural to think they are following you if they are behind you. Who knows really.

a reply to: DAVID64

you do realise that police also patrol ???

they have certain " observation points " they sit at for set times - and routes they follow [ at random ]

the fact that a vehicle pulled out just after your wife passed it - does not mean it responded to her - it could be thayt his " 30 minuite timer " to sit at that observation point just beeped - and he had to go drive one of his legs

that make sense ?

a reply to: ignorant_ape

Her route to work is far from random. You have to turn off the highway at a specific off ramp, through several stop lights, turn down 3 side streets, etc...In short, a lot of twists and turns to get to where she works. It's hard to think a random patrol would include all those turns and her exact route.

But.....under the circumstances, no warrants, no mechanical fault with the truck, not speeding, random patrol makes as much sense as anything.

You'll always fit the discription.
You'll always be there when they need to get their quotas up.
Its nit you, its them trust me.

a reply to: DAVID64

I've been followed by cops before. During my outdoor phase they spent some time trying to get a rise out of me. They never did, eventually they left me alone, because I gave them nothing to be concerned about.

If you are being tested for some reason you can play the same waiting game, outlast the bastards. If you give them nothing they got nothing.

Slightly disturbing that they followed your wife so's she'd notice.

Try to act normal…

a reply to: DAVID64

the point of random patroling is that its hard to predict the location of units at a given time - or the response time to a fixed point

a reply to: DAVID64

Still...it could've fit a general description, make, model, color, whatever...sometimes just a "sort-of-not-clear-don't know--Im not sure" description was provided for a crime.

That is sometimes the only thing LEO can go by...even if it "kind-of" fit a description provided for something by a witness/reporter who told "I think it was..." or "Im not sure but it might have been..."...or even "Don't know if they are white, black, man or woman but it LOOKED like to ME...."

Now...if you see a marked or unmarked car outside your home or business and it doesn't move for a long time or day after day...I'd start to be worried.

Still...you can call the law and report the same thing that you think your vehicle was followed etc....

I think that they know if they follow you, you'll most likely get nervous and make a mistake they can pull you over for. Probably a good technique for filling their illegal ticket quota so they don't get penalized for not getting enough tickets that month.

I went on a cross state trip a month ago and I followed behind a cop that was in a hurry on the same route. I keep back a little way and paced him, that allowed me to speed and make some good time to a doctor's appointment. I feel so much better when I'm behind them, it's a really confidence builder esp. when they are speeding without their lights and sirens going.

a reply to: DAVID64

Does your truck have a Dunkin' Donuts bumper sticker?

Now...if you see a marked or unmarked car outside your home or business and it doesn't move for a long time or day after day...I'd start to be worried.

I don't think I will, I don't have any warrants or anything like that, I'm just your average stay at home Dad. But...Those days of "I didn't do anything wrong, so I don't have anything to be afraid of" are long gone.

a reply to: TonyS

Does your truck have a Dunkin' Donuts bumper sticker?

No, but I live in Illinois and do have a few pro 2nd Amendment stickers. That may be a felony all by itself here.

i think it could be a lot simpler than that. maybe he saw your wife driving and liked the way she looked. then started following her waiting for her to give him an excuse to pull her over so he could see her up close.

i've seen cops do some ridiculous & dangerous things following people. once witnessed a highway patrol cop cut people off on the interstate then slam on the breaks and drive 5 miles under the speed limit. and when that car didn't try and pass him he'd do it to the next guy and then he'd switch to driving behind someone really close, like up their a$$ waiting for them to speed up so they would go over the limit.

i've also had female friends who were pulled over just to get hit on. so really, who knows it could be anything. but suggesting that it was some random patrol with all the twists and turns and the really specific route, that's giving them the benefit of the doubt way too much.

all you can do is drive like a perfect saint. like someone else said, give them nothing, they got nothing.

a reply to: DAVID64

Sometimes they will do it because the vehicle or the person driving it match the description of a person of interest. They aren't perfect, so in some cases it's a bit of mistaken identity.

Or, other times it's because the driver is acting suspicious (for example, apparently, me making a jump into a left turn lane made it seem like to the officer behind me that I was trying to avoid them - they stayed extra close, and went out of their way to stay behind me till they realized I wasn't going to budge from the speed limit).

Another one that you see happens up here is the cops will pursue close to see if you have a bench warrant for not paying child support; there's a lot of "dead beat" parents up here by me.

I wouldn't worry too much, unless the flashers come on.
-fossilera

a reply to: DAVID64

Just listen for beeps n clicks on your phone...and, hey! There are stalking laws....you coyld always go that route. But maybe too...its some part of the bad guys doing it!!??

MS