There was a time in my life when I had a full head of quite longish hair. During this period of time I was getting pulled over by law enforcement officers on a regular basis. When it got to the point where I was averaging a traffic stop every month I figured it was time to do a little investigating. At one of the family parties, I cornered some friends who were police officers and outlined the number of times I had been pulled over, why the officer said I had been pulled over, and what was the eventual outcome of the traffic stop (at the most, a warning). The general consensus of my friends was that these were nothing more than warrant stops - I fit the profile of a person likely to have an outstanding warrant and, as such, was an easy mark. Since, in actuality, I did not have any outstanding warrants I was let go with a warning.
I asked them what, if anything, I could do to lessen the number of times I got pulled over. The answer was nothing. We did, however, work out a basic plan of action that I could take whenever I got pulled over to minimize the risk to myself during the encounter (this was based on them agreeing that the most dangerous thing they do is traffic stops and they are continually on edge). From that point on whenever I got pulled over I exhibited the following behavior: I made sure that my hands were visible and on the steering wheel as the officer approached the car; when asked for my license and registration I told the officer where each of those items was, told them that I would be reaching for those items, and then slowly accomplished that action; and I waited patiently with my hands out the window while they went back to the patrol car and ran my license through the computer. After instituting this program I found that the amount of time I spent sitting by the side of the road during a traffic stop went down.
Of course, once I cut my hair, the number of times I was pulled over by law enforcement dropped to zero.
