I’ve sometimes wondered what happens to passengers if the driver commits a crime. For example, say that Mikey, Joe, and Stan are in the car. Joe drives. A cop pulls them over because Joe was speeding.
Joe then flashes the cop the finger, zooms off at 150 mph, and takes the entire PD on a wild chase. Mikey and Stan start freaking out, since they can’t very well fight Joe for control of the car without risking a fiery death. Joe won’t stop for love nor money. Evenually, the cops bring the car down.
Joe, of course, runs off into the bushes like they always do on COPS. He gets caught. Mikey and Stan are almost having heart attacks from fear. The cops go up and…
What? What happens? Are Mikey and Stan going to jail? What if it turns out Joe was a huge crack smuggler and had a kilo of it in the back?
That happens more than you think. I have seen cases like that here in Massachusetts. There are accomplis types laws for things but they don’t automatically apply because some people are in the car with a criminal. The police usually investigate closely and, if the passengers really didn’t know anything about it, they let them go. Sometimes, they clear them right on the spot, arrest the driver, and let a passenger driver the car home.
Mikey and Stan are safe from arrest unless the officer arresting them has probable cause to believe a crime has been committed and that they are the people that committed it.
Merely being present in a car that eludes police is not probable cause. It is certainly reasonable, articulable suspicion to briefly detain them and investigate their possible involvement, however.
Agreed. Often the cops will conclude, based upon the passengers’ obvious anger at the driver, anxiety, hasty explanations, etc., that they had nothing to do with the driver’s misconduct, and they will be released without charge. They might even end up as prosecution witnesses in the trial of the driver.