Watch this video to learn more about when and why police can pull you over.
Video Transcript:
"They look for a lot of things. The time of day and whether it's a weekend or not are big factors.
Typically most drunk driving offenses occur midday Friday through Monday morning, so the weekends generally have a high rate of people who are driving while impaired.
They also look for any type of traffic infraction, such as speeding, driving without lights, failing to stop for a red light, or not buckling your seat belt.
All they need is probable cause that you committed a traffic infraction or an equipment violation, like turning and not using your signal or driving with a broken headlight, and they can pull you over.
After you're pulled over, if they smell alcohol on your breath, they can then escalate their investigation, resulting in charges for OWI. For example, they might ask you if you've been drinking and for you to perform field sobriety tests.
However, if there are no traffic violations, the officer can still pull you over if he can establish that he has a reasonable suspicion that you did engage or may engage in some type of crime, ordinance violation, or traffic infraction.
Say someone reports that an offense was committed by a white female driving an older blue station wagon with duct tape on the passenger side door. If you fit that description, you might be pulled over.
You could also be stopped, for example, if you're weaving within your own lane over an extended period of time, and that may well be a legitimate stop by the officer."
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