My Local Police Have Random Road Blocks In My Town

Why do the police sometimes slow down freeway traffic by weaving? I have personally seen this happen quite a few times in the last couple of years.

It's called a "traffic break." A patrol car with lights and siren on weaves across all lanes rapidly, gradually slowing, so that traffic stays behind him. It's used when there is an accident, high-risk car stop, or other road hazard ahead. If traffic runs up on one of these suddenly, there's a good chance cars won't have time to stop and a chain-reaction accident may occur. If the road is going to be closed for a while, these can be used to funnel traffic to an off-ramp and around the obstruction. Traffic breaks can be miles behind an obstruction, so by the time traffic reaches the point where the obstruction was, there may be no evidence of it. If the car slows down traffic for a while then turns off the overheads and speeds off, the hazard ahead has been cleared and the road is open again. The CHP is about as good as it gets in handling vehicle traffic, so if they're trying to do a traffic break, it's in everyone's best interest to go along.

Can a police officer pull you over in his personal vehicle?

I indeed faced just such a situation. I was driving home from a visit to my parents in western NY when just a short distance away from my home town, I was tailed by a car with no strobe lights, siren or official identification. The man (not in uniform) attempted to use his headlights and/or wave me over to stop. I have to admit I was spooked so I sped up. I would not let the man get in front of me. I was planning to drive to the police station in the next town over, but the car stopped following me about 2 miles outside of town.I forgot about it, until I got a call a day later from the ‘officer’. He claimed he had clocked me at over 90mph (probably true) and that he would send me the details, however if I was officially charged, the fine would be well over $500, however, if I would plead guilty to a reduced charge, and send $100 cash to a post office box, he would left me off. The whole thing was really sketchy, so I said ‘sure, send me the reduced charge and the address of the post office box and I will send the cash”. When he did, I made a copy of my tape of the telephone call, the ‘notice he sent with payment instructions’ and had my dad take it to the Justice of the Peace in the town from which the officer was from. Turns out that this was a routine the deputy had pulled numerous times before, as the officer had had several complaints laid against him in the past. He would tail out of state motorists, send them a ‘citation’ and extort money from them. Being out of state who wanted to drive back to fight the charges? I was the only one who had him on tape with the postmarked envelope, the hand written ‘citation’ and the post office box number. One of the benefits of growing up in a small town, was that the JP knew my dad and our family. He took the information, notified the State Police who investigated and in the end the officer was fired, prosecuted and plead guilty for multiple charges.My recommendation is if an officer attempts to pull you over in his personal vehicle he better be able to display his badge and be convincing. If you have the slightest doubt, wave to him so that he know you have seen him, and drive carefully to the nearest police station. Alternatively you could also keep your doors locked and windows up, ask to see his badge number and name (credentials), and call 911 and verify that he is indeed a legitimate police officer in his jurisdiction. re: JHS

How long after fingerprints are lifted do police make an arrest?

Outside observation: Anywhere from a few hours to never.Why?The presence of fingerprints means…what , again? - Simply finding a known criminal’s fingerprints on a crime scene means that at some point in the past he/she was at that scene. While “fresher” prints may means that it was more recent, that still doesn’t tell the why they were there or what involvement (if any) they had in the crime.Most people aren’t “in the system” - The majority of people are not in the fingerprint databases. If you were never in the military or law enforcement, never in legal trouble, never bonded or granted a liquor license and never received a Top Secret or higher classification from the government then you are unlikely to be found during a fingerprint check. The police will have hold onto the prints until they can find a match…if they ever do.They have to find you - Many criminals aren’t sitting around waiting for the police to come get them. If they break the law, they know that they should “get in the wind” (run) to avoid arrest. Even something as simple as moving to a nearby town can throw the police off temporarily; moving out of state or across the country are nearly always serious roadblocks to being found, especially if the criminal works for cash and avoids encounters with the police.They have to be able to charge you - As with #1, simply having prints at the scene of a crime is meaningless. The police will have to interrogate you or have found additional evidence linking you to the crime (or both) to arrest you, especially if you have no wants or warrants out against you. If you “lawyer up” or simply shut up, they may be forced to release you until they can gather further evidence. And, if they release you, they take the risk that you’ll flee, meaning that they’ll have to find you again.Life isn’t like television or films. The police can find all kinds of evidence, but linking it to a suspect and then finding that suspect can take anywhere from minutes to (again) never. They’ll simply investigate until they are able to locate a suspect and then they’ll make an arrest if they have the evidence to do so.