“Weird Questions At Traffic Stop”

Hi All,

This is my first post here I just lurk usually. Great forum for knowledge.

Here's my question. I got stopped this weeked because my plate sticker expired (I know, totally my fault).

Anyway, at the stop here are the questions the female officer asked me, are these normal questions, cause I don't get stopped basically ever and am just curious.

I'll just list the questions in the order the police woman asked:

Do you know why I stopped you?

Have you been drinking? Not even 1?

Pretty standard so far.

Then,

Do you have a job? Who do you work for? How long have you worked there? Is it a good company to work for? How tall are you? How much do you weigh? What is your eye colour? What is your cell phone number?

And then here is your ticket.

Is it just me, or what do those questions have to do with anything?

One of the officers who post here might know better, but the only thing I can think of is that she might have been trying to engage you in conversation to see if you were drunk. The more you talk the more she can look for signs of impairment like slurred speech or trouble remembering basic facts like your own eye colour.

daggx wrote:One of the officers who post here might know better, but the only thing I can think of is that she might have been trying to engage you in conversation to see if you were drunk. The more you talk the more she can look for signs of impairment like slurred speech or trouble remembering basic facts like your own eye colour.

I guess that could be it. It was 2 pm though, and I was not drinking nor did I exhibit anything that would lead anyone to believe I was drunk.

Hard to know why the officer was asking those particular questions. Could be to confirm ID, test sobriety or just part of some other investigation (i.e. complaint involving vehicle similar to yours). People who are lying usually have a hard time answering more then two or three questions in a row truthfully and keeping their answers straight.

At the end of the day you're under no obligation to answer most of those questions, though I wouldn't be rude about it either. Nothing wrong with asking the officer why they're asking the questions.