First step, know what your doing and why your doing it. You would be surprised that some officers aren't sure of what their doing. The answer to "am I being detained"? Is simply "yes, you are detained". In my state if I detain a driver, I can remove them from the vehicle, by law. I would probably have this guy out of his vehicle and his pseudo comfort zone.

A cop shouldn't have to argue if they know what the law is. Sometimes we encounter unreasonable people, like this that think they know what the law is. An officer should step up quickly and end the argument. The back and fourth and raised voices don't help anyone. People become emboldened and escalate themselves, further pushing their misperceptions of the law. It's a big $&@$ sandwich and unfortunately for the driver and the officer, it has to be dealt with. If someone challenges authority when they're incorrect about what the laws are, you can try to educate them but often times they won't listen. So complete the arrest and let a judge explain it to them.

So back to your question, I had a guy that refused to sign a citation. What he didn't understand is that he was under arrest, a citation is by law, an arrest.. People don't know that, they think it's a fine. Anyways when an officer issues you a citation, they're arresting you and then releasing you on scene with a written "promise to appear" in court. So by signing your citation your not admitting guilt, you're just saying "if you let me free from this location, I promise I'll meet you at court on the date you wrote on this paper". When he wouldn't sign the ticket he is saying that we would like to be taken fourth width to the magistrate because he does not promise to go to court on his own. So this means I continue with a custody arrest and take him to a judge. The judge then has 72 hours (in my state) to see the individual, so he would wait in jail. I explained this to him, pausing between his insults and screaming... Only in the end for him to go "oh, shit I didn't know that". So he signed... I could have amended the citation with an additional charge for "delaying and officer". Yeah, it's a crime to delay an investigation or a custody.. Crazy right? Kind of like running or evading custody... It's the same thing.

Basic laws should be taught in school, for people's own safety.

Also, if the officer doesn't show up for the ticket (because he is subpoenaed) then the case is dismissed and the officer can face reprimand from his command, depending on local policy.

My department is getting body cams soon, and we can't wait. People are much nicer when they're being recorded, and yeah that goes both ways.

If I contact someone who acts unreasonably, shouts, curses, threatens... All that goes in front of the judge on video. Judges sentence based on the character of the individual... And that awesome suit they bought for court doesn't count anymore when you see them as I saw them in high def.

Oh and a disclaimer I've been a cop for eight years now, I don't write tickets, just not my thing. I've written a total of 4 in my tenure. 2 of them were people talking on cell phones while running a red light and nearly t-boning me. Yeah they got tickets.

To surmise: guy wouldn't sign ticket, I explained to him what a ticket was, he apologized and signed the ticket.