We lived and worked for seven years in the United States. We had two cars. The total mileage for these two cars was more than 400,000 kilometers, which was equivalent to circle the earth for 10 times. It was mainly because we often drove to another city for business. A lot of road trips for vacation also contributed to the high mileage. Normally there are more opportunities to violate the driving laws when the mileage gets higher. I had six encounters with American policemen in those seven years.            

Except in busy and crowded places such as New York downtown, American policemen rarely stand at the intersections. They basically either drive a police car to patrol on the road, or park the car on the side of the road, use a speedometer to measure the speed of passing cars, and then run after the speeding cars to enforce the law.            

The first time I encountered an American policeman was in the winter of 2012. I just came to work in the United States not long ago by that time. I usually arrived at my office around seven in the morning. In winter, it's still dark when it's around 6:45 in the morning. I did not drive fast. While I was driving, I suddenly noticed a police car running after my car with flashing lights. So I stopped at the side of the road. The police car was parked twenty to thirty meters behind my car. I could see it was an Africa American female police officer. I knew that I should wait for her in my car. However, I waited for several minutes and she still didn't come. I learned later that she was checking my car's information in the system. I wanted to go to office to attend a meeting in that morning. I was about late. I thought it would be better to take initiative and close this matter as soon as possible. Therefore, I got out of my car and walked to her. I was stopped by her after I just walked two steps. She pointed her finger at me with one hand and put the other hand on her pistol at her waist. She shouted and ordered me to go back to my car immediately. The tone was fierce. I was a bit shocked and believed that if I disobeyed her order, she would shoot and kill me immediately. I hurried back to the car and waited a few more minutes. Then she finally came to my car. After looking at my driver's license, she asked me if I knew why I was pulled over. I said I didn't drive very fast and I don't know what I did wrong. She said indeed the speed was fine, however I drove on the road which is not for motorized vehicles. Although the road was wide, it had only one lane. The roadside was for temporary parking. I thought it was just a normal lane, so indeed I violated the rule. Then she gave me a ticket, told me where I could pay it and then let me go. The conversation after I got back to the car was peaceful.          

The second time I met a policeman was because of speeding. I was driving while talking in a conference call on the local highway. The road condition was very good, and I did not realize the speed exceeded the limit. I was stopped by a young male police officer. He noticed that I  was a bit upset after the ticket was issued. He said that he usually only punished drivers whose car exceed the speed limit for more than 15 miles. The highway’s speed limit was 60 mile per hour and my car’s speed was 79, which had exceeded his extremely loose standard. I guessed that he did not want me to feel too bad since I was so deserved for the punishment. I didn't feel any better because of his comfort. I only realized how good the young policeman was until I was given a ticket for driving at 81 miles on a 70 mile speed limit highway.           

After receiving the ticket in the United States, there is a period for appeal. During this period, if you refuse to accept the punishment, you can go to a designated court to appeal. I didn't go to any court to appeal, mainly because of one of my colleague's personal experience. He once told me that you never know if the result would be better or worse after the appeal, not to mention the time and effort spent on that. He said he lost his way one day and saw a policeman standing at the side of the road in front of him. He drove his car to the policeman to ask for directions. The policeman told him that he was speeding while he drove here. It was a school district and the speed limit was very low. When my colleague saw the police, he just wanted to ask for directions. He didn't notice the sign of school district. He felt it was not fair and didn't accept it. He went to the court to appeal. On the day when he went to the court to appeal, there were many people. To save time, the judge asked all people who got a speeding ticket on school district roads to raise hands so that he can handle the cases together. My colleague raised his hand. After checking the information, the judge said. “the fine for all of you will be doubled. The reason is you were speeding in the school area. And you do not believe you deserve the ticket and even come here to appeal. You should be punished more severely to remember the lesson". I never went to appeal after listening to his experience. Another reason was I believe I deserved for getting those tickets.

The only time I was not sure if I deserve was that I got a ticket for holding my cell phone while driving my car. It was after a team celebration; I used my mobile phone for GPS navigation because I was not familiar with the place where we had dinner. Since there was no bracket to hold my phone, I held the steering wheel with one hand and held my mobile phone with the other hand. I just took a quick look at my mobile phone occasionally. It was noticed by a policeman who was driving around on the road. Maybe it was because the phone screen was bright in the night. After parking at side of the road, he said it was illegal to do so in his state. I was fined more than $100 for that mistake which I did not know it was an issue before. 

There was also time when I got lucky. One day I was pulled over for speeding. The policeman chatted with me for some time, including asking where I came from and what I came for. After learning that I drove more than 300 miles from another city to build a factory here, he reminded me to pay attention to the speed and don't get too tired. He let me go at the end without giving me a ticket.            

The only time I took initiative to call police and report a case was because someone run away after hitting my car. Because it happened so fast, I could not remember his license plate number. I just remembered the car's model and color. Fortunately, there was another driver who was willing to testify for me. She also told me the runaway car’s license plate number she remembered and left her cell phone number for potential inquiry and testimony. Clearly there are bad people and good people in the world and the good people are much more than the bad people. The police arrived quickly, searched at the scene, called the driver who was willing to testify, and then went to his computer to check it. At the end, he said he could not identify the car based on the given information in his system, maybe because the license plate number was not remembered correctly, or the escaped driver used a fake license plate. He told me not to put too much hope on this because of the limited police manpower. Then there was no follow-up. The driver who run away did not get caught at the end. Sometimes I think it's better in China for this kind of situation. There are cameras everywhere. We can catch this kind of runaway driver just by checking the street cameras.          

A few days after this happened, a lot of private detectives sent me letters to offer help to find out that bad driver. Of course, it was not free. The price they quoted was higher than the cost of repairing the car. Finally, I gave up. Now I understand why there are so many cars’ chasing in American movies. It is indeed possible to escape from the law’s punishment in the US if you run away successfully. 

Overall, although I am a little disappointed for the ability of American police to track down bad people, I think all the policemen I met in the US were fair.