From: dbr2@cec2.wustl.edu (Dhruva Bollam Reddy)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving
Subject: Re: More Police Intimidation
Date: 15 Dec 92 18:55:18 GMT
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO

I have had a couple of run-ins with the Kansas Highway Patrol:

1.  A year and a half ago I was driving from a friend's house (in a different
    county from my home) when a patrol car began to follow me (I was doing 
    50 in a 55-stuck behind another car).  After a mile or so he finally
    flipped on his lights.  He walked up to my car, a Honda CRX, and requested
    my license and all that good stuff, and then informed me that he had 
    called my license plate number in to the dispatcher to find that the plate
    actually belonged to a Volkswagen (another car in my household).  After
    explaining to him that I must have unknowingly switched the two plates
    when new ones were issued, he asked me to step out of the car and stand
    where he could see me while he got into his car for no readily apparent
    reason, where he sat for at least 20 minutes.  He then got out of his car
    for the interrogation.  He began with questions about my criminal record
    (non-existant) and then asked if I had been to Connecticut and been 
    convicted of any felonies there.  By now I was losing patience and replied
    as calmly as possible that I hadn't set foot in New England in almost ten
    years.  He then (FINALLY!) explained that they were looking for a man from
    Connecticut with the same first name (Dhruva) and ethnic background
    (Indian, as in from India).  He then wrote me a warning for registration
    violation and sent me on my way, after asking the standard questions (what
    are you doing in this county, etc.).

2.  The second one happened in June of this year as I was on my way home
    (Hill City, KS) from Texas after returning from India a week before.
    I was traveling on I-70 at a liesurely 72 mph when I sighted a patrol
    car going in the other direction.  We established eye contact and I 
    pulled over before he had a chance to light up.  The nice state trooper
    informed me that although he didn't have a radar reading on me, I looked
    like I was "doing a little over 65" and that I should slow down.  He then
    requested all my papers and asked if I was carrying any "drugs, weapons,
    or large sums of cash".  I meekly replied that I wasn't (meekly because
    I was still recovering from the shock of a possible speeding ticket).
    That no, he said, sounded unconvincing.  He therefore asked to search
    my car (I was going home for the first time since the end of the school
    year, therefore my car was jampacked with stuff from my dorm room as well
    as the junk I brought back from India).  At that point, another car       
    appeared on the scene containing another state trooper,a local deputy
    sherrif, and a narc dog.  They proceeded to go through all my boxes and
    my suitcases, for some reason leaving my stereo equipment alone, the spare
    tire compartment, and all the other storage bins (BTW, this is the same
    Honda).  Not satisfied with laying all my possessions at the side of the
    road, one of the troopers asked my permission to let the dog inside the
    luggage compartment.  I had mentioned that I was returning from India.
    Big mistake!  They tried unsuccessfully to open a container in which was
    a lamp, and then they just let the dog have a sniff-see :-).  Obviously
    disappointed, they sent me on my way approximately one hour after I had
    pulled over.

Dhruva 
Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving