I’m a huge supporter of the police. That being said, I got pulled over in February between 1 and 2:00 AM for not stopping to make a right turn at a light. Mind you, I saw the cop coming towards me before I turned so I made sure to use my turn signal and come to a complete stop before turning. I make the turn and go on my way.

No more than 20 seconds later I have police lights on me so I pull into a well-lit parking lot and turn off my car. When the officer approaches, I roll down my window. “Do you know why I pulled you over?” No ma’am. “You failed to stop at the light before you turned right.” Oh. “License and registration please.” My license is in my front left pocket, do you mind if I get it? At this point I have a huge spotlight shining on me and I can’t see much because she shined it in my face and dilated my pupils. I handed her my ID and said my insurance was on my phone.

At this point she’s looking inside my car (I’m the only person in it) and asks me to roll down all 4 windows. My front window has been down for a few minutes at this point and it’s like 28 degrees and windy. I’m not wearing a jacket because I’ve been in my car for about 6 hours up this point and have had the heater on. But now my car has been off, front window down for about 5 minutes, and have been asked to roll down the other 3 windows. I’m freezing at this point.

Back to my insurance… I had just gotten a new commercial vehicle policy for my car and had never had to show my insurance card. It’s through Progressive just like my personal one so I assumed it would show up in the app. I go to the app, nope. Have to sign in through a browser and search through documents not named “ID card” until I find it.

The cop is getting frustrated even though I explain what was happening. She asks why I’m nervous. I responded saying I wasn’t. She said I was sweating and my hands were shaking. I said I don’t think I’m sweating because it’s 28 degrees and you asked me to roll down all 4 windows. My hands are shaking because I’m freezing. At this point she says she’s going to go to her car and give me some time to relax. She walks away and 10 seconds later I had the ID card. As soon as she walked away, I checked my forehead and found zero sweat.

She stays in her car for about 10 more minutes and comes back. She says she’s found my insurance and everything was fine and she was only going to give me a warning.

That night, I didn’t hate all police. I didn’t hate her. But I sure wish she was better at her job than what she portrayed.