“The reason I pulled you over today,” the woman said to the officer after the officer walked up to her vehicle, “is because I saw you, since Miller Drive when you were first jumping onto the Palmetto, and you were pushing 90 miles an hour.”
“Really?” the officer asked. “Okay.”
“You passed me like I was standing still,” Castillo informed him.
Castillo continued questioning the officer, asking what the emergency was that he was responding to.
“Um, I don’t know how fast I was going,” the officer said. “But I can tell you this: I’m on my way to work right now. I don’t believe I was speeding.”
He claimed that he only stopped because he assumed that the woman was having an emergency and needed his assistance.
“Well, then I apologize,” he said. “I’ll be sure to slow down then.”
The officer asked if Castillo wanted his name and badge number, but she declined, and informed him that she simply believes that “we all should set an example” — a sentiment with which the officer agreed.
This encounter, of course, could have gone very differently, but both the officer and the woman acted very professionally and will hopefully set an example for many.