Sure they’re not. The accidently found that dead hooker in the trunk while downloading the camera data.
Or my rental car because they seized my only transportation.
Not doing it if it assists in their investigation of some BS law they made up about me filming them in public.
If you can get a rental car early enough in the morning. I’m hardly ever in a hotel when Enterprise (they deliver) opens at 9 (or 10)am; frequently gone hours earlier. If it was your only/last day in that location, then you’d need the rental again/long enough to get back to that location since most people don’t get a hotel room in their neighborhood which means a second trip, more gas & tolls & possibly a day off of work as well.
If everyone agrees that you are not even a person of interest in whatever crime your car may have recorded how is this not unreasonable search & seizure?
My question exactly. Why can’t they just subpoena the video? And I can see a case where they get a warrant and then find something illegal in your car or perform a civil asset forfeiture on that $1000 you just pulled out of the bank.
Well, so far it has really only happened once, in one city. from our 2nd cite-
Oakland police officer Roland Aguilar obtained a search warrant to tow three vehicles, including a Tesla Model X with Kansas plates, writing in a court affidavit, “This video could provide valuable information relevant to the ongoing investigation.”
Therriault said he and other officers now frequently seek video from bystander Teslas, and usually get the owners’ consent to download it without having to serve a warrant. Still, he said, tows are sometimes necessary, if police can’t locate a Tesla owner and need the video “to pursue all leads.”
But they can do that without seizing the car. THAT’S the issue.
what do you mean by “dead” ???
She clearly was alive when I put her in the trunk last week!!!
Probably 30 years ago my garage was burgled overnight. The bad guys stole a bunch of power hand tools: drill motors, skil-saws, hedge clippers, etc. They had been caught later that night with several houses’ worth of booty in their car’s boot. My goods were already in the police evidence locker before I awoke to discover & report the crime.
Over a year later I got my tools back, none the worse for wear. Of course I’d had to replace every one of them meanwhile because I needed to use them.
All this seems both quite ordinary and definitely vexing. But hardly a constitutional issue.
Different scenarios, in your case they recovered items before you were able to get them back & I’m guessing you could have submitted a claim to your homeowners/renters insurance. In this scenario PD is the one taking your item. Would any insurance cover you for expenses in this scenario?
Yes, if they can find the owner, such as what happened in the first of the three instances in the cites.
But in the second example, the owners could not be found.
In the 3rd example- it has no business even being in the article- the murder was committed IN the car. Yep, they will tow and impound your car then, no matter the make, model or if there is a recording.
So get a warrant. Open the door. Open the glovebox.
They did. How? Does every car store their data the same way? Would a police officer know that?
And remember, the Oakland police are not … weel.. shall we say…sophisticated.
I would think the same rules that cover a crime that a ring or[ another version of the same }would catch would apply
Well, if in helping with their investigation you expose yourself to criminal charges that’s a reason.
I’m not following the logic there. How is someone filming the police while they’re doing an investigation in any way evidence of the crime they’re investigating? The police would need to have reasonable suspicion that the person filming them also filmed or was involved with the crime.
As I understand it, yes the narrator is correct, so long as you’re not interfering with the police and you’re in a public place like on a sidewalk or park.
Exactly. How do I know a cop is being honest in their assertion and not trying to fuck me? Unless the car is literally near an event like a recent terrorist bombing and the suspect is on the loose, get a warrant and speak to me through an attorney.
Assume they are trying to fuck you until your attorney believes otherwise.
I highly doubt PD is going to get a warrant w/in an hour. They may not even know about the crime for over an hour. Depending upon jurisdiction, beat cops may not do that. They’d need to wait for a detective to get on scene to even see there’s a Tesla that they may want video from & then fill out paperwork & get it approved before they even have their warrant. Can they even use an electronic warrant or does it need to be printed out to serve someone (probably jurisdictionally based answer)
@echoreply, Do you know how easy/hard it is to get that USB out of the car, is it as simple as opening the glove box & removing a memory card or is it buried & one needs to disassemble the dash to get at it?
The USB stick is either in the center console or the glovebox. If it’s in the center console, it takes just a second to yank. The glovebox is locked and needs the car to be unlocked to get into, though I’m sure it can be popped open easily enough with a prybar.
On the other hand, my setup uses a Raspberry Pi with battery backup that auto-uploads videos to my home wifi when I get home. Any cop pulling that out isn’t going to know what to do with it. Even if they spot the SD card, it’s probably not formatted in a way they can access.