In a past life I had to deal with cops on a regular basis, and now and then they’ll describe themselves as someone who can recognize criminals by just looking at them.
One said: “If I see someone who is avoiding looking at me, I know that he doesn’t want my attention, so he probably has something to hide.”
On a different day, a different cop said: “When I see someone that’s looking at me, that’s because they are worried I’m gonna find out something, so probably they have something to hide.”
I learned that cops have two main traits: They are overconfident and under-prepared.
That was actually in a training guide for traffic stops from one of those Killology-type courses thousands of cops take every year. John Oliver talks about it on his Traffic Stops episode.
But yeah, they teach cops that making eye contact or not is a sign of guilt, as well as driving under/over the speed limit being an indicator of guilt, but also, believe it or not, driving the speed limit… Also an indicator of guilt.
