Cops already routinely stop vehicles whenever they want to, for spurious or made-up reasons. Usually it doesn’t end up becoming an issue in a trial.
Yep, they will follow a person for miles sometimes just looking for an excuse to pull someone over. Before the advent of dashcams, the officer would often just lie about the reason for the stop such as, “You crossed the yellow line” or “You didn’t use your blinker to change lanes” or some such crap. And of course, they do this because they can justify seizing the driver’s car and any money they find if they even SUSPECT the property was obtained with the sale of drugs.
I’m a defense attorney and sadly you are correct.
I can always tell when a cop is honest about traffic stops that turn into drug cases.
If they don’t put in the report that they smelled marijuana then it’s a good sign they are being truthful.
Others just throw that in just in case there wasn’t actually articulable facts to support probable cause.