The Strangest Traffic Stop of All Time

The Ten Most Bizarre Traffic Stops

Some strange stuff happens on our nation’s roadways, and thankfully Jalopnik readers have all the dashcams they need to record the inevitable bizarre traffic stops that follow.

What’s The Most Bizarre Police Stop?
What you’re looking at is the Easter Bunny getting a ticket for not wearing his helmet. Yes, this happened.
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Welcome back to Answers of the Day – our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day’s Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It’s by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!

Are there any absurd traffic stops that we forgot about?

Have you seen an ever stranger stop, but just didn’t have a camera around for proof? Let us know in Kinja below.

Photo Credit: YouTube

10.) Amish Drunk Driving A Horse Buggy
Apparently there’s no law on the books for drunk driving a horse buggy, so four Amish kids who crashed into a cop car were charged with illegal alcohol possession.

Four Drunk Amish Kids Crash A Buggy Into A Cop Car, But What Were They Arrested For?
Last Sunday, police responded to a call that a group of Amish youths were drinking on the side of a country road.…
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Suggested By: Zekestone, Photo Credit: Albert de Bruijn/Shutterstock

9.) Drunk Driver Serenades Cop With Bohemian Rhapsody

We don’t exactly know why 29-year-old home brewer and DUI suspect Robert Wilkinson decided to belt out the entirity of Bohemian Rhapsody in the back of a Canadian cop car, but we’re very glad he did. Legendary.

Suggested By: Forgetful

8.) Cop Stops A Donut Truck
The tired police steroetype was made real in North Carolina last year when a state trooper pulled over a Krispy Kreme truck. Amazing.

This Is A Cop Pulling Over A Krispy Kreme Truck
Here we see a state trooper in Eastern North Carolina pulling over a doughnut truck, thus bringing a tired stereotype to life.
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Suggested By: gearboxtrouble, Photo Credit: wcti12.com

7.) Pulling Over Bumper Cars

It turns out that it’s not a good idea to transport your bumper cars across town by just driving them on the street, as this man in China claimed.

Suggested By: ATX211

6.) Cop Leaves In Suspect’s Car

What happens when a cop pulls you over and then locks himself out of his cruiser? You’re driving him back to the station, buddy.

Suggested By: eaglescout1984

5.) Clown Car Minivan

Just how many people are in this minivan?

Suggested By: My X-type is too a real Jaguar and crown victor victoria

4.) Deer In The Trunk

This freakish undead deer incident happened just a few weeks ago, but man does it still feel like it was lifted straight out of Tommy Boy.

Roadkilled Deer Comes Back From The Dead To Terrify A Policeman
So you find a dead deer by the side of the road. “Mmmm, them’s good eatin’s,” you say to yourself, so you…
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Suggested By: waveriding1959

3.) Cop Stops A Cop

This Miami-Dade police officer was arrested at gunpoint for reckless driving ater leading Florida Highway Patrol on a seven-minute chase. The Miami cop had been flying down the road at times reaching 120 miles an hour on his way to an off-duty security job.

Watch A Florida State Trooper Pull Over A Miami PD Police Car
Miami-Dade police officer Fausto López was arrested and charged with reckless driving after leading Florida Highway Patrol on a seven-minute chase at…
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Suggested By: Super Kiwi Zorro

2.) Batman Pulled Over In A Lamborghini

We will never tire of watching Lenny Robinson, Lamborghini Batman, getting pulled over in the Gallardo he used to visit sick kids in DC-area hospitals. The cops couldn’t be happier, we couldn’t be happier, and now that Lenny has a proper batmobile, surely he could’t be happier either.

‘Lamborghini Batman’ Unmasked
The world was first introduced to “Lamborghini Batman” when he was pulled over earlier this week. Now I’ve finally gotten through to…
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Suggested By: KDS and SnapUndersteer

1.) Swedish Twins Running Into The Highway

Two Swedish twin sisters were caught in Birmingham repeatedly throwing themselvesinto traffic. Both women were struck by vehicles multiple times, and one was run over completely by an articulated truck. Both resisted arrest. The above documentary, shot for BBC’s Motorway Cops covers the whole bizarre story.

Suggested By: cesariojpn

CPD Working to ‘Fix’ Problem That Led to 211K Undocumented Traffic Stops, Police Official Tells City Panel

Chicago Police Department officials are working to “fix” the “discrepancy” that led to 210,622 undocumented traffic stops in 2024, a high-ranking Chicago Police Department official told a key city panel.

CPD officials reported officers made 295,846 traffic stops in 2024 to the Illinois Department of Transportation, which is required by state law to track all stops made by police officers throughout Illinois.

But the city’s Office of Emergency Management and Communications recorded that officers made an additional 210,622 stops in 2024 that were not documented as required by state law and CPD policy, making it impossible to know whether drivers’ constitutional rights were protected during those stops, as WTTW News reported in March.

Ald. Desmon Yancy (5th Ward) pressed Noe Flores, the deputy director of CPD’s Office of Analysis and Evaluation, which is part of the department’s Strategic Initiatives Division, for answers about the apparent discrepancy during a June 26 hearing before the City Council’s Pedestrian and Traffic Safety Committee.

Flores acknowledged there are “differences” between the number of traffic stops reported by CPD to state officials and the number of traffic stops recorded by dispatchers working for the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, known as OEMC. Those are “almost two different data sets,” Flores said.

“It looks like what may be happening is that they are being marked down on traffic stops but they’re not really down on traffic stops,” Flores said. “There’s traffic stops that in maybe in the classical sense don’t constitute to the level of where they have to fill out a card, whether it be a vehicle that was pulled over for the commission of a crime, or if you’re doing seat belt missions or if you’re doing other missions or let’s say you went down on a traffic crash. They may be marked down as being on a traffic stop but they are not on an actual traffic stop.”

Flores’ remarks represent the first time a high-ranking official has discussed, in detail, questions about the apparently unreported stops.

In a statement to WTTW News in March, a CPD spokesperson said the department was working to improve how data is collected and increase supervision of officers’ documentation but declined to respond to detailed questions.

“The Chicago Police Department is continuously working to improve its data collection and documentation,” according to the statement. “In addition to consistent training, we have also made it a priority to enhance supervision to ensure documentation, including traffic stop documentation, is appropriately collected and reviewed.”

Flores told alderpeople that police brass had yet to get to the bottom of the issue, three months after WTTW News’ story was published. Bolts Magazine and Injustice Watch were the first to identify the discrepancy between the number of traffic stops reported to state officials in 2024 and the number called into the city’s police dispatch system.

“Does that make up the whole discrepancy? I’m sure it doesn’t, but I think that’s part of it,” Flores told alderpeople.

Efforts are underway to resolve the issue, Flores said.

“In terms of fixing it, yes, we are in the process of making a, like, one-stop shop, if you will, no pun intended, report for all these different stops” including investigatory stops and traffic stops, Flores said. “What we’re hoping to do is kind of consolidate everything in one spot and hopefully reduce some of those kinds of differences and fluctuations in the data.”

The team overseeing federal court-ordered reforms of the Chicago Police Department has long been harshly critical of the CPD’s ability to use data to ensure that officers are protecting Chicagoans’ constitutional rights.

“Until the CPD can appropriately collect, manage, and analyze data … the city and the CPD cannot sufficiently demonstrate whether the CPD’s practices have improved,” the team wrote in its latest report, released in November. “This will, in turn, prevent the city and the CPD from becoming a true learning agency, capable of reviewing and revising policies and training in a way that is data driven and specific to the needs of Chicago’s communities and CPD officers.”

Any changes to the way that CPD reports and documents investigatory stops would have to be approved by the independent monitoring team. CPD officers are allowed to detain and search people when they have a “reasonable articulable suspicion that the person is committing, about to commit, or has committed a criminal offense,” according to CPD policy.

CPD officers made nearly 82,000 investigatory stops in 2024, according to records maintained by the Office of the Inspector General.

CPD’s traffic stop policy, last revised seven years ago, requires officers to document every time they stop a driver regardless of the reason by not only notifying dispatchers but also filling out a form that is better known as a “blue card.”

That paper card, filled out by hand, requires officers to document the reason for the stop, the driver’s name, address, gender, year of birth and “the officer’s subjective determination of the race of the driver of the vehicle.”

Officers are prohibited from asking drivers to identify their race, according to the policy. Each form identifies the officer by name and badge number.

In addition, officers must record the make and year of the vehicle they stopped as well as the date, the location of the stop and the time that the stop began and ended. Officers must also record whether they asked to search the vehicle, whether a search was conducted and the reason for that search, according to the policy.

The officer is also required to document whether drugs, weapons or other illegal items were recovered during the stop, according to the policy.

When initiating a traffic stop, officers must contact the city’s dispatch center, run by OEMC. That leaves a record of every traffic stop, not just those that result in the completion of a blue card as required by department policy, officials said.

Debate Continues Over New Traffic Stop Policy

Flores’ remarks came during a hearing called by Ald. Daniel LaSpata (1st Ward) to determine whether CPD officers should be banned from making traffic stops based on minor registration or equipment violations that are designed to find evidence of “unrelated” crimes.

Supt. Larry Snelling has said police officers must be allowed to continue stopping drivers for improper or expired registration plates or stickers and headlight, taillight and license plate light offenses to ensure that Chicago’s streets do not become more “dangerous for everyone who are driving.”

However, a majority of the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability believes those stops, which the department acknowledges are designed to find evidence of “unrelated” crimes, “do more harm than good” and should be banned in most cases.

The commission, known as the CCPSA, has the authority to approve new CPD policies.

Read the draft policy here.

Chicagoans can weigh in on the proposed policy until July 14, officials said.

Yancy, a Black man who represents Hyde Park, said he has frequently been pulled over by CPD officers while driving.

“Like many of my constituents, I have experienced humiliation, fear and frustration of being pulled over for something as minor as a broken taillight, cracked windshield or simply the perception of looking suspicious,” Yancy said. “These aren’t just traffic stops. They are reminders that in certain neighborhoods, especially Black and Brown communities like mine, we are policed differently.”

Pretextual stops show “no meaningful public safety benefit” and “divert critical resources away from serious crimes like carjackings, robberies and gun violence that devastate our communities,” Yancy said.

More than 44% of all drivers stopped by police officers in 2024 were Black, and nearly 35% of drivers pulled over by Chicago police officers were Latino. By comparison, just 14.8% of drivers stopped by Chicago police were White, according to a report from a coalition of groups that want CPD to stop making pretextual traffic stops.

The population of Chicago is 31.4% White, 29.9% Latino, 28.7% Black and 6.9% Asian, according to the 2020 U.S. census.

Black drivers were more likely to be searched during a traffic stop and Black drivers represented more than 56% of people arrested by CPD after a traffic stop, according to the report.

“These stops rarely lead to citations, arrests or the discovery of contraband,” Yancy said. “But what they do do is lead to the erosion of trust, the criminalization of poverty and the unnecessary harm to Black and Latino residents who are disproportionately targeted.”

But Ald. Brian Hopkins (2nd Ward) said it defies “common sense” that prohibiting CPD officers from making tens of thousands of traffic stops would not have a profound impact on public safety.

“I just don’t understand what we are trying to do here,” said Hopkins, calling for CPD officers to be better trained to protect drivers’ constitutional rights.

“We need to make those changes with an eye toward better enforcement not abandoning enforcement,” said Hopkins, who represents Streeterville and the Gold Coast and has championed measures designed to expand CPD’s power.

Ald. Ruth Cruz (31st Ward), a member of the Progressive Caucus, said she was concerned that any change in CPD’s traffic stop policy would result in fewer illegal guns recovered by officers and taken off the streets.

Traffic stops led to the recovery of approximately 2,100 illegal guns in 2024, according to CPD data.

“That means a lot to our communities,” said Cruz, who represents Belmont Cragin and parts of Portage Park. “Anytime you take a gun off the street, that’s a win.”

A gun was recovered in 0.75% of traffic stops in 2024, according to department data.

Amy Thompson, staff counsel for Impact for Equity, a nonprofit advocacy and research organization that has helped lead the push to ban pretextual stops, told Cruz CPD should prioritize efforts that have a higher likelihood of finding illegal guns than traffic stops.

“Is there a way that we can use police time efficiently to get 4,000 guns, 6,000 guns?” Thompson said. “What are the other ways we are actually trying to achieve public safety and other ways that address the root causes of crimes rather than responding after the fact?”

CPD officers should “focus on behavior that is criminally suspicious or that is actually dangerous driving rather than searching for a needle in a haystack,” Thompson said.

Just 4.5% of CPD traffic stops in 2024 led to an arrest, while approximately 8.6% of stops led to a citation, according to department data.

Snelling agreed 13 months ago to allow a federal court order requiring CPD to change the way it trains, supervises and disciplines officers, known as the consent decree, to expand to include traffic stops.

That will require any new traffic stop policy to win the support of not just the CCPSA but also the Illinois Attorney General’s Office as well as the independent monitoring team charged with enforcing the court-ordered reforms. U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Pallmeyer, the judge overseeing the reform push, has the power to resolve any disputes.

Traffic stops have long been a flashpoint in the half-dozen serious efforts to reform the Chicago Police Department, since they put officers in close contact with Chicagoans, often under tense circumstances.

Officer Enrique Martinez was killed during a traffic stop in November, and Officer Ella French was killed during a traffic stop in August 2021.

During a March 2024 traffic stop, four officers fired 96 shots in 41 seconds at Dexter Reed, hitting him 13 times, shortly after he shot and wounded an officer, according to a preliminary investigation by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability, known as COPA. Reed had been stopped on suspicion for failing to wear a seat belt.

The city is facing a class-action lawsuit that accuses CPD of targeting Black and Latino drivers with a massive campaign of traffic stops in the latest chapter of the city’s “long and sordid history” of racist discrimination.

Three of the named plaintiffs in that case have been stopped repeatedly since they filed the lawsuit in July 2023, court records show.

Traffic stops are way up and vehicle accidents are markedly down in Kittitas County.

In a news release this week, the Kittitas County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) says its deputies have conducted more traffic stops in the first three quarters of 2025 (Jan.-Sept.) than during any other span of nine months in its lengthy history.

The agency is crediting the sizeable increase to additional patrols provided through grant funding it received from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, as well as contracts to perform enforcement detail on lands belonging to the Bureau of Land Management, and what it’s calling “Power Shifts” – which are strategically-scheduled patrols which occur during peak travel hours.

In all, KCSO deputies made 4,306 traffic stops during the first nine months of this year – marking an increase of 73% over the previous three years

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Officials say a total of 200 arrests were made during the traffic stops, including 103 for driving under the influence (DUI).

During this year’s periods of enhanced enforcement, the KCSO says it has received fewer calls for traffic accident assistance, along with fewer collision reports – most notably a 39% reduction during the summer months, which are typically the most active time of year for both.

A statement issued by KCSO officials says, “We (KCSO) know this doesn’t prove enhanced enforcement is solely responsible for fewer accidents, but it gives reason to hope we’re on the right path, and that deputies’ extra work is paying off.”

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The agency’s statement went on to say, “We also know we can’t enforce our way to total public safety, and most KCSO traffic stops still end with an educational conversation or warning. Our ability to have a positive impact here, as in every area, comes mostly from the support of our community and their commitment to a safe Kittitas County.”

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While traffic stops constitute less than 30% of the calls for service received by the KCSO, officials with the agency say the recent stats can’t help but indicate how its efforts are making a “needed impact” on the communities of Kittitas County.