How often do cops ask to search your car during a traffic stop

In My Humble Opinion
1

On videos of civil rights, there is an implication that a police officer will want to search your car if he pulls you over, and they tell you how to refuse that.

However I have been pulled over probably a half dozen times in my life for various reasons, and never once had a cop ask to search my car.

Is this a common practice (a cop stopping you for a traffic infraction, then asking to search your vehicle) or do they only reserve that if you seem to fit the MO of someone they really suspect of engaging in criminal activity (drug user, burglar, etc)?

2

I’ve been pulled over a handful of times and never asked to search my car. Including one time where the cop followed me a ways while I did some rapid lane changes without signalling (he was in an unmarked car, was trying to figure out why some random dude was following me) and another where the cop gave me crap for driving an extra couple hundred yards before pulling over (thought I was doing him a favor by pulling into a strip mall parking lot rather than alongside the busy three lane road at night).

Point being that even my less straight-forward stops still haven’t resulted in a requested search.

3

Don’t look like the cop should search you. :wink:

4

Maybe twice, when I was a teenager. Never since then.

I still advise my seniors on the proper way to refuse a search when we get to the 4th Amendment in class.

5

Even when my dad and I were stopped on suspicion of just having robbed a place (we were transporting my brothers stuff to his new place and our car apparently looked like the suspects) our car wasn’t searched. The closest was when my mom and I broke down on the freeway and a cop stopped to help us and asked what was in a small doctor’s-bag-looking bag in the trunk (it was just my toiletries).

6

Any of you black?

7

My brother-in-law speeds like there’s no tomorrow and he’s only been stopped once. That was about 22 years ago in Nebraska and since they were from New York the cop was suspicious. I guess he thought they were drug runners. He asked to search the car and my sister and BIL decided that in the middle of nowhere it wasn’t worth arguing about. They had a piece of Indian pottery that they’d picked up at Acoma and when the officer looked at it my sister yelled “He found our pot!”

Luckily the officer didn’t hear her and they got off with a speeding ticket.

8

I’ve been pulled over probably 20 times in my life - only once did they ask to search - and it wasn’t really the whole car - just the glove box…

Was pulled over - went through a stop sign - saw it, but it wasn’t 90 degrees - more like 45 and I would have sworn that it was for the much less busy cross street. Turned out I was wrong. Went for a while after he turned on his lights - looking for a place on the shoulder, but there was none where I was. I was a little self conscious about this - as it seemed unsafe, but I’d probably been driving for 4 minutes or so since he turned on the lights (I turned on my signal) - and didn’t want to make him have an itchy trigger finger.

When he approached the car - I of course had the windows down - hands on the steering a wheel. When he asked for license and registration - I gave him my license, but my hands were shaking real bad (had no idea why - I didn’t FEEL nervous). He asked why I was so nervous - I said I didn’t know. He asked for the registration and I said I didn’t have it. He asked if I was sure - he’d be happy to wait while I looked through the glove box. I said “no - I know it’s not in there”. He said something like - “most people like to look around first, but ok”.

He was about the nicest cop ever. He came back with a warning and I had mentioned I was only passing through there cause I took a wrong turn, he made sure I knew how to get back and knew the area I had made the mistake in and said it was common.

He asked if I would show him the glove box. I said no. He asked why not, and I said, “cause I know I don’t have to.” I think this might have been part of his shtick, but I got the impression I hurt his feelings. It actually made me feel bad. He said something like - “you’re 100% right - I’m just asking you as a favor - I just want to see if there are any guns in there”. I’ve actually sued the govt before for violating my rights - in both state and federal court (so I have no problem asserting my rights), but I just felt like I giant dick in this case.

I opened up the glove compartment, lifted up the crap load of papers that were in there (enough to see there were no guns or kilo blocks of cocaine, but not enough that a well concealed joint or Baggie of heroin would have been noticed. He seemed more than happy with this display - and never so much had his hand anywhere in my car.

He was very nice afterwards and just explained why he thought I was acting suspicious (apparently the not even so much pretending i had my registration is what really raised a red flag) and wished me a good day.

I didn’t feel like my rights were violated at all. I am 95% sure he would have let me go without searching it if I had said no. He didn’t have to give me the warning - and I felt it was a fair trade :slight_smile:

ETA: White bread here - casual white collar dress with white collar car. Car is even painted white.

9

I wonder if there is a certain amount of profiling that goes on.

I’ve never been searched either. But my truck is always in pristine shape and I’ve always been clean shaven and nicely dressed.

Those guys you see on cops always have copious amounts of trash scattered through out the car and they themselves look like they could use a shower along with a change of clothes
Plus, I’m white, I guess that doesn’t hurt.

10

Their"s suppose to be some form of reasonable suspicion to get to this point… and note i said “suppose”… ive had several incidents where a fellow officer called me over to search and when asked why just gave me a blank look…
My son will be driving next year and I’m pretty sure he and I will have a conversation about this… him being 6’5 16 yrs old with dreadlocks and black will undoubtedly lead to me needing to prepare him for this reality…

12

I drive onto a military base frequently. They do random searches both going on and off base. I get searched about once a year.

The last time my car was searched after being pulled over was in 1973. The last time I was pulled over was in 1982.

13

I’ve only had two traffic stops in my driving career (not counting accidents) and neither time did the officer request to search my car. Likewise after the couple of accidents I was involved in.

14

Even when I was pulled over for failure to pay insurance (looooong story) and they towed my car, nobody searched it. They just dumped it in a lot with 1 MILLION other cars.

I think there must be profiling. I’m always respectful and I’m pretty clearly an American woman (albeit with a funny name), with no trace of an accent and a clean driving record, not exactly a hotbed of criminal activity.

15

Pulled over roughly the same amount, and I was never subjected to a search. The first time I was pulled over was in Indiana for speeding, and about 6 squad cars pulled us over (they were antsy as they just had a chase over the weekend that smashed up a police car, and they thought they had another chase because I was a little slow to pull over–long story.) It was me driving my friend’s car, and two friends, one white and one black. One of them had been smoking dope in the car no less than 20 minutes prior, much to my protestations. The cop that pulled me over took me to the front seat of his squad while he wrote me up a ticket (he actually was quite nice and bumped me down to the lowest speeding category), but a sheriff that pulled up while he was writing the ticket went to my passengers and asked them for their IDs, something I’d never seen before.

But that’s where it ended. They never asked to search the car. How the pot smell dissipated in that time, I don’t know. I know my smoking friend was freaked, but we got out without incident and a minor speeding ticket, despite apparently being pulled over by half the town’s police force.

16

It’s not necessarily “profiling” to think somebody is hiding something or holding something.
We’ve all seen people that were obviously up to no good, people we would have searched if we were cops and pulled them over.

17

Nope. White and I suffer under the curse of obvious clean living: short hair, clean shaven, wear a lot of khakis and polos.

18

Twice I’ve had cops ask to search my car, both were when I was young, maybe 18-19. I think both times were because the cops just assumed that as a kid I must be getting into trouble.

The first time is actually a pretty funny story, I was detained because the cop claimed he thought I had stolen property (I didn’t, and he had no good reason to think so) and he wanted to search my trunk. I refused, and he gave me the whole “If you did nothing wrong, you’ve got nothing to hide. Why don’t you let me search?” to which I responded because I don’t have to. Seeing as the car was registered in my father’s name, he said he could get his permission instead, and we had to actually call my dad, and the conversation was something like “I want to search the car your son is driving but your son is refusing” “What makes you think I’d say anything different?” “Sir, do you have any idea who you’re talking to?” “…Do you?” Then before he let me go, I heard him mutter under his breath “Damned Constitutionalists.” to which I quipped “Actually, I’m a libertarian.” It’s funny to think that I owned the cop like that, but it’s also disturbing that a cop is frustrated that a citizen knew his rights. I’m inclined this one was because one of the friends with me was black and we were all young.

A few months later, I was pulled over for doing something silly like 42 in a 40 with a couple other people in the car. The cop wanted to search my car claiming that he smelled marijuana. I told him that was impossible since I’ve never smoked it (completely true) so he must be mistaken, and I refused. He then called backup and they asked me to step out of the car and tried to get me out of earshot of the others in my car where he proceeded to make threats about how he knew I had drugs, they were going to search my car anyway, and when they found them I’d go to jail. At which point I yelled back to those in my car “Hey, you all heard him threaten me and that they’re searching my car without consent, right?” “Yup”. They searched my car anyway and, of course, found nothing. They tried to play it all off then, “Oh, well, we’ll let you off for speeding with a warning this time.” I tried to get their badge numbers, but they hurried got in their cruisers and drove away after that. I’m inclined to think this was because I’d just left a metal concert at a small club, and of course I was dressed the part in black and all, and it also happened to be Halloween night, so I guess the cop was bored (and an unethical ass) and figured some kids leaving a metal show on Halloween must be up to no good.
Either way, both of those incidents were when I was young. Since then, I have noticed that cops treat me better as I’ve gotten older, though driving around an older car got me pulled over about every 6-12 months, often for no reason. But since I got a nice car a few years ago, I’ve only been pulled over once, admittedly for going well above the speed limit that time, so the cop pretty much had to give me a ticket. So, at least in my experience in this area, it definitely seems like attempted searches, and perhaps just pulling people over in general, are probably profiled.

19

3 times out of the 7 or so times I’ve ever been pulled over.

All of them when I was 16-20 working night jobs and driving home after 11 or so.

Once, I was leaving a golf course I was working at the was having a party and they thought I was drinking. Once, I was coming home at 4 in the morning from the movie theater with boxes covered with a blanket in the back of my car, and once at midnight in an area known for making meth on my way home from working at a Walgreens.

I’m white, fairly clean cut looking, but my car is always a mess with a huge amount of random boxes and other stuff in it (tools, first aid kit, card games, board games, camping stuff, fishing stuff, etc.).

20

Since this is a poll, moved MPSIMS to IMHO.

21

Also on military bases frequently and get tossed at least 3 or 4 times a year.

Funniest time was when I was moving a lamb in my IH Scout. I had the back end lined with a blue tarp, a bale of hay and a baby sheep. The gate guard lifted the tail hatch, the lamb looked up and went mmmmeeeeehhhhhh, the guard looked flustered and said that perhaps he didn’t have to search the truck after all. :smiley: [I was taking Opal <hi Opal:(> to be used for show and tell in the kindergarten class a friend of mine had. The kids loved seeing and touching a real live lamb:p]