When I Was Pulled Over

Hey, my name is Dexter, I’m black, and I’m from southern California.

When I was in college, which was a few years ago now, a lot of friends used to make fun of me because I was really strict about how I drove. If you got in my car, you couldn’t ride without a seatbelt, I wouldn’t speed – I would never go over the speed limit – I wouldn’t make illegal U-turns, things like that. And so my friends would kind of joke with me and say, ‘Oh you’re a goodie two-shoes’ or whatever. Which is especially kind of funny for them, I guess, because I had this sports car which, it wasn’t expensive, but you know, I kept it clean and it looked nice.

And one of these friends who used to kind of poke fun at me – I won’t say what she was, but young lady my age, and I’ll just say that she wasn’t black and she wasn’t brown. I don’t remember where we were going but it was after dark and I think picked her up from her place, we were driving, and I think we got about two blocks before we were pulled over.

So I saw the flashing lights and the sirens and I pulled over and they didn’t say I was speeding, they didn’t say tags were expired, anything like that, they just said they were checking, they were just checking, that’s what they said.

And they pulled the flashlight out, they shined it on me, they shined it on her, they asked if she was OK, and she said yeah. And then let me go once he saw my license and registration.

So I think she was a little confused, but we kept driving. And I think I got maybe another 10-15 blocks or so before I got pulled over again. Same thing happened — I wasn’t speeding, I wasn’t doing anything wrong, they just pulled over and they said they were just checking, this was a different officer. And again, I showed my driver’s license, I showed my registration, I was very police — ‘Yes sir, no sir’ — and eventually they said ‘OK. Sorry for taking up your time, go ahead.’

As I was driving, I realized that the person sitting next to me was shaking, and I looked over at her and she asked me, ‘Is this what happens? Is this what it’s like?’ And I didn’t really know how to answer her because yeah, it is. And black people, black men do get pulled over a lot for no reason, and I’d been profiled constantly, and it was to the point where actually it didn’t bother me anymore because I was so used to it. But it really affected her, she was actually furious — she was saying ‘I can’t believe they’d do this, this is wrong, we have to do something about this, can’t we call somebody, can’t we go anywhere.’

Maybe I was a little insensitive but I said no, I don’t think so – I can’t think of anything to do right now, let’s just go to wherever we’re going. And she started crying and I didn’t know what to do, and so we went wherever we were going – I don’t remember at this point – but she never rode with me anywhere ever again.

- Dexter 

Share your story of a time you were pulled over. 

The last time I had an interaction with law enforcement officers was a couple of years ago in Baltimore County, Maryland, where I reside. It was a late night, I was on my way to a McDonald’s to simply get some food, and I used my girlfriend’s car to drive to the McDonald’s.

This McDonald’s is less than a mile away from my residence. As I approached the traffic light — a red light — I noticed an officer pull up behind me. And I thought nothing of it at first, but then of course, being a person of color driving in the middle of the night, I knew that anything could happen. But again, I didn’t know if the officer was going to pull me over for some reason that I didn’t know, or let me go about my business.

I was committing no crimes, no traffic violations, I wasn’t doing anything wrong or intend to do anything wrong. But I know that all they need is a reason to pull you over with the hopes that they have some bigger issue to arrest you for or detain you for.

As I pulled into the McDonald’s drive-through, two officers turned on their squad car lights, and I stopped the vehicle. They approached the vehicle, and they asked me for the registration for the vehicle because for some reason, the registration wasn’t coming up in their database. I knew this to be false because I know that my girlfriend stays on top of that type of business. I also knew that the reason they pulled me over with such a false story was to get my I.D. in order to run it through their database to see if I had any type of outstanding warrants or anything like that — a bigger reason for them to, again, detain or arrest me.

This is all too common, and this is how most traffic stops begin. This is why most officers pick the low-hanging fruit to use a traffic stop to try to justify means to another end.

I waited patiently in the car and I felt embarrassed. I felt somewhat fearful — again, not because I was doing anything wrong, but just because of the history of law enforcement’s interaction with people of color.

The officers then came back to the car and told me that there was a mistake made, the registration checked out, but they were looking for people that were stealing cars in the area. And immediately felt like I was profiled, which is exactly what it was. And it just goes to show you that the issue of profiling is a big problem in our communities and police officers, law enforcement in general at large, need to learn how to deal with people of color and the communities that they police.

Had we had true community policing, those officers in that community would have known who I am, and would’ve had no reason to pull me over. But again, when you’re driving while black, that is justification enough for most law enforcement officials and agencies to feel as though they have unilateral authority to do what they do.

- Courtney

Tell us about a time you were pulled over by the police.

My name is Danny, I am a black female, and I was pulled over by a white cop in a rural area of Arizona. 

I was relocating from California to Dallas by way of Vegas, so that’s why I was in the northern part of Arizona. It was a area where there were a lot of cops in the median, and so the speed limit went from 75 to 65 in a very short period, and that’s where I saw the cop, so when he pulled out behind me, I thought it was because I was speeding. But he was behind me for about a mile before he pulled me over. 

When he came up to the car, I rolled down all the windows and turned the ignition off, and had my hands on the steering wheel, and I kept thinking in my head, ‘I don’t want to die in Arizona.’ And so he said that I’m not getting a ticket, so I don’t have to worry about that, but the reason that he pulled me over was because I had a cell phone mount in the window underneath the rear view mirror, and that’s illegal in the state of Arizona. 

So I took it down immediately, and I figured that was going to be the end of it, but then he asked me for my license and registration, and he asked me to step out of the car, and come to his vehicle while he ran my information.
And so, I stood there with my hands behind my back the whole time like I had handcuffs on because I didn’t want him to be uneasy, and I also stood about three feet away from him because the whole thing just made me really nervous. And so he asked me a series of questions about where I was coming from, how long I had been in L.A., how long I had been in Vegas, where I was going, why was I going to Dallas, where was I planning on staying when I was in Dallas, did I have any marijuana in the car, where did I stay when I was in L.A., where did I stay when I was in Vegas, did I have any marijuana in the car – that kept coming up a lot and he said the reason he kept asking me about the marijuana was because that area was a corridor that was known for drug trafficking from northern California to Dallas. 

And so after he ran my information and everything checked out, he told me that I was free to go, but do you mind if I search your car. And at that point, I told him that I don’t care what you do, you’re free to do whatever you want, just don’t shoot me. 

He said, ‘Oh my God, no, you’re free to go.’ 

So I think it kind of caught him off guard a little bit and made him a little nervous that I would think that, but I mean that’s just the reality of where we are right now. And so at that point he let me go, and I sat there for about 10-15 minutes before I even pulled off. But I didn’t have any more issues in Arizona and I definitely didn’t put the cell phone mount back up in the window. That was the last time I was pulled over.

- Danny

Tell us about a time you were pulled over. 

About a year ago, I was pulled over on a Monday night, about 9:30 p.m. after class. I had turned right, I had a green arrow, and I proceeded north, oblivious to the fact that a police officer was behind me. It took him about a mile or so before he pulled me over. When he did, we pulled into a parking lot, and he took my license and registration, took a look at it, and told me that he pulled me over for turning right on a red. I looked at him. 

I said, ‘No I didn’t. There was a green arrow.’ 

He said, ‘Oh. OK. I thought it was red.’ 

And that was pretty much it. He gave me my license and registration back, and said, ‘Have a good night.’ I thought it was strange. It was funny because I know if I wasn’t a white woman who looked very nonthreatening, the outcome might have been different. 

I probably would’ve had a ticket right now.

- Shelley

Tell us about a time you were pulled over by the police.