# When a police person tells you, "Don't leave town".
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-police-person-tells-you-dont-leave-town/691285
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 21, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-police-person-tells-you-dont-leave-town/691285 "2014-06-21T13:38:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@lawbuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lawbuff)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-police-person-tells-you-dont-leave-town/691285/21 "2014-06-23T17:13:33Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#):
>
> Eh? No, freedom to travel is one of the privileges and immunities of US citizenship (apparently, more or less the only one).
Yeah, that’s INTERstate travel, but the 1st permits one to go and come as they please INTRAstate, does it not?
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2014, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-police-person-tells-you-dont-leave-town/691285/22 "2014-06-23T17:31:48Z")
> [@Charlie\_Wayne](#):
>
> I tend to think that the police may not really have any power to force you to either leave town or stay in town. They might try to somehow tie your leaving town to some kind of “obstruction of justice” or “obstruct the police” in some way. But my first guess would be it is just bullshit. I would guess they have no such right at all.
I don’t think it’s exactly unknown for police in the U.S. to ‘request’ things that they know they can’t actually legally demand, while making it sound just like an order.
(“I’m just going to look in your trunk now.”)
[Not that I think there are really many non-fictional detectives telling people not to leave town, but I don’t think the fact that it’s legally unenforcable would necessarily stop them]
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-police-person-tells-you-dont-leave-town/691285/23 "2014-06-23T17:48:40Z")
On TV shows, after the detective tells the suspect “Don’t leave town”, the other detective nearly always says “You know we can’t do anything about that.” And the first detective usually responds “I know that, you know that, but the suspect doesn’t know that.”
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [June 23, 2014, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-a-police-person-tells-you-dont-leave-town/691285/24 "2014-06-23T19:39:12Z")
More on the P&I Clause and the right to travel: [Privileges and Immunities Clause - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privileges_and_Immunities_Clause)
> [@kopek](#):
>
> What about the “innocent bystander” so to speak? A sort of Material Witness Warrant? Can you be required to “stay available” rather than have the court drag you back from where-ever once it comes to trial?
Not that I’ve ever heard, at least in Ohio. A subpoena can be issued to you no matter where you go in the U.S., but in practical terms it’s often not worth the trouble to bring someone back from out of state unless it’s a very serious case and that person is a truly vital witness.
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