The Profile

I think I remember hearing that the US Supreme Court will be hearing a case this term about the legality of police randomly checking for drunk drivers, seatbelt violations, etc. I could be wrong.

I was thinking about it last night, though, as I was driving east on Lawrence Ave to get to Lake Shore Drive to pick Dave up from work. The trip on Lawrence can be tricky – sometimes easy, sometimes not so easy. The section between Broadway and the lake can be interesting in terms of the view. As I approached the el stop and the Aragon Theatre, things got a little congested. This is normal. There are stop signs for a couple of blocks and often people just standing around – sometimes in the middle of the street. Welcome to Uptown.

As I waited at a stop light, a man in a large SUV parked on my right started honking his horn. I looked over at him. He pointed at me and pulled on his seatbelt. Right. Is he congratulating me for wearing my seatbelt? Is he asking me to applaud him for the same? Whatever.

Then I approached the stop sign at the next block. An orange diamond-shaped sign like one sees at construction zones was placed in the middle of the 4-way intersection. It read "Seatbelt Enforcement Zone." Police officers stood at each entrance to the intersection stopping every car so that they could shine a flashlight into the vehicle to check for seatbelts. The westbound traffic was backed up for blocks.

I noticed that the parking lot on the southeast corner of the intersection was full of cops – and poor saps who had were identified as lacking seatbelts. Every kind of car and utility company van was represented. I wondered how one could be caught at this slow intersection. Even if one did not know what was happening ahead, one would have the time to at least recognize that there were cops ahead and that people were being asked to pull over. Even if one thought that the cops were looking for a suspect, wouldn't one check that they were legal – headlights on, seatbelts on, beer and other contraband under the seat?

The guy two cars in front of me obviously didn't get it. The cop placed his hand on the hood of the car, shined the flashlight into his car, and then asked him to pull into the lot. The officer had to practically walk the car over. Once he returned to his post at my end of the intersection, he continued stopping cars to shine the light into them, and then direct them to a ticket or back on their way.

I was legal. I was wearing a black sweater and seated against the black interior of the car that has black seatbelts. The car in front of me was stopped for inspection as was everyone else in this "Enforcement Zone." I rolled up to the officer. He didn't move to put his hand on the hood of the car as he had for everyone else. He didn't even has his flashlight on. There is no way he saw inside the car. He smiled at me and waved me on.

How is it that a police officer can look at me at an intersection where they are stopping every single car and just decide that I am not what they are looking for, I am not possibly doing anything wrong? In a weird way I was kind of disappointed that I hadn't been checked. I was left out. Do I really look so law-abiding? And if I do, when will the airport security types who check the metal content in my bra figure that out?