If you were a police officer and about 11 pm on a quiet country road you happened to pull over a car that was gowing about 7 miles over the speed limit, would you search it? What if the car was full of guys and girls with dreds, a Phish sticker in the rear windshield and a lighter on the dashboard? I’m just curious to see if profiling occurs as much with the way people dress and act, in comparison to race.
Thanks.
Argh, moy post was eaten by hamsters…
In short:
Soem cops might search the car, others won’t. There’s really no way to tell if “cultural profiling” occurs to the extent racial profiling, or for that matter if racial profiling occurs as much as some people say it does.
Personally, if I was a cop, I wouldn’t. I tend to like the fourth amendment very much. However, enough compelling evidence and I might search the car. For instance, if I smelled pot smoke, I would probably do a search, or if the occupants seemed high, I mgiht. Or at least do some more tests to determine more accuratly the extent they may or may not be high.
How can a cop search a car when they were pulled over for speeding?
Well they can certainly call in drug sniffing dogs, thanks to the Supreme Court’s ruling in ILLINOIS v. CABALLES. They need probable cause to do a search (at least legally). But drug dogs apparently aren’t a search. :rolleyes:
If he has probable cause to believe that other crimes are/were committed, he certainly can.
If he pulls you over for speeding, and he sees a bunch of Presidents masks, some canvas bags overflowing with money, a few guns, and a guy with a bullet wound, he’s going to search your car, because he has probable cause to believe you robbed a bank.
The dreads, lighter, etc., that’s a little less cut-and-dried. But if there was a pungent aroma, you were all giggling uncontrollably, there were bags of Funyons all over the place, one dude is insisting that his fingers were melting and leaving vapor trails, and there was a pretty girl all over the ugliest dude int he car- yep, probable cause to believe you’re all high.
Wow, I gotta find the stuff that does THAT! 
Aint no way I’m searching a car full of people, on a quiet country road, without some backup.
I suppose you could shoot them all first…
A car full of hippies. Hippies are hardly people.
Maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t even bother pulling over someone that was only going 7 over, unless I already had probably cause to suspect something else.
You’d need, like, two sets of gloves and a respirator minimum. And lots of that disinfectant stuff.
When a cop pulls you over, the cop can search your “wingspan” – anything you can reach in the car. If the car is full of people, em can search pretty much the whole car. This is to protect the cop from weapons, etc. But if the cop finds something else . . .
As to the OP, I would likely search the car. More so depending on how many people were in the car; how long I had been following them; what they were doing when I was following them (i.e., ducking down beneath the seats, throwing stuff out the window); how long it took them to pull over once I flipped my lights on, etc.
A good example of profiling is a case where a cop saw a car break some law (forget which) and flicked on the cop car lights to have the car pull over. The car did not pull over for several miles (which translates, of course, to several minutes). During that time, the passengers in the vehicle kept looking through the rear window at the cop, then ducking down below the seat where he could not see them, then looking, ducking, looking, etc. When they finally stopped, he did search the car. Lo and behold, an illegal substance!
At trial, the defendants said, we were stopped because we were black. The cop said, no, because once you broke the law you acted funny, which raised my suspicions that you were hiding something in the car – that’s why you kept ducking down as you tucked it beneath the seat, and that’s why it took you so long to stop, because you wanted it safely stowed before I got there.
Court believed the cop.
The truth? Maybe a bit of both. You can be profiled for race, clothing, actions, etc. Depends on the circumstances.
::bites tongue to stop knee-jerk response::
Please tell me you’re joking.
Even if it is a joke, it’s in very poor taste. There’s a good number of hippies that are pretty useless, but the lion’s share are perfectly capable, functioning members of society.
-picker
hippie, business owner, respectable member of society
I smell pachoulli.
I smell something else. However, we’re not in the pit, so I will refrain from insults.
IIRC, if you’re pulled over a cop can ask you if you object to being searched and/or having your car searched. If you say no problem, they search. If you say yes, you object, then your objection magically turns into a justifiable reason to search the car (no cite; I just recall being told this in Drivers ed). So, basically, a cop who pulls you over can and will do whatever the hell they want.
Me personally? So long as the driver seemed sober enough to drive, I’d let them go with a warning. Then again, I also wouldn’t be a cop, so…
As I’ve noted before, we have one son who’s inherited my wife’s strongly Asian features and color, and one son who inherited my bland Caucasian looks.
Compare the advice my wife gave to son #1 and his African-American friend on their way to a weightlifting tournament in Iowa. . .
“You’re a Black teenager and an Asian teenager going through a white state. Keep your driver’s license, registration, insurance, tournament registration and hotel reservations together and don’t get smart if you’re stopped.”
And the advice she gives son #2 when he goes out. . .
“You’re wearing a Phish T-shirt, you have dreadlocks, a tatoo and piercing. Keep your driver’s license, registration, insurance and concert tickets together and don’t get smart if you’re stopped.”
Whoever taught your Drivers’ Ed course was confused.
I’ve never been a cop nor will I ever be one but I’d be a bit worried about stopping a car full of people without backup. Or at least I would be very wary of doing anything other than flashing my lights, getting the car to pull over, then calling for backup before I proceeded.
Most people don’t realize going up to a stopped car is one of the most dangerous things police officers do.