Perhaps two of the most important traits of officers who time and again turn simple traffic stops into potentially major interdiction busts are attention to detail and a persistent curiosity. They pick up on things like stories that don’t match between occupants. For example, the passenger says they’re on their way to visit a friend while the driver says they’re coming home from visiting that same friend.
Which is it, guys? Coming or going?
Or stories that don’t match the surrounding evidence like a woman who claims she’s going on vacation for a couple of weeks across the country but she’s only carrying a small duffle bag of clothes. Or stories that just don’t make any sense at all such as a driver who claims he borrowed the car he’s driving from a friend, but doesn’t know where the friend lives, hesitates when asked his friend’s name, and hands over registration documentation that doesn’t match either answer he gave.
A favorite incident is the officer who pulled over a big rig and took note of the fact that the driver was wearing nice wing tip dress shoes instead of the more durable work-type shoes he was accustomed to seeing truckers wear on the road. Instead of blowing that off as some kind of quirky fashion statement, he decided to dig deeper into the driver’s story, which quickly started to fall apart, and ended up pulling a huge load of smuggled cash out of the truck.
Remember to look at each traffic stop as both a serious situation that warrants sharp officer safety and survival thinking, as well as an opportunity to use your powers of observation to potentially surface much more than a speeding ticket.
