Out of State Plates - Target for Cops

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Originally Posted by CalOldBlue

Well, since this happened in 1983, I'm going under a couple of assumptions:

1) If they cared enough they would have caught me by now
2) Mississippi probably doesn't carry 25-year-old documentation violations in their system.

I'm not guilty of a violation, I'm guilty of failing to file paperwork.

Also: recall this was a rental car; they ain't got MY plates!

Have to say though, I enjoyed both Natchez and Vicksburg, and the drive up the river road... would like to go back sometime, but Linda will be driving that stretch.

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What a hoot this is: In fact, the last speeding ticket I received was just under 31 years ago, in Mississippi. I was in an easily-recognized company truck with Virginia plates, and the Choctaw County locals were (rightly) peeved at the speed at which some of our crews buzzed up and down their roads. They resolved to put a stop to it by rigid enforcement.

I got pulled over by a Mississippi highway patrolman and as I settled into the passenger seat of his cruiser the radar readout said "62". I was pulled over for 62 in a 55. When I asked if he pulled over everybody running 62 in a 55, he slammed his ticket book closed and ordered me to follow him to Ackerman (county seat) in my truck. Into the courthouse we went, he completed his ticket paperwork, and demanded something like $45 for the court costs on the spot. I rarely carried more than $10-15 on me and $45 was a lot of cash for a 24 year-old to have in his pocket in 1980, but I miraculously had it on me that day. He was even more peeved he couldn't throw me in the slammer until my wife could arrive from Starkville, some 30 miles east. The paperwork indicated my payment of the $45 was not the full resolution of the matter and I still had to appear in court some 45 days hence. The drilling crew I was assigned to got transferred and I moved on up to Tennessee with them. A letter to my former Starkville apartment was forwarded a week or so after the court date, stating "driving privileges in Mississippi suspended".

I don't think I've driven in Mississippi since then, and had completely forgotten about it until reading this today. Something tells me they haven't digitized 1980 records.

Foy

We don't get pulled over unless there's a compelling reason to pull us over. Cops are WAY to busy just to pick on people because of out of state plates.

I've driven throughout the Western States multiple times. During our last trip (9,611 miles - not that anyone was counting) through 17 states and a bit of Canada, I was pulled over once, in Texas. Even the officer conceded that the signage in that 'burb was a disaster, but just asked me to "slow down a bit" next time we passed through town. Then he asked about our trip, where we'd been, where we were headed. (He'd seen the sticker map on the trailer...and that led to a great conversation.)