May 30, 2005
Get Up, Stand Up
Tonight I stood up for my rights. Ok, ok. That's a bit dramatic. I did, however, tell a cop he could not search my car, pissing him off in the process. On the way home from a nice Memorial Day cookout with the family, I was pulled over by a small-town cop for looking suspicious. My crime? Waving my hands around as we drove past him; I was pretend-conducting a symphony, a particularly deviant form of behavior. Once he pulled me over, he saw that my vehicle registration was expired, so wrote a ticket for that. He got me out of the car to ask a few questions (phone number, etc.) and explain to me how I could take care of the citation. Then, as cops love to do, he asked me if I had any weapons or narcotics in the car. I told him "no." He then asked if he could search my car and I again told him, as is my right, "no." He was convinced I had some contraband in my car, even going so far as to tell me that if there was anything in there, we could work something out, maybe just a citation. I stood firm, so he decided to try and get my pregnant wife (still in the car) to give him permission to search (it's technically her car). She also told him "no." After he couldn't brow-beat her into letting him search the car, he gruffly told me I was free to go. I told him to have a nice day and drove away, happy to see him pissed off. What a sweet feeling to stand up for your rights in the face of unnecessary and unjustified harassment. As I told my wife, if only the guilty exercise their rights, those rights will eventually be taken away.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/news/video/taser_video3a.html
Well done. I wonder though--could he legally have arrested or detained you if he had had some basis or probable cause?
Well, IANAL, but from my understanding, he could have detained me and searched my car without consent if he had probable cause. Since he didn't, there was nothing he could do. Refusal to consent does not constitute reasonable suspicion, so he had to let me go.
He didn't really have to let you go because there are several other options he had (including arrest and search incident to arrest, or impounding and inventory), but those are generally too much bother for the officer.
I told Mall after I read this post that I've been meaning to write a comprehensive post on Texas criminal procedure and how it relates to car stops (there are a few available online, but they mostly suck), but I've never found the time. I'm midway through studying for the Bar now, so I have even less time than normal, but here's a little tidbit for your edification: in the great state of Texas, an officer can arrest for every offense except speeding (when you sign your speeding ticket, that is a "personal recognizance" bond, so the officer can release you).
Oh yeah... I forgot about that recent ruling that you can be arrested for just about anything now. Two questions, though. Since the car was my wife's and she was with me, even if they had arrested me for driving a car with an expired registration, could they have impounded the car? Wouldn't they just let her drive it off? And even if they did impound it on such a feeble pretext, search, and then find contraband, would that really be admissible in court? That is, wouldn't that constitute an unreasonable search? My cynical guess is that all of it would be perfectly legal and admissable without a Supreme Court ruling stating otherwise, but I'm interested in hearing the answer.