YumYum

Officers who make traffic stops or officers interrogating (interviewing as they call it) practice the same skills people use in high pressure sales and cons and other areas. Namely, how to get what they want from people.

For example:

"Your name is Joe Bloggs is that correct?" "And you live at XYZ Avenue?" "And this is your car?" "And where were you going?"

Now the first two questions the officer is just verifying that they have the correct information. Normally these are just two questions that you will respond in the affirmative to. The next question seems somewhat reasonable, though of course if the officer has just checked your driver's license then it should already be clear. So why are they asking you?

Because they are doing a short conditioning run, establishing a scenario where they ask and you answer. If you answer the first three, now you are already setting a behavioural model and the foundation of your relationship.

So the next question is "And where were you going?", which is none of their business. You answered their last three questions. Why wouldn't you answer this one? If you don't answer this one you have suddenly clammed up so they think what do you have to hide?

This technique also takes advantage of the human desire to communicate and most people's conditioning to be polite. The next question can take you farther into whatever territory the officer wishes to pursue: "Where are you coming from?", or, "A car matching this description was used in a robbery in this area. I know it isn't this one, but just to make my supervisor happy, I'm going to search it, okay?", or, "Had a few drinks tonight?".

The more questions you answer the deeper in you go, and the harder it is to change the direction of the behavior and the relationship.

__________________
Panda is what the world was waiting for!

Axiom

Most people have little awareness as to the extent they are manipulated .
My personal interest is in the mass manipulation of society , where media plays a major role.

JacksonWShowalter

Interesting observation. I was once on my way to work at about 4am while it was still dark and was asked the exact same questions. Only when asked if they could search my car I replied, “No. I’ll be late for work and you have no probable cause.” Whereupon I was told to continue on my way. It was only after I started to drive off I noticed another officer behind a second car who had had a gun pointed at me!

On one occasion a State Highway Patrolman went around me and pulled over the car about a half mile in front of me. When I got there he motioned for me to pull over also. After checking our licenses he told both of us, “I’m not sayin’ y’all was speedin’ but I just wanted to caution y’all what with ya probably bein’ salesmen & such and bein’ in a hurry to get where y’all are goin’ ta be careful. Ya know ever time we stop somebody it don’t mean they did nothin’. Onc’t I stopped a lady cause she had two big ol dogs in the car & I didn’t know what they was, so I wanted to take a look. Well, y’all have a nice day, now.” Then he got in his car & drove off. The other guy who had been stopped looked at me & said, “What the **** was that all about?!” Weird guy!

Just2Good

I had a cop pull a gun on me before too. I was driving down a deserted country road one night, admittedly probably a little over the speed limit, when all of a sudden in my rear view mirror I see the flashing lights of a cop car.

I pull over. He gets out and walks to the driver side and says "Let me see your hands". I take my hands off the steering wheel and show him. Then, I notice for the first time he had his gun drawn and pointed at me. Then he says to me "Why didn't you pull over immediately?".

I am thinking WTF? This guy must be fresh out of police college or something.

I said to him "I pulled over right away as soon as I saw your flashing lights go on." He then looks confused, takes my license and rego, and says "How come you don't have an Ontario license?" I tell him I just moved back to Ontario from Manitoba. He says "Well, you should still have an Ontario license", which is rubbish because you get like a month to switch once you move between provinces.

Anyway, he goes and writes me up a ticket. Then when he gives it to me he says something like "I could have given you a fine for going 20 above the limit but I dropped it to 10", like he is doing me a favour or something. If he wanted to do me a favour he could have not given me a ticket at all.

I actually fought that ticket in Court, and because he didn't show up on the day of the trial the judge threw the matter out. If he had shown up, the grounds I wanted to use to fight the ticket were that it was pitch black out there in the country (making it hard for him to know who was speeding and who wasn't) and that the officer looked confused. I was only a foolish Arts undergrad at the time. In hindsight those grounds would probably have been insufficient.

__________________
.
"The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing."

~ Isaiah Berlin ~