Asking passengers for ID and age in a traffic stop?

Factual Questions
1

Hi everyone. I’ve been reading the SDMB for quite a while but for whatever reason, I’ve never felt like putting my two cents in, or had a question I really needed to post here about. Now something’s happened that I’m curious about, so I’d like some input.

Yesterday, my fiancé (Scotty), his sister, my future father-in-law (FFIL) and I went Geocaching (http://www.geocaching.com) in and around Tombstone, Benson and St. David, Arizona. (Twenty hours caching and thirty caches total… sheesh!)

On the way back we were stopped once by Border Patrol–no biggie, just a routine check. We were stopped about 20 minutes later by a cop. FFIL, the driver, was asked for license, registration and insurance. Then Scotty–who was sitting in the backseat minding his own business, holding my hands–was asked for his ID and then was asked for his age. He provided his (expired, unfortunately) driving permit, the cop checked them both presumably, and set us on our way with a warning.

It’s the second time this has happened to Scotty, asked for his ID and age, in a vehicle that’s been pulled over, and neither time was he the driver.

Out of the four in the vehicle only FFIL had a driver’s license. My fiancé, his sister, and I all have permits. FFIL and I are whitebread, very pale, and Scotty and sis are both half-Mexican (their mother is Mexican). IMHO they don’t really look Hispanic, especially not in the dark, and everyone in the vehicle is a legal resident of the US.

I’m 18, Scotty is 19, FFIL is in his 40’s and sis is 17. Why has he been asked twice for ID and age during a traffic stop when it doesn’t really seem to have any bearing on the situation? And why didn’t the cop ask for my ID, or Scotty’s sister’s?

2

D’oh! I should have included that we were pulled over for speeding (15 miles over the speed limit).

3

It sounds like a case of that non existent profiling to me. Did anyone ask why?
If it happens again, ask. If he doesn’t have a good answer, call the state attorney general’s office and lodge a civil rights complaint.
I was asked once as a passenger in my own car for ID. A friend and I were driving from Seattle to San Diego, she was driving about 11:30 PM. She was doing under the speed limit when she was stopped. The officer got her information, and when he asked for the registration I got it out. He looked at it, looked back at his partner, who was still in the patrol car, she then got out walked backward (facing my car but moving away from it) to about 25 yards from my door, and POINTED HER GUN AT ME! The officer at the car was saying to my friend that her licence and registration didn’t match, and was in the process of making her get out of the car. I spoke up and said the car was mine, if he’d like to see my licence. He took it, went back to the patrol car with both licences and registration, while the other cop continued to point her gun at me. I was shaking with fear and rage, but I kept my voice steady and polite when he came back and all but threw our stuff back into the car.
I said please to not take my question as disrespectful, but why exactly had they stopped us, and was his partner planning to shoot us. (my friend, who hadn’t seen the other cop, looked like she had just peed herself.)
His answer was that we had passed a truck. In California, trucks have a lower night speed limit than cars. I pointed that out. He never acknowledged the second question. He handed my friend a speeding ticket and walked away. She didn’t shoot us, and got back into the patrol car.
When we got home we both wrote letters to the court address on the ticket describing what happened. The ticket was thrown out with apologies.

4

I’m always getting stopped by the police for some ‘incident that has occured’
almost always ‘with somebody matching my description’ so I wouldn’t be shocked if Scotty has one of those faces.

What I really want to know is who is this good looking guy comitting all these crimes in my area? :smiley: