I live in Central NJ. During the past 3 years I’ve been pulled over maybe 5 times for different reasons (expired this or that and the odd speeding ticket). Everytime I’ve been pulled over, the officers have usually been pretty cordial.
-I am a latino male, single, with a bunch of very latin names in my DL.
-My DL is tagged with red letters stating I’m not here as a resident or citizen (I’m a Canuck with a TN permit).
-There’s a lot of crap in my backseat.
I’d say I’m suspicious (or am I?). Why don’t they ask to search my car? I know they need reasonable cause to search my car, but why wouldn’t they just ask me for permission?
My guess: Searching a car full of stuff isn’t any fun, and they have other things they’d rather be doing. Without a reasonable basis for suspicion, a long-shot bet that they’ll find anything isn’t worth the trouble.
I’d also say that having a legal DL that shows you’re here legally would probably count in your favor. It makes you look law-abiding.
How aboot it’s 'cause you’re Canadian, eh? Age, gender and ethnicity raise suspicions, cop pulls you over. Canadian ID and accent then hyperelevates innocuousness and immediately stuns cop into lethargy. The odds of pulling over a Canadian bad guy are perceived as being so low as to outweigh any other consideration. To be Canadian in the US is to be invisible.
Oh, and greetings from Vancouver, Livardo. Come home soon.
There are better signs that there is something to search for than the ethnicity of the driver.
The biggest one is that when transporting something illegal, more often than not, the driver will appear nervous and police are trained to notice this.
I suspect that cops get a feel for when to search a car. They must get pretty good at reading people and detecting those who are just a little too nervous or a little too polite or just giving off certain vibes.
If one of them had been for driving erratically, like rapidly moving four lanes over, that would make them want to look for drugs. But not an expired inspection sticker, or even minor speeding.