Detained For Helping a Friend Move

[Music] welcome to audit the audit where we sort out the who and what and the right and wrong of police interactions this episode covers criminal history lawful arrests and vehicle registrations and is brought to us by queen t's channel be sure to check out the description below and give them the credit that they deserve on june 21 2018 officer ulrich of the covington police department pulled over an ohio driver who was helping a friend move into the cambridge square apartments in covington kentucky approximately four miles from the kentucky ohio border for allegedly failing to stop at a stop sign or use a turn signal after the driver pulled into a small parking lot officer ulrich approached the passenger side window how you doing man i'm also coming to police the reason i stopped you you were just kind of parked there in front of 109 for a while and then you backed in all the way down by 104 you were sitting there for probably 15 minutes and then you just didn't stop at the stop sign and use your turn signal when you came down the hill twice and i need to use the stop as a turn signal to go straight down we turned left i didn't turn okay you have your license on you sir yes sir [Applause] you said you were helping somebody move in i stopped right there right in front of one of them and her brothers and sister you've seen all the people come to my car sir you saved them coming my car i seen two watches and then busted you you come right drive right passes and she got the last couple bags out so it went like i was just sitting here okay i didn't see any of that stuff that you're talking about not paying attention to you i just saw a car sitting in front of 109. um who is she right back outside nope i'm asking you what her name is her name is nick nick yes sir she um when you were done why did you go park in the other end of the parking lot for the same time backed up into the back by the garbage can she wanted to throw some stuff away about to make her work you made her walk back though i know i drove her back up to the front i stopped right there she got out i backed back up i sent you parked right there and i went straight down i knew he was about to pull me over so i parked i knew what you were about to do i did nothing wrong officer you just seen me leave come back the first time i left watch me pull up stand right there wait wait for it to come out it took me 20 minutes i went to the west side took her stuff back she just got put out of her house all i did was bring your torso okay um have you ever been convicted of a felony before yeah in ohio who were you in prison for in ohio oh in prison i've never been to prison traffic ticket that's it you got a bci number what's the bcn it's a number they give you when you go to prison in ohio officer ulrich informs the driver that he has a bci number which indicates that he has been previously arrested and questions him about his criminal history bci stands for the bureau of criminal investigation of the ohio attorney general's office which serves as the central repository for all criminal records for the state the bci also maintains fingerprints palm prints photographs and other information related to arrests within the state the u.s supreme court held in the 2015 case of rodriguez vs united states that because traffic stops are especially fraught with danger to police officers they may take negligibly burdensome precautions including criminal record and outstanding warrant checks to complete the mission of the traffic stop safely based on this decision some courts have determined that police officers are also permitted to ask drivers questions about their criminal history for example in the 2017 case of united states vs cohn the federal 10th circuit court of appeals concluded that quote if running a computer check of a driver's criminal history is justifiable as a negligibly burdensome inquiry useful for officer safety we fail to see how asking the driver about that history could be unreasonable under the fourth amendment a driver's answer may not be as reliable as a computer check but the time involved is much shorter and just allowing the officer to ask the question may provide important clues pertaining to safety such as nervous or evasive responses the supreme court also determined in the 2009 case of arizona versus johnson that quote an officer's inquiries into matters unrelated to the justification of the traffic stop do not convert the encounter into something other than a lawful seizure so long as the inquiries do not measurably extend the stop's duration in interpreting how long a traffic stop could be extended for questioning the sixth circuit court of appeals which includes kentucky in its jurisdiction determined in the 2010 case of u.s versus everett that quote because the touchstone of any fourth amendment analysis is reasonableness we must conduct a fact-bound context-dependent inquiry in each case the proper inquiry is whether the totality of the circumstances surrounding the stop indicates that the duration of the stop as a whole including any prolongation due to suspicionless unrelated questioning was reasonable therefore a court would likely find that officer ulrich was permitted to ask questions about the driver's criminal history as long as it concluded that the questioning did not unreasonably extend the traffic stop under the totality of the circumstances the only arrest you've ever had is for traffic traffic i got a couple other gambling tickets all paid off i recently just got a traffic ticket paid off i've never been to prison ever you haven't been arrested for anything besides trafficking gambling i'm sorry you can look me up i did notice the problem that's why i'm asking you for for your explanation of your other arrests i don't see why i need an explanation i just told you this on there to my knowledge if i forgot something i forgot but i don't see it you think there's a chance that you forgot whether or not you were arrested i've never been to prison prison in the holding sales different you're still talking about something i'm not talking about i'm talking about arrested what else have you been arrested for i've been arrested nothing uh ovr ovr i got an ovi in 2008. that's it look that steal the holding sale i've never been arrested pay out that is arrested no it's not because i never got arrested it is arrested it is arrested was arrested yeah did you go on handcuffs officer ulrich informs the driver that he had been arrested when he was taken to the holding cell for his ovi charge while the driver thought that he had not been arrested for that offense because he never went to prison in this conversation officer ulrich refers to a formal arrest where a police officer determines there is probable cause that an individual committed a crime and takes them to a local police station or jail for booking booking is the process of recording information about the individual in the police database taking a mug shot fingerprinting searching the individual for illegal items and other administrative tasks a formal arrest that includes a booking process will generally result in a criminal record however the constitutional standard for what constitutes an arrest does not require that an individual be taken to a police station charged with a crime or booked in the 1980 case of united states versus mendenhall the supreme court concluded that quote a person has been seized within the meaning of the fourth amendment only if in view of all the circumstances surrounding the incident a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave examples of circumstances that might indicate a seizure even where the person did not attempt to leave would be the threatening presence of several officers the display of a weapon by an officer some physical touching of the person of the citizen or the use of language or tone of voice indicating that compliance with the officer's request might be compelled the court built on this definition in the 1991 case of california vs hidari d holding that quote to constitute a seizure of the person just as to constitute an arrest the quintessential seizure of the person under fourth amendment jurisprudence there must be either the application of physical force however slight or where that is absent submission to an officer's show of authority to restrain the subject's liberty as discussed many times on ata a fourth amendment seizure can be classified as either a detention otherwise known as the infamous terry stop or an arrest there is no bright line rule to determine whether a seizure constitutes a detention or an arrest and courts will consider a variety of factors in classifying a seizure for example in the 1993 case of u.s vs perea the second circuit court of appeals considered the amount of force used by the police the need for such force the extent to which an individual's freedom of movement was restrained the number of agents involved whether the target of the stop was suspected of being armed the duration of the stop and the physical treatment of the suspect including whether or not handcuffs were used while the amount of restraint used is a significant factor the use of handcuffs or other restraints does not automatically make a seizure an arrest if there are concerns for officer or public safety [Music] and i helped her move that's it okay turn your car off for me sir hey take the key out just put it on the passenger seat here or don't listen to what i tell you to do put it on the passenger seat please so it's out of the way thank you um besides this bottle of brandy is there anything in your car that shouldn't be in your car a bottle of bandy that's in the back of the seat i don't want you i don't want you reaching around the seat i'm gonna keep my hands on it i'm just gonna look it's in the back seat pocket right here so is there anything in the car besides the bottle that bottle ain't brandy mine there ain't nothing in there well you're the driver of the car it's registered to you right but there ain't nothing in there that's not mine is there anything else in the car that might get you in trouble [Music] okay let's see the registration of your insurance alright any registration sir officer ulrich asked the driver to provide the registration receipt for his vehicle every state in the u.s requires drivers to register their vehicles with the state's department of motor vehicles or transportation agency the registration connects a vehicle with its owner in government records so when police officers search for a vehicle's license plates they will be able to see who owns the vehicle the first bill requiring motor vehicle owners to register with the state was signed into law in new york on april 25 1901. before this law was passed local regulations often differed making it difficult for drivers to comply with the varying laws as they traveled the state statewide registration and license plate requirements made it much simpler for drivers to follow the law today every state requires drivers to register their vehicles courts have almost universally agreed that police officers can check a driver's registration during a routine traffic stop even if there is no reason to suspect that registration requirements have not been followed and the traffic stop was not related to the vehicle's registration as the supreme court explained in the 1979 case of delaware versus praus quote states have a vital interest in ensuring that only those qualified to do so are permitted to operate motor vehicles that these vehicles are fit for safe operation and hence that licensing registration and vehicle inspection requirements are being observed based on this government interest the prowse court concluded that quote the foremost method of enforcing traffic and vehicle safety regulations is acting upon observed violations vehicle stops for traffic violations occur countless times each day and on these occasions licenses and registration papers are subject to inspection and drivers without them will be ascertained therefore police officers such as officer ulrich are constitutionally permitted to review a driver's vehicle registration as part of a routine traffic stop well i see insurance i need your registration receipt the registration it's the document that when it gets in the mail it says keep this in your glove box that document so you don't have that i have registration it's probably not in this car but i do have registration office okay all right sit tight here for me for just a couple minutes [Applause] [Applause] you can see this bottle of hennessy gets thrown away somewhere appropriate [Applause] after requesting that the driver dispose of the hennessy bottle officer ulrich informed him that he was free to leave the property the driver attempted to exit his vehicle presumably to return to his friend's apartment but officer ulrich told him that he could not park there and needed to leave because it was private property the driver got back in his vehicle and drove away it is unclear whether a complaint was filed or an investigation was conducted regarding this incident or if the driver intends to pursue legal action on june 3rd 2020 a covington pd officer named douglas ulrich published an op-ed sharing his support for both the protesters and the police in the wake of george floyd's death i cannot confirm with absolute certainty that it is the same officer all ulrich as this interaction but i did locate a linkedin profile for an officer douglas ulrich with the cpd the opinion piece starts with quote i am a white police officer in a large department in an urban area i can no longer sit idly by without offering my thoughts and feelings on the events across the country in the article officer ulrich also states that he has never seen overtly racist actions in his fellow police officers and that the covington pd is on the leading edge of quote doing it right and quote however this interaction is not the only encounter where the officer featured here displayed questionable conduct in a previous interaction the very same officer illegally entered the vehicle of another african-american man named eric phillips and arrested him for leaving his car running while unattended in fact the queen t channel where the body cam footage for this interaction was retrieved from appears to show a blatant pattern of harassment by the covington pd against mr phillips and officer ulrich was involved in many of those encounters officer douglas ulrich's op-ed goes on to say that he believes that policing needs to evolve and that quote we need more black police officers we need more hispanic police officers we need more female police officers we simply need more officers that mirror the diversity and inclusivity that is america officer ulrich ends his article by stating quote i stand with and for george floyd i stand with protesters i stand against hate i stand against abuse of power i stand with the police again it is important to note that i cannot confirm that this officer is the same officer ulrich that is featured in this interaction but i personally believe that there is a high probability that it is overall officer ulrich gets a b-plus because although the racial undertones of this interaction cannot be ignored the officer remained within the bounds of his authority throughout the interaction and ultimately allowed the citizen to go free without making an arrest or issuing any citations as discussed in the previous episode of ata implicit bias likely played a major role in officer ulrich's suspicion that the citizen was involved in criminal activity but it is impossible to speculate on the legitimacy of the stop without having witnessed the alleged traffic infraction assuming that this is the same officer ulrich who penned the op-ed mentioned before it is very interesting that the officer believes that his department is on the quote unquote cutting edge of police reform and advancement especially considering that just two years prior to this interaction he participated in what appears to be a campaign of targeted harassment and also made veiled threats against a white male because he refused to extinguish his cigarette during a stop if this is the same officer then his article only demonstrates a clear detachment from the reality of his department's conduct and this suggests that the department not only has serious issues that need to be addressed but also that the department considers their conduct to be acceptable and a model for other departments to build upon this is particularly dangerous because it encourages officers to continue this pattern of behavior and inadvertently normalizes misconduct while i do appreciate the sentiment that officer ulrich was attempting to convey i believe that his opinion will have the opposite effect and the first step to correcting the problems within any department is to admit that those problems exist the unnamed citizen gets an a-minus because although he could have invoked his right to remain silent he remained calm and collected throughout the encounter complied with the demands of the officer and made a legitimate effort to dispel the officer's suspicions it is clear that the citizen was not engaged in any overtly criminal activity and it is very plausible that the liquor bottle that was found in his vehicle actually belonged to the woman that he was helping move this idea is further legitimized by officer ulrich's reluctance to perform any field sobriety tests the citizen behaved as well as anyone who was stopped by the police should and his passive demeanor and poised responses served him well during this encounter i commend the citizen for remaining calm but i would also encourage him to gain a deeper understanding of the right to silence and the concept of an arrest let us know if there is an interaction or legal topic you would like us to discuss in the comments below thank you for watching and don't forget to check out the ata patreon page for more police interaction content [Music] you

Channel: Audit the Audit

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Keywords: amagansett press, first amendment audit, 1st amendment audit, auditing america, news now california, sgv news first, high desert community watch, anselmo morales, photography is not a crime, san joaquin valley transparency, first amendment audit fail, walk of shame, news now houston, police fail, 1st amendment audit fail, public photography, auditor arrested, police brutality, highdesert community watch, pinac news, cops triggered, news now patrick, east hampton

Id: dcohjvYRGHg

Length: 17min 48sec (1068 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 28 2021