Question based on this article in my local news (about cops pulling over drivers who aren’t doing anything wrong to award them with Wal-Mart gift cards.)
There’s no reason they can’t if they’re not arresting you. Anyone can: you could, for instance, try to get another motorist to pull over (though they’re not likely to go along).
If the cop is thinking of arresting you, of course, he or she has to testify that they had some reason.
There could be problems if the cop saw evidence of a crime in the car that was pulled over. Don’t know how the courts would see that.
Legal where? It’s legal in Finland for sure, cops do it all the time to make people take breathalyzer tests or check their tires or whatever.
Ah, no, wrong.
This issue has come up before and I’m perplexed by it. If I hit my rollers and pull someone on a public road over that’s a seizure. I need reasonable suspicion to do that. If I get up to the car and there’s a big bag a dope on the seat, guess what? It ain’t going anywhere in the legal system. “Duh, I detained him to pat him on the head like a god damn dog and say ‘good boy’ because he was driving good” isn’t going to cut it.
I’ve yet to hear how exactly they’re pulling this off. I would not get away with this here.
I find it hard to believe that you can’t pull somebody over to warn them of some danger, or that their coat is caught in the door, or something like that.
Correct. In Ohio, the police can also stop you to ask you questions about a crime committed in the vicinity which you might have witnessed, to ask if you’ve seen someone fleeing the scene, etc. You are free to decline to assist them.
In Wisconsin in some smaller towns and even whole counties cops will pull you over for anything they feel like. You feel your heart race and an immense amount of stress when you see a cop because they will get you for anything they can make up. window tint (even if its the legal amount), no blinker, rolled a stop, air freshener blocks your view.
One night I was the only car on the county road and I had a cop follow me for awhile. I stopped at a friends house and he wasnt home and when I hit the road I saw the same cop roll by so I ditched him and hit a different road home a couple miles south only to have him come up on me there too. I just got mad and pulled over and he flipped the lights on and got out and asked why I pulled over. I told him I was sick of him following me around and told him to get it over with and he gave me a breathalyzer test.
A hazard or projectile hanging from a vehicle is a justified stop. Not doing anything illegal or hazardous is not.
That’ s also legal is some jurisdictions, sometimes under the heading of “material witness determination”. Pulling someone over for not doing anything is not
I am a cop in Wisconsin. If I pull someone over I have to articulate a legal reason why. Even if some bad cop is lying he still has to make it look like there was a leagal reason for the stop. “I pulled them over for not going through a red light, but then wrote them for mopery with intent to gawk” isn’t going to fly.
Nobody here has given any way the officers in the OP are legally justified in detaining someone they know hasn’t done anything wrong, under the excuse that the stop is because they haven’t done anything wrong. That’s fucked up.
I’m waiting for this to bite someone in the ass. Cop’s going to pull over someone for not speeding and see something illegal. Lawyers would have a field day with it!
I’ve been pulled over to let me know one of my tyres looked kind of low (Spain), for ID checks (Spain), and by cops who were warning people of a detour while the signs for it were being put in place (France).
But none of that took place in the U.S. which is where the OP is referring to. Our laws, constitution, court rulings are going to be different.
Well yeah, you guys have an antagonistic view of police relationships which is hard to understand here or in Finland, but as Arrogance pointed out, the OP didn’t indicate location - you’re assuming it’s “the US”.
cops almost ALWAYS make an excuse to pull anyone over
One of my jobs involved asking motorists impertinent questions for the Highways Agency ( Britain ): we worked with off-duty cops on ( often ) triple-overtime.
They stopped and directed each chosen vehicle into the right lane — often on motorways — and we asked the questions.
No-one had to answer the questions, but by God they had to stop when directed to.
those are called pretext stops, i.e. the officer observes a real-but-minor infraction (broken turn signal, etc.) and uses it as a pretext to stop you and sniff around for more serious violations, e.g. maybe one of your passengers has an outstanding warrant, or you’re driving drunk, or there’s a couple of kilos of coke in the trunk. This isn’t limited to small towns in Wisconsin, or even Wisconsin; cops everywhere do this. The important thing here is that there is a real violation of the law that the officer observes and uses as initial justification for the stop. It may be minor, but if you don’t want to get stopped, you need to toe the line.
It may have been annoying, but he was following the rules; he was waiting for you to violate some traffic law so he would have a real pretext for pulling you over. Mighty generous of you to pull yourself over and volunteer for the breath test.
The OP cited a news piece by his local TV station, KXAN, which serves Austin, TX. Presumably he is speaking about the police that he is most familiar with, i.e. the ones in the US.
I suspect they are pulling it off because no one is complaining and because it’s a department-wide initiative, not a single cop doing it on his own. You may be correct about
but you’re assuming that the cop will arrest the person even he/she knows it will get thrown out of court. I wouldn’t make that assumption. And if no one is being arrested or ticketed as a result of these stops, who is going to complain about being stopped and given a gift card? Which lawyer is going to take that case?
And BTW, in NYC which is part of the US, people get pulled over all the time when the cops have no reason to think that particular person has done anything illegal. They’re called checkpoints
Can they pull you over if you’re not doing anything wrong? Yes, provided that have a reasonable suspicion that you are doing something wrong. Whether you actually are or not will be determined after the stop is made. The remedy to illegal stops is to suppress any evidence gained as a result of the stop. I’m pretty sure these charity stops are being made on people who the officer believes are pretty much harmless. But, as no good deed goes unpunished, someone somewhere will sue because his rights were violated by the nasty cops. Even if it was to give them money. My bet is someone will take the money and still sue.
Wrong. Pulling anyone over for a motor vehicle violation and checking to make sure there isn’t something more serious going on is not a pretext stop. It’s called good normal police procedure. A pretext stop is when I know Machine Elf deals weed and I see him drive by so I follow him and wait till a tire touches the line just so I can pull him over and get my head in his car.
Moderator Note
Torontonian, professional jabs are not permitted in General Questions. No warning issued, but don’t do this again.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Correct.
Now let me ask you, do you have any idea how they have the brass to do this? This is not the same as walking up to someone on foot and just talking to them. Where I am pulling a car over on a public roadway is considered a seizure. No agency I know of here would be willing to pull cars over with no RS or PC of wrong doing or hazard. I’m more than a bit surprised by some of the ignorant posts in this thread.
Or is there a piece of the story I’m missing.