> Suppose the officer pulled you over to tell you your tail light is out.
A cop doesn't pull you over to tell you your tail light is out. They pull you over because a broken tail-light is sufficient cause to stop you, hoping that the traffic stop leads to something more than a verbal warning.
Exactly! In Texas, Austin County, back in 2005 I got pulled over for no front license plate. I was passing through on my way to Austin (which is not in Austin county). In Austin lots of people do not have front plates and it was never an issue so I didn't think anything about it. The ticket for the violation had a list of fines, 'no front plate' was the only item listed as "warning" instead of a dollar value. The only reason they did this was to pull you over and look for paper violations, it was so obvious since there was no monetary value associated with the missing plate.
A cop doesn't pull you over to tell you your tail light is out. They pull you over because a broken tail-light is sufficient cause to stop you, hoping that the traffic stop leads to something more than a verbal warning.