Cop Watch

I rarely am in contact with law enforcement agents except customs agents when I travel but when it happens it is always memorable.



I was driving from work on my scooter last Wednesday near Cap La Houssaye when two police officers waved me to the side of the road. One of them approached when my scooter was stopped and said “what do you give me?”. It seems that in his mind it was mandatory for me to give him something, I was in a good mood so I said “I will give you the scooter’s papers” and I gave them to him. He asked while he was looking at the papers “do you have ID?” “No… ah yes I have a photocopy of my passport”, I handed the copy, he looked at it and said “what is your nationality?” I hate stupid questions so I answered “it is written on the paper”, he gave me the paper back once he was done. He was clearly not satisfied so he added “you know your paper doesn’t mean anything” “if you want you can follow me to my place where I will show you the real deal” “it doesn’t work that way you have to have your ID with you at any time” it was of course wrong but he was a cop and he knew everything better than anyone else. “I always carry a photocopy of my passport with me and you are the first to be bothered by this” “if you take it this way next time you will have to go to the police station and you will get the full monty”. I had no idea what full monty he was talking about but the law is pretty clear on the subject: in the event he could not determine my identity where the ID check was performed, he had to bring me back to the station and provide me with everything necessary to prove my identity. Entering my passport code in his database would do the trick in 2 seconds or allow me to contact someone who would confirm my identity (no need for him/her to bring my ID, the statement is enough). The code of criminal procedure is pretty clear, he could detain a maximum of 4 hours and then would have to release me; there is no mention of full monty in the code of criminal procedure.
He let me go saying that next time it would be different and me answering that I would not be walking around with my ID. This was a nice moment spent with a police officer: how to piss off people when one has nothing to do.