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To the "60 second advice," I'

To the "60 second advice," I'd add this one:

6) If possible, dress nicely. In general, the more you look like Ward Cleaver on his way to or from work, the more the cop is apt to assume that you're "one of the good people" and act accordingly. In particular, I was involved in one accident when I was 24, and looked quite a bit younger. I was dressed in a tee-shirt and ratty blue jeans; the other driver was a distinguished looking man in his 50s, dressed in a suit. The other driver was completely at fault (he had accidentally ran a red light) -- and fortunately for me, he admitted this at the scene. (From what he said to me later, I think he was as outraged by the cop's conduct as I was.) I say that this was fortunate because the cop who handled the accident, upon his arrival, took one look at the two of us and made up his mind; his first action was to point to me and ask the other driver, "what happened, was he [me] speeding, or did he run the light, or what?" ... and continued to ask such questions or make statements to that effect until the other driver explicitly told him, "you've got it wrong, *I* caused the accident, not him."

Based on that and my other encounters with cops over the years, I'm thoroughly convinced that cops rely upon first impressions much more than they'll admit; perhaps much more than they even realize. In my experience, being dressed like you're on your way to a rock concert gets you the "what the hell are you up to, punk" treatment; being dressed like you're on your way to a corporate board meeting gets you the "sorry to bother you, sir" treatment. In other words, it's the difference between (in the cop's mind, not in any legal sense) the presumption of guilt and the presumption of innocence.

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