I was a cop for 2 years in a small town that was just one big speed trap (fairly traveled highway right through the middle of town). Generally, I wouldn't give someone who was respectful a ticket. For example, FergyFlyer wouldn't have gotten a ticket because he (or she, I dunno) would have made my job a lot easier and, more importantly, safer. There's a lot of stress in a traffic stop, you literally never know what you're walking into as a police officer. I always assumed the worst, that way I'd be ready for whatever happened. I know it's stressful for you, the person who got pulled over, but keep in mind what the officer is going through too..it's no walk in the park for him either. The best advice I could give is to always keep your hands where they can be seen, NEVER make any sudden movements and try to keep the officer informed about what you're doing. Being a dick is a guaranteed way to get a ticket. There ARE cops out there who will pull you over for trivial reasons, and sometimes no reason at all...but those cops are few and far between.
As for crying girls, they got a ticket from me most of the time. Some of 'em can turn on the tears as easily as turning on the water faucet.
One more thing...our cars are significantly faster than the vast majority of the police/sheriff/highway patrol cars out there...but DON'T floor it in an attempt to get away whenever you see him/her turning around to come get you. When I was younger (17), I successfully outran several of the deputies around here, but I never realized how STUPID that was until someone ran from me. It was some kids who had some alcohol in their car, they were on the way to a party and none of 'em had been drinking so far. Had they allowed me to pull them over, I'd have confiscated the alcohol and they'd have been on their merry way in a few minutes. They ran and forced me to chase them all over the place. I finally caught them after a 10 minute chase (after they ran off in a ditch from trying to take a corner too quickly). Since they ran, and got half the department after them, I had to take 'em to jail. They went from losing alcohol (which seems like the end of the world when you're under 21, I know) to jail and a LOT of damage to their car. I guess they're actually lucky, when you consider that they were doing nearly 80 mph on a gravel roads and at any time they could have slid off into a tree and killed themselves. Needless to say, I didn't WANT to chase them and risk my life, but when somebody runs, they DEFINITELY have something that they don't want you to find...or some other reason they don't want to be caught. So running is pretty much an admission of guilt in a cop's mind.
Just keep in mind that cops are human beings too...if you treat them with respect, 9 times out of 10 they'll return the same level of respect to you.
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