Any druggies or Jihadis that read this board will be grateful for the education. Anyway, in my experience, people are aware of their rights, they just think that if they act like they have nothing to hide, the cops won’t actually search.
I like to ask myself, “What’s in it for me?”. I cannot imagine anything good coming from a police search of my car. I’m confident that my behavior and my possessions are all completely legal — still, how can I benefit from a police search? The answer is clear: I can’t. Therefore: No warrant, no search.
I don’t have anything to hide, and I don’t want an officer going through my car.
If he asks, I’ll say no. Its called respect. My taxes pay his salary.
I would never give consent to search anything or any of my possesions. And I would never voluntarily speak to the police or prosecuting attorneys, even if I was a witness to a crime, without an attorney present. Ya never know when you are going to be a victim of an overzealous cop or prosecutor.
When you consent to the search, you aren't limiting the extent of the search. Perhaps some day you will have the opportunity to try to put the back seat of your car back in, and you will change your mind.
And don’t give your wallet to a mugger. He doesn’t have a right to it. Stand up for your rights!!
Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, these days, if you refuse consent to the wrong cop, you could get tasered.
Please don’t take away the stupid criminals. You could underpopulate the jails. No one in their right mind would want to try to convince an officer that he had nothing to hide. Thats like keeping your driver’s license in your Bible and leaving it on the dashboard so the officer will know that you are a Christian speeder. Cops aren’t going to ask if they don’t suspect something. If they get permission, then it isn’t a search and evidence won’t be suppressed for lack of probable cause. The argument becomes was the consent voluntary? That is easier for a prosecutor to argue, particularly because “people who don’t have anything to hide always comply”.
The vast majority of the police are good guys and you would have nothing to fear. A small percentage are bad guys. I would not give them permission to search. More than one bag of grass, or controlled substance has made its way into the car via a plant by the cops.
My apologies to all the straight cops but it only takes one to tarnish the rest.
On those cable cop shows where the cop asks for consent to search I always assumed that the cop already had probable cause to search but asked in order to avoid the bother of contacting a judge,etc.
At that point it's gut check time: call their bluff and you lose an hour either way -- either they do indeed call the canine unit (rare) or they do the "creeping delay" routine a la the airlines: he'll call for the unit, two minutes later oops that officer isn't answering his radio, ten minutes later Dispatch gets back to him with some random suggestion (call somebody else, he's busy and will call you in ten minutes, he's en route and will be there in ten minutes, etc.), ten minutes later that one doesn't work out in some way and new possibilities are offered, continue until somebody blinks.
Uh, you don’t live in Texas? Here’s the deal; you have an even chance of the cop planting something in the vehicle because they are payed incentives to make drug busts. I’ve practiced Criminal Law and my advice to clients, friends and family is simple. If you’re pulled over and the cop asks to search the vehicle you ask for the warrant; he doesn’t have one and will then ask if you are refusing permission to search the vehicle at which point you say yes unless you have a warrant. Then the cop will threaten to call the K-9 unit to have your car searched and he’ll tell you that it will take an hour to get there (as you stand in the blazing sun). You respond, bring it on, make it so and be sure you call in a Supervisor to oversee the operation. 9 times out of 10 they’ll back down, particularly if they were carrying an illegal substance to plant in your car in the first place because the dog will key off on that.
If they bring in the dog; you’ve still got a 50/50 chance of going to jail because they’ve trained the dogs to key off on hand signals.
Good Luck out there!
Sure if you have all day to argue your rights. If a police officer wants to search your car, either he will or the both of you will spend a considerable amount of time proving a point.......remember he is getting paid for his time. Reasonable cause can simply be your word against his suspicion. If you feel your being truly mistreated, call a cop from a different agency preferably one that is higher ranking (local< sheriff< state police)on your cell and get a second opinion.
Does this also work for airport security ‘random’ searches?
Those security goons are out of control.
Having been stopped for speeding in Virginia the deputy asked to search my vehicle. I declined, and he threatened that he could get a warrant. I told him to do exactly that and when he was done I would own the double-wide trailer that he lived in for wrongful prosecution. He backed off pretty quick gave my my ticket and I left. I had nothing to hide, but I reserve the right to due process, period.
I would be affraid that I would arouse suspicion if I refused to give consent to a search although I’d be well within my rights.
The men in black are counting on a subject type of populace . Stay affraid ;) and they win . Embrace your fear .
After taking a consitutional law course in college while in my early 20’s, I already knew this back then. As cops back then would routinely pull over anyone under 30 for literally no reason, I enjoyed the cat and mouse game with the cop knowing full well what my rights were and knowing full well he assumed I didn’t. Simply because it was my right, I would ask what his probable cause was for wanting to search my car or pickup. I remember a couple of times where the cop tried to change the subject or divert away from my question. I always refused a search and cited the 4th amendment. Most of the time the the cop would just waffle away mumbling something about needing to be more careful or give me the ticket I deserved.
Too often cops think they’re the expert on law and you’re not. I got into an argument with the president of the PTC, a cop, over what the school needed to do regarding federal law governing children with disabilities in school and my ADD daughter. His response was something like “well, I know something about the law” which was probably the most ignorant response he could have given.
Ping to self.
Not necessarily. It could just be that they have nothing to hide, so they voluntarily give up their right to refuse the search.