When stopped by a police office, if you have mistakenly left your
driver's license, registration, and/or insurance card at home, and if
your home is nearby, is the police office required to follow you home
before issuing a ticket?

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Request for Question Clarification by nenna-ga on 05 Jul 2005 14:29 PDT

What city please?

Nenna-GA

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Clarification of Question by motorer-ga on 05 Jul 2005 15:04 PDT

The state in question is New York, the county is Nassau (Long Island)
and the city is Muttontown (Brookville, Syosset, etc.)

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Clarification of Question by motorer-ga on 05 Jul 2005 15:10 PDT

To further clarify, the officer need not follow you home.  But if you
are near, say minutes away, can you at least be given time to retrieve
the document(s) before the ticket is written?

No, not only are police not required to do this, but I would assume
they are not allowed to do this.

Just a guess, but it seems to me that when you are pulled over,
technically, you are being "detained" until the officer is done with
you. You can always tell if you are being detained by asking an
officer if you are "free to go."  If s/he says no, you are being
detained.

I can't imagine a circumstance where a police officer would follow you
home, whatever the short distance, to get a document you are required,
by law, to carry while operating a vehicle.

Being computerized, law enforcement officers can tell if you have a
valid license, they don't really need to see it, it's mainly to
identify the license holder as the person driving the vehicle.

~~Cynthia

This is hardly a "legal" advice (because it hasn't happened where you
have been pulled over), and in any case, this is more of an anecdote:
this has happened to me once, in a rural area where my parents live.
My father was with me in the car.

We've told the policeman that I've had the license at home, I've just
forgotten my whole wallet. He's had a look at us, two "respectable
looking" locals (my father has been with me, with his ID and
everything), told us to switch (so my dad would drive) and that if I
came immidiately thereafter to the police station and presented my
license, there will be no charges. However, I think that basically,
this depended on the fact that we've both looked pretty innocent, and
that the officer has been willing to let it go, and it hasn't been
some sort of police regulation - on the contrary, he has done us a
favour.

[BTW - this trauma has stayed with me. I hardly ever drive now that I
live in a big city with good public transportation; but I ***alwasy***
carry my license with me...].

No, in New York a police officer will not wait while you go home
(however close it might be) to get identification or documents. 
Forgetting all the logistics and practicalities of doing this, just
think, how do they know you are not coming back with a gun, or if you
will ever come back?