As I was reading the daily crime report from my town this morning, I saw a couple of instances where police arrested people for drug possession. One was pills, another was coke, and one was weed. One was stopped in their car, and two were stopped on foot.
I was wondering what makes police suspicious. Especially when people are on foot. I can understand if these people were under the influence, but going by the context of the reports, they were not under the influence. What are some common tip offs? Besides obvious stuff such as being black or brown or being white with dreads.
I’ll venture a guess… the people who got caught were stopped for some other reason, e.g. drunk driving. Then the cops can legitimately search the car. Cops (afaik) cannot just randomly search people because they look like they need searchin’.
From my experience the police use a couple of different methods. First is circumstance and appearance. If someone is walking or driving through an area known for drug distribution at 2am, it is going to raise eyebrows. If they appear to be too disheveled or dressed in a manner that is not common for the area’s demographics then its a good guess that the person is up to no good. After stopping and talking to a person, the police look for signs of nervousness, contradictions in a person’s statements, telltale bulges or signs of concealment and things like that.
Another common approach is the shotgun method. Some police officers like to find flimsly pretense for probable cause during routine traffic stops, which allows them to search someone’s vehicle or person. This can range from saying that after they saw a pocket knife , the officer wanted to make sure there weren’t any other weapons. One that happened to me personally, while I was moving boxes of my stuff that I had been storing at my dad’s house while I got my new apartment in order. The cop who pulled me told me that there had been several break-ins in the area (also a heavy drug area) and that he wanted to make sure I didn’t have any stolen items. Now he may have been telling the truth, but his search was a little too thorough(about a half hour) to be just looking for TV’s and ipods.
So that’s called the shotgun method? From the experience of my sons, one way to get pulled over and searched is to be in a car full of teenaged boys, driving after midnight. They said they were perplexed and wondering if they should be worried until it dawned on them that the cops were looking for drugs. Then they relaxed and thought it was kind of funny.
Another way is (was?) to be driving a rental car with California plates in Colorado. They were older then. The two older ones were in Colorado to visit the youngest, who was in the Army. According to the youngest, there was a drug pipeline that was giving the cops fits. It’s been awhile, so maybe that has changed.
Oh wow, did that bring up some memories. I had forgotten all the times the cops pulled over and searched the car my friends and I were riding in. Not breaking the law but it was like you said, 4 teenagers in a car after midnight. If only we had known about what probable cause was back then, could have saved us a lot of time and hassle.
I always thought I would make a fabulous criminal from watching cops. Little startup money,a little discretion in how business is done, few simple rules for the subordinates.
Massachusetts license plates in Mississippi tipped them off to my drug smuggling (well not exactly, I have never taken an illegal drug in my life but that is what they were hoping for). After I told them I was born and raised in Louisiana, they got even more pissed because I was not only a Yankee but also a lying one. It took some quizzing on Southern history to make them sort of believe me but they were going through my SUV in a Wal-Mart parking lot the whole time. I know I could have refused but somehow I don’t think those old boys were well versed in Constitutional matters or cared much.
Police miss most of it but, like water dowsers, they have their preferred methods and they get a few arrests out of it no matter what method they choose because lots of people have drugs on them or in their vehicle. Confirmation bias is a powerful thing.
Was waiting for the subway. A guy jumps turnstyle. Guard calls cops. Cops frisk him and ask him if he has any drugs on him. Guy says, “Just heroine” JUST???
They are obvious because for them its actually part of their identity and culture, they understand perfectly well how much it makes them a target and don’t care for various reasons.
They knew about probable cause, but they were also riding around because they didn’t have anything better to do. Getting to see the cops poking around and asking questings and becoming dissappointed while nobody ever once said the word drugs was about as much entertainment as they could hope for.
Knowing that the car was completely clean . . . well, of drugs. . . meant they didn’t have to worry. And it was Davis, CA, so everyone was polite.
That reminds me. The guy using my stolen checkbook, a couple of years ago, was picked up at a routine sobriety stop. According to the cop who notified me, he had a few checkbooks with matching fake IDs sitting on the passenger seat. I confirmed that the fake driver’s license with my name on it wasn’t mine and that the picture wasn’t me and then never heard anything more about it.
From what you describe I’m going to assume Davis, CA is a small town without a whole lot to do for a teenager. If so then your son and I had near identical run-ins with John Law. There is just something about bored small town cops.
IANALEO
It’s not just ‘small town cops’ either, by the way. ‘Big city’ LEOs are just as nosey and curious as any small town LEO, when they’re bored and/or not busy.
(I speak from experience.) :smack:
And let me be the first to say, welcome aboard the Straight Dope Two Dollar Tallboy, enjoy the ride!
Not disputing what big town cops do, but yep. Small town, pretty good sized university. UC Davis is best know for its various agriculture majors and its vet school, though. It’s not a party campus.
Here in Kansas various law enforcement organizations do an amazingly good job busting traffickers moving large quantities along I-70. The story is always the same, they pulled the vehicle over for a faulty tail light, brake light, license plate light, low tire, speeding, etc., asked if they could search it, consent was granted, and the LEOs find major quantities of drugs.
Supposedly one telltale is cars with the rear end sitting too low and there’s obviously significant weight in the trunk. But there’s got to me more to many of these stories.
