I was on my way home from a French lesson, about to get on the motorway, when a policeman motioned me to pull over...
It is interesting that in Ch, police has the right to do random checks with no apparent reason..(in the US for instance, the police has no right to stop you, unless you commit a violation).
The end of the story: 100 CHF fine for not having my car registered at my current address! Admittedly fair, but still, it hurts that my car was randomly picked out of dozens of other cars entering the motorway at that time...
Best part of the story: the policeman actually APOLOGIZED for fining me, when he handed my documentation back . (Dear policeman: how about I accept your apology and you cancel the fine???)
Anybody has similar interesting stories involving Swiss police?
Spot checks are a common occurrence here, especially on entering or leaving freeways. Expect an increased presence around the festive time of year for alcohol checks.
Although there are certainly more random static police checks in CH, you rarely see them cruising the freeways themselves or parked up along the freeway. That's not to say that they're not there, but unlike in the States or the UK, they don't seem to constantly patrol major roads.
And what is strange about random checks? They're just doing their job. And tell us, how else could they find that you're doing something wrong. Not everyday your car is covered with blood and gun holes to raise suspicion.
Just a few things to check:
- Do you have documents (driving licence, insurance, technical control)?
- What is the state of your tyres?
- Do you have any stuff that should've been declared at the border?
They don't do the cowboy chase thing much ever, but they do hide off the freeway and zap you for speeding. A friend of mine got pulled near Lausanne for doing close to 200km/h- but he scrutinized the law and got off on a tiny technicallity (well, got to keep his license but had to pay the fine).
Spot checks are quite common and can happen at odd hours. I've been checked at 6am, had to blow in their machine . I wish the local cops would just set up shop at the exit to the paid parking in the center of town around 3am. They'd get their month's quota of drunk drivers in an evening- fish in a barrel.
As I said, I am ok with the fine itself (my documents were not in order...) but I believe that as long as I am not suspicious on the motorway, I should be left alone...
Random spot checks remind me of the good ol' days in communist eastern europe...
How do you define being suspicious. One could look perfectly ordinary and be a wanted criminal, have severed bodies in the trunk, stolen car, or just some minor offence that would've gone unnoticed.
As long as the check is a routine that takes no time, I've got nothing against it.
Well, they were as common as the ones in France or Switzerland. The form was sometimes more unpleasant though.
Again - the keyword - looking suspicious / doing something suspicious.
As long as the check is less than few minutes I don't mind.
As a side note I wonder if they've got any statistics about the efficiency of random checks.
I live here nearly six years and have been in random checks twice: Once in the early moning when they checked for alcohol on a route that leads out of the city and once by a completely random patrol. I find that a very acceptable amount of checks. The "suspicion" thing is very American, I am personally totally ok with alcohol checks at times and routes the cops know will be "promising". This adds much more to road safety than those stationary speed cam boxes everywhere.
The only one thing to keep in mind (and I did not add to the list) is the 1st of February: On the day you need the new Vignette, the cops are usually controlling all major highway exits and cash in a lot of fines for people who forgot to put that sticker on... but that is hardly a "random" check....
You hit the SPOT! random checks might be totally inefficient and waste precious policing time and public $$$... (they gained $100 from me, but I bet the average Swiss has all his/her papers in order...)
Except, that nothing police-worthy ever (rarely) happens in CH, so they might be just killing time stationing at a freeway on-ramp!
There should be a lot more coffee and donut shops here in CH to keep the cops off the streets...
Anyway look, I think its a good thing. I'm not having a go but this is something that winds me up in England. As the UK has moved away from spot checks and onto a speedcamera and ANRS based only system it means if you drive round uninsured and unregistered you are almost never going to get stopped at random and any fines or offences go nowehere as the car isnt registered. Its not worth the police spending the time following this up so the result is something like one in ten drivers in UK potters around uninsured which increases the cost of insurance for everyone else.
I think random stops are a good thing, and having a family in your car makes you just as suspicious to the police as a bunch of shaven headed teenagers. The fine is a bit of a bummer though, bad luck...
I've driven into a few spot checks, over the years, especially at the IKEA off ramp from the A1 outside Bern. Every time, the officer would step into the lane and look at me then step back allowing me to just drive by?? A couple times, he flagged the next car after me!
Once, there was a big road block with about 10-15 officers! They had cars pulled over and they were inspecting them. As I approached, they motioned to slow way down, then he stared at the front of the car, the windshield, and then the front tire. After that, he waved me by and I was on my way again!
I've been a passenger in a spot check and it turned out my then-boyfriend had a load of weed in the glove box without me knowing. We got into a massive fight because the police considered me involved too since I was in the car. It was all very unpleasant but I guess it taught me that a) they seem to know which cars to check, b) you need to be careful whose car you get into...
I got pulled over for a random check once. After checking through my documents he asked to see the ABGAS papers. The dealer forgot to do this test and give me the certificate when I bought it. I knew but hadn't gotten around to getting it done when I got pulled over. I played dumb foreigner and just handed the policeman the service manual. He looked through it, found nothing, handed it back to me and wished me a nice day. I've had nothing but good encounters with the police here.
I was once checked on a tiny little back road between Rüti-ZH and Esslingen on a Sunday afternoon. 2 patrol vans and 9 or 10 coppers on a 1.5 m wide road mainly used by tractors and cyclists. I couldn't believe it. Looking for pig rustlers? Moonshiners?
The number plate thing is very common. If you have ZH plates (as I do), and you are out in some rural wilderness, (anywhere outside Zürich, Basel or Geneva) you will get followed / picked on, as the assumption is that you are up to no good. I was once followed by a police car for 50 km from somewhere in the backwoods west of St Gallen to the motorway. I don't think I have ever driven so slowly for so long.