When the officer approaches your window, you may want to ask (with all the politeness you can muster) why you were stopped. If you are at all concerned that the person who stopped you is not actually a police officer (for example, if the car that pulled you over is unmarked), you should ask to see the officer's photo identification along with her badge. If you still have doubts, you can ask that the officer call a supervisor to the scene or you can request that you be allowed to follow the officer to a police station.

If the officer has reason to think that you pose a danger to her safety, she is allowed to search you and the immediate area around you (this may include the passenger compartment of your car and its contents -- such as bags or a briefcase -- and your glove compartment). For example, a driver who is belligerent and threatening might be asked to step out of the car for a pat-down while the passenger compartment, including a duffel bag, is searched for weapons.

If a law enforcement officer suspects that a passenger is conducting any illegal activity or holding contraband, the officer has the right to search that passenger and his or her belongings.

The police are required, however, to follow fair and standardized procedures when they search your car, and may not stop you and impound your car simply to perform a search.

If your rearview mirror vibrates at high speeds try to correct the problem. A mirror that vibrates a little will blur the subtle features that often give away the profile of a patrol car or motorcycle. Try tightening or slightly loosening any screws on the mirror mounting; if that doesn't help, remove the screws to add fiber, hard rubber, or even home-made cardboard or paper washers or shims to the mounting. Sometimes, you can reduce mirror vibration by having your front wheels balanced.

With a little practice, you can learn to recognize a Highway Patrol car's front profile in your side or rearview mirrors. Most Highway Patrol cars are manned by one driver and no passenger. One tell-tale sign of a Highway Patrol car behind you is the shotgun mounted vertically on a rack in the front compartment of the car. From your rearview mirror, the shotgun on its rack seems to divide the police car windshield in two.

The Highway Patrol is also moving toward increased use of smaller semi-compact cars, which are much harder to distinguish as patrol vehicles. While many larger Highway Patrol cars have conspicuous red-and-blue roof-rack lights, the smaller cars (and even some of the larger ones) use internally mounted red lights that become noticeable only when they're turned on and it's too late. Even so, many of these smaller cars still have the shotgun conspicuously mounted in the front-windshield rack.

Another feature of these cars is that they have very large and powerful engines that allow them to accelerate very quickly. Adopting a regular habit of glancing at your rearview mirror every five or ten seconds will help you to distinguish any quickly accelerating cars whose distant image on your mirror seems to grow too fast.

If you see a Highway Patrol officer pull off onto an exit ramp, resist the temptation to speed up right away. Highway Patrol officers regularly do this, only to re-enter the highway from a nearby on-ramp a few seconds later. With your false sense of security at having seen the officer exit the highway, the officer will be far enough behind so that you won't notice, but still close enough to follow your car. Whenever you see the officer ahead of you get off the highway, take a heightened interest in your rearview mirror for the next few miles.

Also, Highway Patrol officers will often park very near on-ramps, to allow them to quickly get onto the highway to chase or pace a car they think is going too fast. It isn't a bad idea to glance about the area as you approach an on-ramp. After all, your heightened awareness will not only help you avoid a traffic officer, but will also help you be a better and safer driver!

Another trick Highway Patrol officers use is to 'pace' you from a parallel frontage road. Watch out for this, too.

Keep in mind that another maneuver Highway patrol officers can perform with amazing skill is a high-speed U-turn. You aren't safe from a Highway Patrol officer just because he's traveling in the opposite direction. If an officer thinks your speed is too high, he may well execute a movie-grade high-speed U-turn to chase you. Even highways have frequent spots where this can be done, and an officer who regularly patrols a particular section of road knows where such spots are. With the high-powered engines on Highway Patrol cars, he'll catch up with you in no time.

Patrol cars and motorcycles aren't your only worry. The Highway Patrol makes extensive use of aircraft to catch speeders on highways. Not all highways are appropriate for aircraft patrols, however. Highways which are not straight over long distances, which are near the flight paths of major airports, or which are simply too far from a local airport or airstrip, are less than ideal for the use of aircraft patrols. Straight highways in rural areas are preferred. In fact, highways patrolled by Highway Patrol aircraft usually have signs that warn "patrolled by aircraft," and have white mile-markers (several inches wide, by three or four feet long) painted on the side of the highway every mile.

We don't suggest that you stick your head out the window to look for Highway Patrol aircraft, or point your side-view mirror upward. Still, if you can do so safely, there's nothing wrong with being alert for any small Cessna-type airplane flying parallel to the highway, either ahead of you in your direction or coming toward you from the other direction, especially on highways with mile markers.

Stay out of the far-left lane if possible, because that's where officers usually look for the faster drivers.

Avoid using your headlights in the daytime while barreling down the fast lane -- a sure sign of a speeder      who wants slower traffic to get out of his way.

Avoid unusual car decorations or adornments. Anything out of the ordinary -- such as racing stripes,     stickers or jacked-up front or rear wheels -- will call unnecessary and possibly unwanted attention to your     driving.

In A Speeder's Guide to Avoiding Tickets (Avon Books, 1991), retired New York Highway Patrolman Sgt. James M. Eagan, gives some insight into how police officer decide to pull someone over. Among the factors officers might consider are the following:

Bumper stickers and unnecessary window decals. Most bumper stickers -- even those favoring sports      teams -- are capable of offending someone. Conversely, the 'support your local police' or 'Police      Benevolent Association' bumper stickers are such obvious attempts at getting favorable treatment that      they're almost guaranteed to have the opposite effect.

Personalized license plates. These are okay, but make sure your plate isn't likely to single you out by      occupation or other category likely to offend. (One young buck with a 'NEC BRKR' personalized plate on his      4 x 4 truck kept wondering why he got so many tickets!)

Tinted windows. Police hate them because they don't make for easy viewing of vehicle occupants. An      officer is going to be a little more apprehensive when approaching the vehicle, and less likely to relax and      let you off with a warning afterward.

Radar detectors. Police will often issue a ticket once they see a radar detector, even though they otherwise      might have let you off with a warning.

Poor vehicle condition. An officer is going to be at least slightly more favorably disposed toward the driver of      a neat, well-maintained vehicle than to the driver of a sloppy wreck. (Police seem to get more than their      share of verbal abuse from drivers of the latter types of vehicles.) Repair large noticeable dents, replace      cracked windows, keep your car presentably painted and keep the interior neat and clean -- including the      glove compartment and ashtray in the event the officer looks in there (and many do).

Worn tires. Replace these. An officer inclined to give only a warning may think otherwise after noticing you      were speeding on bald tires.

The 50 states basically use three types of speed limits, called "absolute," "presumed" and "basic." Because each type of speed limit violation often requires a unique defense, it is key to understand which you are charged with violating.

Attacking the officer's determination of your speed. To do this you must discover what method the officer     used to determine your speed -- like radar, laser or pacing -- and then attack that particular method.

Claiming an emergency forced you to exceed the speed limit to avoid serious damage or injury to yourself      or others. If you had to speed up to avoid a jet making an emergency landing on a freeway, you would have      a good case.

Claiming that the officer mistook your car for another car. With so many similar looking late-model cars, it is      very possible that a cop could see a speeding car, lose sight of it around a corner, and then wrongly pick      out your car further down the road.

But be aware that the "presumed" speed-limit law works both ways. On a pleasant summer morning on a wide, uncrowded highway, it may be safe to drive above the posted speed limit. However, on a wet day when visibility is limited by fog, it may not even be safe to drive at the posted speed limit. In short, an officer can still ticket you for driving at or below the posted limit, if it is unsafe to do so. This is true in all states.

If you're accused of violating a "presumed" speed limit, you have two possible defenses:

claim you weren't exceeding the posted speed limit, just as you would if you were charged with violating an      "absolute" speed law, or

claim that, even if you were exceeding the posted limit, you were driving safely given the specific road,      weather, and traffic conditions at the time.

Occasionally an officer will incorrectly measure your speed. But even if he does, it can be hard to convince a judge to accept your version of what happened. In short, if you were ticketed in a "presumed" speed area, it is most sensible to rely on the argument that you may have been driving slightly over the posted speed limit, but it was safe to do so considering all the highway conditions at the time. For example, if you know you were driving 33-35 mph in a 25-mph zone, and the officer can probably prove it, you should concentrate your defense on showing that you were driving at a reasonable speed, considering the conditions at the time you were stopped.

Mounting a defense to a speeding ticket in a "presumed" speeding area is not like a typical criminal defense, where the prosecution must prove you committed an illegal act beyond a reasonable doubt. In a "presumed" speed law defense, you have the burden of proving your speed was safe and prudent. In other words, the speed law presumes the posted speed limit is the fastest safe speed. It is up to you to prove that going faster at the time you were ticketed is also safe.

EXAMPLE: Bill was clocked by radar driving 43 mph on a street where 35-mph signs were properly posted. The law of his state contains a presumption that the posted speed limit is reasonable or prudent. To fight this ticket based on a claim that it was prudent to drive 43 mph, Bill will have to overcome the presumption that 35-mph was the only safe speed at the time he was ticketed. He might do this by showing there was no traffic at the time he was stopped and that weather was clear and dry.

No question, proving that your speed was safe becomes more difficult the more your speed exceeds the posted limit. Convincing a judge it was reasonable and prudent to go 38 mph in a 35-mph zone may not be too hard. (This helps explain why police officers rarely write tickets for speeding less than 5 mph over the speed limit.) But proving that it was safe to go 65 mph in a 35-mph zone will be close to impossible.

But there are many wide, straight roads designed for safe driving at 35 to 50 mph that have lower posted speed limits because of political pressure on public officials to crack down on speeding. Your testimony, backed by photographs, could show that your speed was safe on these broad, straight roads, even though you were driving faster than the posted limit. If you have weather, visibility and traffic factors in your favor, a judge might find you not guilty, even if you technically violated a "presumed" speed limit.

Here are important ways to build your case:

Go back to the scene and take photos at the same time and day of the week you were cited. Also, take a      photo from the driver's viewpoint. It's obviously to your benefit if you can establish the road was straight,      with good visibility.

Diagram the road, showing the location of your vehicle, the officer's vehicle, and any other traffic. It helps if      you were not ticketed in a busy commercial district where cars enter and exit parking lots and businesses.

The presence of heavy traffic can sometimes be a plus. With lots of other cars on the road your argument      could be that "everyone was exceeding the speed limit by about 10 mph and I would have endangered      myself and others by driving slower than the flow of traffic."

The "Basic" Speed Law
"Absolute" speed states set an upper limit, above which your speed is considered illegal. Drive one mile over the limit and you are a law breaker. But these states also have a way to ticket you when you are driving under the speed limit if the cop concludes your speed was unsafe. Called the "Basic" Speed Law, it prohibits driving at an unsafe speed, even if that speed is below the posted limit.

"Presumed" speed limit states also have the same law, although it is usually written into the "presumed" law. Or put another way, since the posted speed limit is only presumed to be safe when road or traffic conditions are good, the presumption can be rebutted by the police officer and the safe speed can be much lower.

Technicalities aside, in all states, tickets for driving under the speed limit, but too fast to be safe, are often referred to as "driving too fast for conditions." For example, driving exactly at the 65-mph posted limit on the freeway would be really dumb amidst slower and heavy traffic, in a dense fog, or in a driving rainstorm or blizzard. In commonsense terms, such unsafe driving is unlawful, regardless of higher speed limits. Police most often rely on the "Basic" Speed Law after an accident. They reason that you were driving too fast, no matter how slow you were driving, because you were in an accident.

The difference between fighting one of these tickets and a speeding ticket for going over the speed limit is that here the prosecution has the burden of proving you were driving unsafely. (Again, that's because the posted speed limit is presumed to be safe.) This means the officer must testify that given the unusual road, weather or traffic conditions, your below-the-limit speed was unsafe. This can be tough to do unless you were involved in an accident, since the cop may be hard put to come up with enough hard evidence to rebut the presumption established by the posted limit. If you were in an accident, the officer will probably try to show that it was evidence you were driving at an unsafe speed, and if your speed had been lower, you would have avoided the accident.

However, you do not have to despair even if you were in an accident and are charged with violating the "basic" law for driving at an unsafe below-the-limit speed. The fact that you've had an accident is not absolute proof that you were driving unsafely. Accidents, after all, are not always caused by your violating the law. Often they are caused when another driver screwed up.

If the police officer argues that the accident itself is evidence that you were driving at an unsafe speed, even though you were not technically speeding, you must be prepared to challenge him. Your best bets are normally to claim, and hopefully prove, that the accident could have occurred for a number of reasons. For example, it could have been:

entirely or partly another driver's fault, or
the result of a freak act of nature, in the form of a sudden wind gust, a tree falling or other natural      occurrence, or
a defect in the highway, signs or signals, which would happen if kids stole a stop sign or a stoplight fails.

In about 20 states, deciding whether it is safe to exceed the speed limit is another circumstance where a subjective judgment must be made. That's because in these states the posted speed limit is not an absolute limit, but only creates a legal presumption as to the safe speed for that road. This in turn raises the possibility of challenging the officer's judgment by proving it was safe to slightly exceed the posted limit.

Here are the types of evidence most likely to help you convince the judge that you -- not the officer -- are in the right:

Statements of witnesses, such as passengers or bystanders, who testify to your version of events.

A clear, easy to understand diagram showing where your vehicle and the officer's vehicle were in relation to      other traffic and key locations and objects, such as an intersection, traffic signal or another vehicle.      Diagrams are especially important for tickets given at intersections, such as right-of-way, stoplight or stop      sign violations.

Photographs of intersections, stop signs, and road conditions. These can be used to show conditions like      obscured stop signs or other physical evidence that backs up your case.

Any other evidence that would cast doubt on the officer's ability to accurately observe your alleged violation.      A classic way to do this is to prove his view was obscured -- or that his angle of observation made it      impossible to accurately see what happened.

Here are several examples:

You failed to stop at a stop sign after a major storm because the sign was hidden by a broken branch. If      possible, you should take pictures of the obscured sign and show them to the judge to support your      argument.

You failed to stop before coming to the pedestrian crosswalk markers because they were old and faded      and could not be clearly seen.

Often this argument comes down to your claim that you weren't given fair notice as to the conduct that was expected of you. For example, a judge might dismiss a ticket for running a stop sign if it was brand new or was obscured by a broken branch. However, the judge would probably not buy this defense if:

the sign had been up for more than a few weeks

in the case of a new sign, you had never stopped at that intersection before (and therefore shouldn't have      been fooled by its sudden presence)

you were traveling 50 miles-per-hour in a 25-mph zone

in the case of a sign obscured by a branch, you drove that route every day (in which case you darn well      should have known the stop sign was there)

Here are a couple of examples of situations in which this defense might work:

You are forced to stop on a freeway because your car had begun to make a loud and dangerous-sounding
    noise and you fear you would put other drivers in danger if you continued to drive without checking it out.

You swerved into the right lane without signaling a lane-change to pull over because a hornet flew into your      car through your open window.

You had sudden and severe chest pain and safely exceeded the posted speed limit to get to the doctor,      whose office was only one half mile away.

Driving in the right or slow lane, you are boxed in from the back and the left side by speeding cars. To avoid      colliding with a car entering the highway from the right, you accelerate well beyond the posted limit.

Because there is a car just to your right, you briefly speed up to avoid being rear-ended by a
     super-aggressive big rig that is tailgating you. Once you are in the clear, you move to the right and resume      a legal speed.

You swerve across a double yellow line to avoid hitting another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or other      unexpected obstacle. If you had failed to take an evasive action, you will be at high risk of being involved in      an accident.

But it's important to realize that there is a big difference between presenting a true necessity defense based on road conditions and coming up with an excuse for breaking the law based on your own inattention or personal need. Excuses that are born to lose include:

My mind wandered and I didn't realize I was speeding.

My dog swallowed a chicken bone and I had to get to the vet fast

I couldn't fasten my seatbelt because my recently pierced nipples were supersensitive.

I was arguing with Rush Limbaugh on my cell phone and I didn't see the stop sign.