Pulled over by the police and searched for drugs - long but looking for opinions

[txriverrat2001]

Ya know the old sayin ... "You can beat the rap ... but you can't beat the ride" Lucky you got to go home .... around here they take ya cause now they're pi$$ed they didn't find anything ...

 

[rainmn]

Chalk it up to experience and move on.

I was once pulled over 4 times in the same day, on the same road, at pretty close to the same place. Each time the excuse for pulling me over was worse and worse.

At the time, I had to drive 3 miles on the Garden State Parkway to get to work. Took all of about 6 minutes, so I came home for lunch sometimes - this was one of those days.

On the way to work, I was stopped for speeding. That was the one time in my life I was stopped for speeding that I can honestly say that I'm positive I wasn't. On that ride to and from work, I typically didn't even bother to get out of the slow lane - it wasn't worth it the ride was so short.

Way home for lunch, I was swerving. (I wasn't.)

Way back to work, I "crossed into the other lane." This time was about 5 seconds after I got onto the Parkway. The "crossing into the other lane" was to get from the enterance ramp lane (which ends) into the right lane of the highway.

I can't even remember the one they used on my way home, but whatever it was, it didn't even make sense it was so bad.

I can only assume that they were looking for a vehicle that looked like my truck. Obviously, none of them ever told me the real reason for the stop. I was just happy that none of them wanted to tear my truck apart - each stop was simple, a couple questions, license and reg, and that was it.

 

[Chris]

cops are a**holes!

Interesting perspective.

 

[boatme]

Interesting perspective.

Usually comes from a younger indevidual (Not always) tis why i asked his age

 

[insanity]

Insanity

I guess I’ve got to sum it up and make it simple

You violated their law and drove an unregistered car. Kind of like waving a flag saying pull me over.
Sounds like the end result by the police was a bit extreme but again you gave them the reason to pull you over in the first place

I agree it would have been nice to get a warning and move on, or at least a ticket without the hassle, but in these times that is not what happens, and expecting less is just fool hardy

In the end you should have said "I was an idiot" and chalked it up to not doing that again instead of looking for a reason to blame some of it on someone else

Once again it is part of the "always someone else’s fault not mine" attitude

Yea the cops were a bit overboard but at the end of the day YOU provided the reason for them to pull you over and you knew it could happen Also you had another vehicle to drive so you chose to drive the one that was not registered

Sorry for your hassle but pay the ticket and move on

Hey I'm open-minded, not trying to blame it on anybody else. I think I've said it already, I gambled and lost, I'll pay the piper. I just think things we're blown out of proportion is all. Fortunately I've never been through something like this before, and wasn't expecting or prepared for it. I'm not saying its anybody elses fault, I'm pissed at myself more than anybody for giving them a freebie.

This is a discussion forum, I brought up a topic for discussion.

And I find it dis-heartening that cops can search a vehicle pretty much at will for anything with little or no recourse, and I'm not just referring to my situation but from other peoples stories on some of the other boards I brought the topic up on. Let alone let their dog jump on and damage a vehicle. The whole dog thing irks me because it is a 'trained' dog, it can be trained to do a false hit and thus give the pc for a further search. I plan on researching the whole trained dog thing further, just for my own curiosity. The long and the short is I've had enough run-ins with small town cops since I was 16 that I should know better than to give them an easy reason to pull me over, but apparently every once in awhile I need a reminder.

 

[boatme]

Wait till you get a Cigarette boat and get pulled over and searched for nothing and it happens OFTEN LOL

 

[insanity]

If the dog did do damage, I would look into repair costs at the pd's expense!!! Don't C this as acceptable! Don't blame the dog, he is just a dog!!!!

I already rubbed out the scratches for the most part, if they would have been any worse... . Truck needed washed/waxed/cleaned anyhow, and it just felt tainted after that incident, although given the weather it was only clean until I pulled it out of the barn.

 

[insanity]

Wait till you get a Cigarette boat and get pulled over and searched for nothing and it happens OFTEN LOL

Not mine, but anytime it moves I'm the one pulling it. Haven't got stopped yet, any advice you can off for THAT situation???

 

[RollWithIt]

FYI.. Police dogs are not trained to do false hits. They are already trained prior to what ever local handler gets them. What typically happens is that the dog is better trained than the handler. The difficulty is getting the handler to read the dog. Just be glad the dog had a passive signal. A dog with a active signal typically scratches and bites at the area it hits on like its digging for a bone.

Insanity. I try to inform anyone who wants to know the truth about how we do things and why. Granted, Im not going to give up all our tactics, but enough to answer questions. I will be the first to admit there are guys who stretch things or have ego complex's. Ive seen it on both sides of the law. Personally I try to approach my job professionally and by the color of the law, resulting in a 90something percent conviction rate. I do cut people breaks alot. If there are children in a car, I wont tow it. If its a problem area with sole female of females, I wont tow it. I look at things from a safety issue. If the car is legally parked when I finally get it stopped, I wont tow it. No legal reason to. But, in your situation, its along a highway I believe and you are a 28 year old male. Im sure more than capable to protect yourself and less than likely to become a victim. Also, you have another car to use, if you need to get to your location that bad, you can call someone to pick you up and then drive your other car. Now, depending on the stop and your attitude combined with you explaining the family situation, I may have simply considered the vehicle legally parked. At that point, how ever it gets moved after Im gone, its gone. As long as i dont see it being driven. Im sure you can read between the lines on that. But if I felt that there was something in the vehicle, I would use my legal right to tow the vehicle as a tool to get a legal search without needing to reach a probable cause level for a search warrant. Its not that easy to simply search a vehicle, when you do it by the letter of the law. There are numerous procedural steps that have to be met. If you have a vehicle that is legal and you have a good driver's license, then it becomes very difficult to search a vehicle without consent or needed a search warrant. You gave the police a "free" search by having an expired vehicle. Without that, you are given alot of protection by the fourth ammendment. If that gets violated, then you can file a suit in federal court for unlawful search or seizure. Hope this helps.

 

[MarylandMark]

Hope this helps.

:USA:

Thumbs up and thanks!

 

[Expensive Date]

Not mine, but anytime it moves I'm the one pulling it. Haven't got stopped yet, any advice you can off for THAT situation???

First off get a much bigger truck

 

[Buoy]

Have to agree, that doesn't look like enough truck to be pulling that cig.
That looks like Birddogs Cig, but I know he has his own rig to tow.

 

[fund razor]

It just occured to me what an even better story this would have been if he had a roach in the ashtray and an illegal in the trunk.

 

[insanity]

FYI.. Police dogs are not trained to do false hits. They are already trained prior to what ever local handler gets them. What typically happens is that the dog is better trained than the handler. The difficulty is getting the handler to read the dog. Just be glad the dog had a passive signal. A dog with a active signal typically scratches and bites at the area it hits on like its digging for a bone.

Insanity. I try to inform anyone who wants to know the truth about how we do things and why. Granted, Im not going to give up all our tactics, but enough to answer questions. I will be the first to admit there are guys who stretch things or have ego complex's. Ive seen it on both sides of the law. Personally I try to approach my job professionally and by the color of the law, resulting in a 90something percent conviction rate. I do cut people breaks alot. If there are children in a car, I wont tow it. If its a problem area with sole female of females, I wont tow it. I look at things from a safety issue. If the car is legally parked when I finally get it stopped, I wont tow it. No legal reason to. But, in your situation, its along a highway I believe and you are a 28 year old male. Im sure more than capable to protect yourself and less than likely to become a victim. Also, you have another car to use, if you need to get to your location that bad, you can call someone to pick you up and then drive your other car. Now, depending on the stop and your attitude combined with you explaining the family situation, I may have simply considered the vehicle legally parked. At that point, how ever it gets moved after Im gone, its gone. As long as i dont see it being driven. Im sure you can read between the lines on that. But if I felt that there was something in the vehicle, I would use my legal right to tow the vehicle as a tool to get a legal search without needing to reach a probable cause level for a search warrant. Its not that easy to simply search a vehicle, when you do it by the letter of the law. There are numerous procedural steps that have to be met. If you have a vehicle that is legal and you have a good driver's license, then it becomes very difficult to search a vehicle without consent or needed a search warrant. You gave the police a "free" search by having an expired vehicle. Without that, you are given alot of protection by the fourth ammendment. If that gets violated, then you can file a suit in federal court for unlawful search or seizure. Hope this helps.

Seems fair enough to me, very good explanation and this is the kind of feedback I'm looking for. Anytime I'm stopped I try to be respectful and polite to the officer no matter how pissed I am, because being an assshole sure isn't going to help the situation any. But at the same time I expect to have the same respect returned to me. In hindsight the K-9 guy wasn't too bad, but the initial officer, well not so much and he was clearly aggitated the search came up empty, he couldn't wait to get into my truck. K-9 guy looked in the driver side visor, looked in the map pocket, looked around the outside of the truck and was like 'whatever', and came back and stood by me.

In my case, what could have triggered the dog to hit? It was on the passenger side, as far as I know there has never been any kind of illicit drug in or around this truck. For the last 10 months, if I haven't been driving it sits in a locked storage unit. What can trigger a false hit?

And why am I left to fend for myself just because I'm a white male??? Jeez, if you're gonna tow my truck the least you could do is give me a ride home, right?? Just Kidding man.

 

[insanity]

First off get a much bigger truck

Have to agree, that doesn't look like enough truck to be pulling that cig.
That looks like Birddogs Cig, but I know he has his own rig to tow.

Yeah yeah, I know I'm at my very limit of about 12,500 lbs. I did upgrade the hitch to a class V and Electic over hydraulic will be going on the trailer this winter. Am looking for a dually or possibly an old Top Kick. Not Birddog's, similar paint as he's mentioned on another board. This is the one that was for sale out in Las Vegas, my cousin bought it in August, that was the day it showed up.

It just occured to me what an even better story this would have been if he had a roach in the ashtray and an illegal in the trunk.

Believe me I was trying to think as fast as I could who I've had in that truck in the last year and if anybody would have been 'holding'. Luckily most of the people I hang out with outgrew that a loooong time ago.

 

[Griff]

Here is a street cops perspective in a nut shell.

1. The officers had probable cause to stop you. They probably did run your plate while you were at the store. People have often asked me why I ran their plate. Usually its just because they were in front of me. Its just random in most cases and in some cases I run them for a reason.
2. They can run a k-9 around any vehicle on a traffic stop or on any vehicle as long as it does not take an unreasonable amount of time for the K-9 to get there.
3. The search of a vehicle is protected under the 4th amendment, but the standards are not as stringent as those for a dwelling.
4. More than likely, not being able to produce your insurance is a misdemeanor (I think its kind of BS that he didn't let you get it out of your bag) It's a misd in Nebraska. Technically you were under arrest for for the Insurance and they had every right to search your vehicle incident to that arrest.
5. My guess is something threw them a red flag. It could be anything. Maybe a past charge on you, maybe something they thought they saw or smelled in your vehicle, or maybe something that was on a law enforcement bulletin that has nothing to do with you. They asked you about a GMC Sierra??? It most likely has something to do with that. My guess is they are trying to identify a suspect in something and you may have matched his description. I'm not at all familiar with the area and don't know how much traveling it is. The way you answered the questions about where you were coming from, where you were going and that you had been out of town might thrown a red flag as well.
6. The AR 15 mags, you "forgot about" definately didn't help. The k-9 could have hit on them.
7. Old magazines(reading type) and the free newspapers, etc are commonly used by marijuana smokers to roll blunts on.
8. Cops can deceive or lie to you to get you to do or say something. They just can't threaten you. I can tell a person that I will just go get a warrant to search your house (even if I don't have that intention or the probable cause) to try and get you to give permission.
9. Chances are there was no report done other than a field contact card or an internal report about the search and K-9 search. Those are not public record.

 

[insanity]

Here is a street cops perspective in a nut shell.

2. They can run a k-9 around any vehicle on a traffic stop or on any vehicle as long as it does not take an unreasonable amount of time for the K-9 to get there.

Whole town is about 8 minutes across, took at least 10 min as I was wondering what the heck the holdup was. Cop shop is about a mile from the Interstate where I was stopped.

4. More than likely, not being able to produce your insurance is a misdemeanor (I think its kind of BS that he didn't let you get it out of your bag) It's a misd in Nebraska. Technically you were under arrest for for the Insurance and they had every right to search your vehicle incident to that arrest.

I could produce it, instead of reaching for my bag, I stated where it was and that I would be more than happy to get it. He declined. He then searched said bag during vehicle search, and I'm sure saw my insurance card as well as the insurance cards to my 2 other vehicles and my policy that I keep in the bag, yet still declined to allow me to show it to him after he moved my bag from the backseat to the front. First time I'd driven the truck since I got my new cards.

5. My guess is something threw them a red flag. It could be anything. Maybe a past charge on you, maybe something they thought they saw or smelled in your vehicle, or maybe something that was on a law enforcement bulletin that has nothing to do with you. They asked you about a GMC Sierra??? It most likely has something to do with that. My guess is they are trying to identify a suspect in something and you may have matched his description. I'm not at all familiar with the area and don't know how much traveling it is. The way you answered the questions about where you were coming from, where you were going and that you had been out of town might thrown a red flag as well.

Only past charge other than speeding tickets was an underage consumption when I was 18, ten years ago. I was in my GMC Sierra.

6. The AR 15 mags, you "forgot about" definately didn't help. The k-9 could have hit on them.

No quotes necessary, I actually did forget they were in my bag. Too much travelling and too little sleep. Picked them up over Christmas along with some stripped lowers, they were in my car, forgot they were in there until I went to throw my gps in the glovebox when I got to the hotel last week. Put them in my bag because I've had my car broken into at hotels in the past, a week of dirty clothes on top of them and forgot all about them.

7. Old magazines(reading type) and the free newspapers, etc are commonly used by marijuana smokers to roll blunts on.

I misunderstood what he was talking about. I thought he meant paper ar-15 magazines, i.e. reading materials. In actuality he meant actual ar mags. There were no paper magazines in the truck.

8. Cops can deceive or lie to you to get you to do or say something. They just can't threaten you. I can tell a person that I will just go get a warrant to search your house (even if I don't have that intention or the probable cause) to try and get you to give permission.

Nice.

Again, I take responsibility for driving with the expired tags and welcome another LE's comments on the matter.

 

[fund razor]

Ya know.... if you are only 28, and you handled all of this without getting yourself in more trouble, and you understand what you did to get the attention from the primary officer... and you can even come on here and take your lumps from a bunch of guys....
you will be just fine.

 

[X-Rated30]

To Chris, RWI and anyone else that thinks the situation was handled properly OR legally, go back to school.

The Supreme Court has ruled that an automobile is entitled to no search and seizure protections.

*********************************************

Another example is DUI checkpoints. The only probable cause present there is the fact that you're operating a vehicle. Yet the Supreme Court has ruled that they are constitutional.

If that is your understanding of the law on search and seizure or the rationale behind DWI checkpoint legality, you have no business teaching any of it. Perhaps you were not thinking about it when you typed it and were just firing off a quick answer. If so, and you do know your stuff, I apologize for being so harsh. Just addressing what was posted.

Insanity - If everything in your first post is ABSOLUTELY correct, then copy and paste it into a complaint. Hopefully there was video taken from the officers' cars to back up your story. If so, it would make a great training video of what not to say and do. The video will show there was no "passive alert" - sniffing is NOT a passive alert.

There was no reasonable suspicion for the extended detention. The officer may not use writing a ticket as an excuse to keep you detained longer than necessary for the infraction. If he was going to write a ticket, he must do so in a reasonable amount of time. If he had the authority to arrest you and seize the vehicle, he could have offered you the option to be searched instead in order to obtain consent for the search, but that didn't happen.

For anyone that wants to praise these men's actions as good law enforcement, think again. If they HAD found something illegal in a search like this, it would have been excluded from evidence (assuming the defendant could prove it), and the guilty party would have been released. Doing it right the first time is the best way.

 

[fund razor]

There's right... and then there's "right but pushing it is wrong."

Frankly.... right or wrong I would be quite reluctant to draw further attention to myself in that small town. IMO... it was a case of "driving while not from around here." A wise man would be tempted to be very inconspicous for the remainder of your time there. They pissed you off. They didn't beat you and plant evidence.
However, perhaps you have a touch of crusader or reformer in you....

If you enjoyed that stop, you will love the next. Go make a federal case out of it. You can be the Rosa Parks of small town Ohio bad traffic stops.

X Rated has advised you.... maybe he will defend you if/when you take his advice. In fact.... you may want to take him with you when you go file your complaint. Have him drive his rental car.

When I was 22 I would have filed charges against them. At 42, I would have counted my fingers and toes, gone home, poured a drink, and thanked God that I am not a miserable small town cop, and that I don't HAVE to see them again.