He instructed his officers to be very aggressive in pulling people over. He told me they would look for any reason they could to make a stop and then use that interaction as a stepping stone, of sorts, to fish for bigger things. Person sounded a little strange? Get them out of the car for a intoxication test. Run their license and check for warrants. Pry around and see if you smell pot (or something like it).

He bragged that they had nailed a lot of really bad people this way, individuals who had warrants or other red flags on their records. Often they would be able to seize the vehicle or other property and sell that at auction, the proceeds of which they got to keep in the department in a process I still don't fully understand. In the short time I was there, whenever he wanted a new piece of equipment and there wasn't money in the budget, he would seek authorization to use the asset forfeiture fund, which was off-budget and had an unknown balance (at least to me—and I tried to get access) but which, we were assured, had enough in it to cover the purchase.

So when my colleague said he was pulled over for no reason, I had no problem believing him. I had been pulled over myself in Breezy Point on a few occasions. One I remember was for a taillight being out. I had a mouse chew through the wire and spent hundreds of dollars trying to get it fixed but there was something loose we couldn't isolate. I'm not joking here: if I pounded on the light, it would flicker back on. I told this to the officer and he let me show him if I would open the trunk so he could see inside. My light back on, and my trunk searched, I was allowed to go on my way without a ticket.

I've had a lot—A LOT—of interactions with traffic police. Back in my consulting days, there were years when I put 50,000 miles on my car (I worked all over the state). Lots of these miles were late night in rural areas where the police were just waiting for the lone car to drive through the 55 mph to 30 mph transition on the edge of town, the guarantee ticket zone. I once got a ticket for going 40 mph in a 30 mph. When I drove past the patrol car he rapidly turned around and I responded by immediately pulling over. I received the ticket while sitting at the 55 mph sign.

"Right there the sign says 55, officer," I protested.

"You can't go 55 until you get to the sign," he informed me.