Have you ever heard a cop say "You were getting a ticket because of your attitude?"

Go over and browse through cop comments at /r/protectandserve. Don't troll them. Just observe. It's incredibly enlightening. You see them say things like this. "Just be a nice guy to me. Admit you were doing something wrong. If you're nice, I'll let you go. Because there ARE more important things for me to do."

Meanwhile, what they don't tell you explicity is they like having the ball in their court. They like that control. They are the ones who decide whether or not to play judge and jury. They know the courts uphold like 99% of traffic tickets. There's no disputing shit in court. So it all comes down to that interaction with the cop.

Honest question: Do you really think yelling at that cop, telling him how wrong he/she is, pointing out how they're wrong will ever get you out of a ticket? Why do you think that is? It's because cops we as human beings love the opportunity to put people in their place. They're just human beings with a ticket book and some authority. We (non cops) would do exactly the same thing they do. We just want people to admit their dumb mistake and say sorry. That way we can say "That's right. You're a good person for admitting that. Have a nice day." But when someone doesn't do what we want we get irritated and pissy and look for ways to retaliate or reciprocate.

Imagine customer service representatives with the ability to give tickets to people in society. Imagine the crap they have to deal with. Sure, there's the delightful person from time to time. You get some thank yous. And then there's the prick that makes your day worse than it's ever been. Tell me, if there was an opportunity for that customer service rep to fine the other individual like $100+ for being an asshole they wouldn't take it?

All a cop really is just a customer service/security rep with a badge and gun. It's different depending on where they're employed obviously, but let's say they spend half their time "protecting" and half their time "serving." They're dealing with confrontations or violence where someone with a gun needed to show up (assuming you're in America). That's not a pleasant situation. If you don't do what they say how do you think they're going to feel? They will be pissed.

Now imagine they're giving a ticket and some guy decides to one-up the officer in a verbal interaction. It doesn't really matter how that interaction goes down. That officer has that magic card and it's called a citation. It's their little way of winning whatever happens. The only way to get yourself out of that one is through straight up humility and honesty. They want you to kiss their boot, metaphorically speaking. They want to go back to their car, safely, knowing they verbally "resolved" the situation without a citation, which just means you need to let them think you're totally in the wrong. They want to feel like they gave you mercy. It's empowering to us as humans.

I obviously am talking about cops, but I just want to emphasize again that I genuinely believe most of us would do this. For crying out loud as someone who's been in customer service and tech support, I know some people that needed to get cited for being an asshole. I'm sure we've all interacted with these people. As an officer, you have that opportunity. You can just ticket any random person. But if you're pulled someone over, you have that chance at determining whether the person really deserved it. Oh yeah, you'll find cops at /r/protectandserve talking about people who "deserved" it all the time.

I remember reading a book from back in the 80's or 90's about talking your way out of a ticket. It was written by a cop. Basically admitting fault is the most common way. You could be funny. But it must be genuine and original. But even if you've done all that, it's really only a chance at talking your way out of a ticket. And every cop has their own preferences on when they might actually give you a ticket. Sometimes cops decide to give out tickets regardless of your interaction. Asking "do you know why I pulled you over" might just be conversation based on their training to accomplish other reasons mentioned in this thread. While people don't want to admit cops have quotas, sometimes they do. More like department goals or competitions. Sometimes departments (not officers themselves) get funding from the state based on certain safety citations given out (at least relative/cop let me in on this one).