Any of the northeastern states have far more po-po per square mile (and probably per resident too) than the western ones. There are just so many levels of them.
The Staties tend to primarily patrol the interstates in the more densely populated areas, but in the rural areas they can pop up just about anywhere. On those interstates they often use LIDAR, and there isn't a detector made in the world that is gonna give you enough warning to slow down when they play laser tag with you. Your only chance is to watch the other traffic for brake lights as all the sheep will brake when they see John Law standing in the road pointing an oversized gun at them, even if they aren't speeding!
2 years ago we were running the Vermont Puppy Dog Route, a series of connected dirt roads that go from the Canadian border to the Massachusetts border. Most of those dirt roads are marked 35mph, but on weekdays it isn't hard to
average 35-40 mph (which means you'll be going quite a bit faster most of the time). Forget what town it was, but we came sliding around one corner to see a State Cruiser all lit up and the cop standing in the middle of the dirt road. Luckily he was already busy talking to some woman in a car he had pulled over for something or other. We waved as we went by.
As I've said before (often) I tend to prefer to stay on secondary roads instead of highways so my exposure is more towards the townies. But they are typically much less savvy when it comes to traffic enforcement and like to leave the radar running while they drive around, vs the state police that like to hide stationary on the side of the road with the instant on radar. Anytime you come up on a townie who isn't already running the radar, it's always a knee jerk reaction that they will paint you regardless of how fast you are going.
Coming back from a day ride in Vermont a couple years back (where it is legal to pass on a double yellow line) I got pulled over for doing that by a town cop (the chief actually) in Newbury, NH. I saw his blue lights far behind me and pulled right over and pulled off the helmet so he could see the gray.
He first asked me the typical entrapment question: "Do you know why I pulled you over?" I know that you should never, ever answer that question affirmatively. That is an immediate admission of guilt.
So instead I answered in a respectful tone, "No, not really." I also do not believe in laying on the "yes sir, no sir" crap. To me that is just patronizing and comes across completely phoney. It might work differently down south where people actually talk that way.
So he says, "Well, you just passed that car on a double yellow line back there", to which I replied, "Are you sure that was a double yellow?" I knew that he had not clocked my speed because the RD had been completely silent, and he saw the RD sitting up on the handlebar as we were talking, so he knew that I knew.
He asked me where I was coming from (Stowe, VT) and going to (Home) and if I had had any tickets lately, which I was lucky enough to be able to answer No. Not sure why he needed to know the answer to the first two questions, but I didn't want to piss him off and refuse to answer. So, he took my papers and license and ran them from his unmarked car, then came back and told me that I didn't have anything on my record, and (get this) he did not have a ticket book with him so he'd let me off this time. Yeah right.
I tend to ride through that town a little slower these days
