I Had The Audacity To Say Something To A Police Officer....
So on my way to work this morning just before 9am, I was northbound on Markham Rd. and at approxiamately the 401 underpass, traffic was snarled. It was stop and go (more stop than go..) and I figured there must be an accident or something further north towards Sheppard Ave. As I neared Milner Rd, I see that there is a Toronto Police cruiser with it's emergency lights activated in the leftmost lane of Markham Rd, about half way between Sheppard and Milner. I observed that the officer was out of his cruiser and speaking with a man and woman who had been involved in a minor fender bender in the south bound lanes of Markham Rd. because he had the left lane of Markham Rd North blocked (for no reason, there were no injuries etc as far as I could tell) it was creating quite a probelm for motorists going the other way, in fact I was nearly rear ended myself during the delay.
As I drew alongside the cruiser (after slowing down and giving way) I said to the officer that your cruiser is causing problems where it is... He looked at me and saw that I was in the turning lane to the west bound Sheppard and quickly hopped in his car and cut through the strip mall parking lot there to catch up to me. I however was pulling in to the Petro Canada to fuel up my jeep. As I pulled in and noted that all the pumps were occupied I pulled through the lot and reentered westbound Sheppard figuring I'd hit the station after work as I was going to be just on time as it was. The officer was in the turn lane in to the gas station as I was pulling out and proceeded to do a U Turn to get in behind me. He lit me up and pulled me over a few hundred feet down the road.
Approaching my car he asked me to provide him with my Licence, Registration and proof of insurance, to which I replied, "Sure, would you mind telling me why you have pulled me over" to which he responded "I want to look at your documents and I don't appreciate being yelled at while I'm doing my job" and then asked me why I pulled in to the Petro Canada Station, to which I replied "to get gas, why? Is that illegal? He replied no and went back to his cruiser. He left me sitting there for about 13-15 minutes and came back handed my documents back and said "This is for not having a valid insurance document and there are four choices on the back" I had inadvertantly handed him my insurance slip that had a March expiry (d'oh! Lesson learned) and was charged with "Fail to Surrender Valid Insurance" Total fine $65 with all costs factored in.
Now my question and comments.... Yes, I failed "The Attitude Test" I should have bit my lip and drove past them, but I was flabbergasted that he would impact northbound traffic and not pull in behind the southbound accident so people would know there was a problem and drive around accordingly.
Was he following proper procedure to pull me over? Is pointing out a lack of common sense reason enough (legally) to pull me over for that reason? Is there some sort of SOP for Police at accidents? He wasn't protecting them as that part of Markham Rd has a void between Northbound and Southbound. Is there recourse through his Sargeant? I plan on taking it to court out of principle, but am interested in the collectives thoughts on the legality of the stop itself.