Q: Can an officer give me a ticket if I’m no longer on the roadway and have parked in the parking lot of a store?
A: Remember playing tag as a kid? We used to have a “base”; as long as you were touching it you couldn’t get tagged. In my yard that was the apple tree. Now just imagine what traffic enforcement would be like if there was a base for drivers who committed traffic violations. Everyone who ran a red light would be looking for the nearest convenience store parking lot to avoid a ticket. It reminds me of the Dukes of Hazzard. On Friday evenings I watched Bo and Luke Duke race across the county line as Sheriff Roscoe P Coltrane skidded to at stop at the edge of Hazzard County, foiled by the Duke boys again. Great to watch on TV when you’re ten, but not how it actually works.
And now for real life. An officer’s ability to write you a ticket doesn’t depend on where you stop your car; it is based on where you committed the violation. If you violate a statute while on a public highway you won’t get a free pass by pulling into Starbucks before the red and blue lights come on behind you. Some of the more serious violations, like DUI and vehicular assault (and a bunch of other ones), aren’t limited to highways. You could be arrested for those kinds of violations if you commit them anywhere in the state, on or off the public roadway.
Now let’s push the boundaries of the original question a little further. Not only could an officer issue you an infraction while you’re parked in a parking lot; you could receive one while you’re in your living room. How? Red light cameras and speed enforcement cameras. If you commit a traffic violation and it’s captured by a camera, a week or two later you could be opening your mail while sitting on your couch and discover that you’ve been issued an infraction.
Even though you won’t escape a traffic infraction by pulling into a parking lot, there might be times when it’s a good idea anyway. Traffic enforcement is one of the more dangerous parts of a police officer’s job, partly because of the other drivers on the road. When an officer steps out of his car to come tell you why he stopped you, he’s in a vulnerable position. While he’s giving you his attention there are other drivers zooming past, and about nine percent of them (based on recent observation surveys in Washington) aren’t paying attention to the road. If you see the flashing lights in your rearview mirror and you have the option of stopping on the shoulder of a busy road or pulling into a nearby parking lot, it’s okay to choose the parking lot.
In your original question, you don’t argue that you didn’t commit a traffic violation; you just think it’s not right that you could get a ticket when you’re not on the road. It’s not unlike questions about whether a ticket can be dismissed because the officer wrote down the wrong model year of the car or spelled a street name wrong. They’re all attempts to avoid the consequences of a violation that got committed. Winston Churchill said, “The price of greatness is responsibility.” If you want to achieve greatness after receiving a legitimately earned traffic infraction the price is responsibility plus around $124 dollars.