My car is clean. I have never in my life done an illegal drug, nor do I deal or smuggle. I have an absolutely clean record. And, were I pulled over, I would not consent to a search.
I can think of several things the cops could declare “illegal” if they felt like it. I keep an emergency hammer (the windshield-breaking kind with the blade for cutting seat belts) within reach of the driver’s seat. The registration for my car has a typo in my name (getting a new copy from the DMV). I have a toolbox in the trunk, as well as a huge four-way lug wrench. I have no way of knowing if a previous owner of the fourteen-year-old car kept roaches in the ashtrays. And I carry prescription drugs in my purse, some of which may have expired without my noticing.
Furthermore, the idea of having to put my car back together after it’s been disassembled is not appealing. Neither is having to repair damage to my upholstery. I have nothing against the police, nor anything to hide from them, but if an officer wants to harrass me for whatever reason, I’m not making it any easier.
The last time I cooperated with a cop, I had just rolled my van into the ditch in the center of the freeway after hitting a patch of ice. I extracted myself from the van and was standing in the median when a cop showed up.
The first thing he asked was, “Is there anything you could have done to prevent the accident?”
Well, it was the middle of winter, and I was traveling at 50 MPH, same as everyone else on the freeway. But I supposed it probably wouldn’t have happened if I had been driving slower, so I told him that. Big mistake.
That sow-fucker wrote me a $300 ticket for “speed too fast for conditions”, with no evidence other than my shrugging admission that a different speed could have changed my day. He may as well have written me up for taking the wrong route to school or leaving my house 10 minutes too soon.
I beat the ticket in court, but my (and my family’s) outlook on dealing with the police has never been the same. You better believe I’m not consenting to any search.
Seems to me that if you are 100% aware of the history of your car–who has been driving it, who owned it before you etc.–and if you are a law-abiding citizen who has absolutely nothing to hide, you have nothing at all to fear from a search.
The catch here, though, is WHY DOES THE COP WANT TO SEARCH IN THE FIRST PLACE??? It is already in serious territory if a cop wants to search your car. An expired tag usually won’t be the reason. And you can bet that if the situation has become grim enough that a cop actually wants to search your car, he’s on a hair-trigger by that time. So if you have nothing to hide, I say, “Stand aside.” If you’ve truly done nothing wrong, the chances of some “rogue cop” planting drugs in your car are scantier than David Soul himself being the cop who pulls you over.
I have been through maybe a dozen traffic stops, ranging from speeding to expired tags to “weaving”, and no cop ever even approached asking to search my car (white male, so maybe that’s why. Riding with a black friend one night in Alameda, California–he a Berkeley fireman–all hell broke loose when he pulled a Uie in the wrong place.)
No cop will willingly hassle you–usually–unless he suspects there’s something happening behind the scenes. (And unless you’re driving while not white.)
Nine out of ten people are good people. Why is that any different for cops?
For the record, I am not a cop, and don’t know, nor have ever known, any cops as more than nodding acquaintances.
Because the subgroup of “cops” appeal towards people who feel compelled to have powers over others.
I respect cops, and all that - I’m just saying that you’d probably see a larger group of assholes in the subgroup of cops relative to the group of everyone because the assholes self-select to be in the cops subgroup than, say, gardeners.