There have been numerous threads about police searches and your rights (one currently in Factual Questions), but do you continue to assert those rights not to to comply if you see the cop(s) turn their police cams and mics off?
I’ve declined to consent to a search of my car on several occasions. Never have I considered whether the cop’s camera was on. Never has the officer pushed any further.
I am not talking about considering whether the camera is on or not -I am saying if actively seeing them shut them off, which certainly implies to me that they intend to do or say something underhanded, causes you to change your plan of action?
Why should it? As I’ve said in the other thread, if police are going to do something underhanded, they’ll do something underhanded. Playing along and making it easier for them is hardly likely to help your situation.
I’ve always assumed they are on the up and up and have never been wrong yet.
You have seen them shutting off camera and mic and thought nothing of it?
No, I’ve never paid any attention, busy getting my license, insurance, owner’s card ready.
Then the question remains: IF you are paying attention and see them shut off their cameras and mics, does that make you reconsider your plan of action?
Then you start your own camera, and continue to assert your rights.
What advantage is there ever consenting to a search?
Well, if you want to be on your way and they’re holding you to get drug-sniffing dogs, I guess you could save some time?
In the scenario I just described, it might save you pain (or worse).
I’d assume they were fiddling with their equipment for legitimate reasons. Then again, I’m an old white dude.
Exactly. They sometimes mute their mics, and sometimes stop them. If a cop futzed with it, you wouldn’t know why they did so. Maybe they just turned it on as they were approaching you.
How often does this scenario occur in your neck of the woods?
I don’t know how I’d tell whether they were turning them off, or turning them on, or just adjusting something that needed adjusting.
And, if they were turning them off because they’s already decided they were going to beat me up, how much difference would my course of action make?
So I’d probably just keep doing whatever I would have done anyway.
Disclaimer: I’m a little (in height, anyway) old white woman. I’ve never had police try to search either me or my car at a traffic stop. I once had them look really hard into the car from outside; but whatever or whoever they were looking for would apparently have been readily visible. They were stopping everybody and doing the same thing; I think they may have been looking for somebody specific, but if so whether a robber or a missing child I have no idea.
Care for a walneto?
I have the vague impression that that might be a Laugh-In reference, but I can’t quite place it.
Artie Johnson IIRC. Some sorta dirty old man schtick?
ETA with Ruth Buzzi as the old lady?
I can’t quite put my finger on the exact reason as to why I think this, but I would hazard a guess at quite frequently if it’s somewhere like Detroit.