Steve Silverman - What To Do When Stopped By A Cop

flex writes is a nonprofit organization our mission is to educate people about how to assert their constitutional rights during police encounters most folks have don't have a clear understanding of for example the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and this is very important during a traffic stop traffic stop to represent about 52% of all citizen police encounters and during a traffic stop everything might seem to go well you might be getting pulled over for any number of reasons under the Sun and you get either a warning or a citation or even a ticket you of course should never try to talk your way out of a ticket or get angry about a ticket and always be calm and cool but oftentimes they'll police will sort of pull a Steve Jobs and they'll say well wait there's one more thing we've had a lot of Gun Runners going up and down this Highway and or you know they'll say something like we're just we're looking out for terrorists you're not a terrorist are you don't have any guns or bombs in the trunk and 90% of the time citizens will say oh no officer sure go ahead and search and oftentimes if it's a you know young people particularly they'll say something like we're not looking for just a little bit of marijuana like I said we're looking for guns and bombs and that situation people will say sure officer go ahead and anything the police officer finds will be likely used against them and they'll find themselves getting arrested and then the officer you know the citizen will say but officer I thought you said you were just looking for guns and bombs you could tell that to the judge but you're under arrest and so in such situations whether or not you have anything on you it's very important to say officer I know you're just doing your job but I do not consent to any searches and what happens at that point is that a reasonable suspicion if you do not consent no that's a that's a that's a myth and oftentimes police officers will try to trick citizens into thinking that their refusal is actually evidence of a search police need to have what's called probable cause which is actual evidence that a crime is is taking place that could include something that they see or actually the smell of marijuana itself could be probable cause so that's certainly one good reason for young people understand that but if they if they say you mind if I take a look and you say no that cannot be used against you in court the next thing that's likely to happen also is it's very important to understand that you want to try to withdrawal yourself from the encounter people often wait for a police officer to give them permission to go so a very smart thing to say is officer again I know you're just doing your job but am I free to go now and police have to actually have a reason to they need reasonable suspicion which is a lower standard than probable cause to detain you to investigate you because they have reason to believe you might be involved in a crime but they do have a certain window which they can legally detain you so the right question to ask in that situation is officer am I free to go what police are doing is sort of they're fishing for something and sort of the the the loophole to the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures that police are able to drive a Mack truck through is simply asking do you mind if I take a look and if citizens consent the search is legal so essentially there's no there's nothing you can do on that back end when you are in court or you have a lawyer if you've consented to the search for example you've really put yourself at any disadvantage and again I would argue that citizens whether or not you think you have anything to hide you have every right to say officer I done consent to searches I believe in the Fourth Amendment and I'd like to be on my way many times people think they do not have anything to hide whatsoever they consent to a search and something is found there that may have been left there by a friend a family member or even a previous car owner I've heard ridiculous stories of that nature and so in those situations when you have the right to assert your constitutional rights you should consider doing it you of course have every right to stay sure go ahead it's up to you but at least you understand you know that it's a choice that you have whether to consent or not and citizens have the First Amendment right to openly record the police everywhere there's a lot of confusion about this a lot of citizens and police officers are confused about this you're still seeing videos of police officers arresting citizens for recording the police but this is actually in violation of the law there are about 12 states in the nation that have what are called all party consent rules and this actually causes some confusion because citizen because police think that oh wait you're violating my privacy you can't film it but actually the courts in those states have ruled that this doesn't apply to police officers on duty that citizens have First Amendment right to openly record the police in a and and they should do that and they can use lots of technology and their smartphone in particular to do that it's also important to note that even though it's perfectly legal to record police when you do record the police you should be prepared to be arrested and that's a little bit it doesn't really make sense a little bit confused because like I said the police are often confused about this law and police officers do have a lot of discretion to make arrests so it's up to you to decide whether you're willing to risk that in order to capture what I would argue would be police misconduct and if you use an app like for example Bambuser be a mbu ser I don't work for a Bambuser but right now Bambuser is the best live streaming recording app and if you put it on as I didn't bring my phone because your producers that do not bring in your phone because it could ring and I appreciate that but what you can do if you have a passcode on your phone which I highly recommend everyone keep a passcode protection on their phone Supreme Court recently ruled that citizens need that police rather need to have a warrant in order to search citizens phone fantastic ruling but in the meantime it's still a good idea to keep a passcode protection your phone because sometimes police are the last to get the memo when it comes to Supreme Court rulings so when you use Bambuser for example or any live streaming app and you're recording the police the advantage of Boozer's if the police officers unlawfully snatch your phone confiscated or smash it to bits everything that you've recorded up into that point will be saved off-site and you can later access that video and the other benefit of keeping the passcode protection on your phone too is even if they snatch your phone and you hit the sleep button on your phone while using a live streaming app like Bambuser and police take that they won't be able to delete your video so as far as technology is concerned I would consider that to be the best practice make sure you have a passcode on your phone and use a live streaming video app like bamboo is or in order to preserve your video because if you have video evidence of police violating your constitutional rights you are going to be in a much stronger position than if it's simply your word against theirs for Margaretville New York Bobby on the air yeah I'm listening mr. Silverman here and you know I live in a small town upstate New York and all the time we're getting up here is well we pulled you over for a license plate like perhaps that was out it really wasn't out all right you're not allowed to leave the vehicle State Police having a problem with the courts the focus apparently are in prosecuting enough people to keep the State Police happy so one mile over the speed limit this small rural town you're it now they pull you over now they ask for problem when can we search your car you ask why well probable cause you look like somebody who may have committed a crime somewhere else in the area it's get a response from our guest absolutely Bob you know the the fact is oftentimes policing in the United States is entrepreneurial and you know a lot of these small towns police officers see people you know traveling up and down you know a highway there as as a revenue generator and oftentimes use what are called pretexts to stop people police officers have a lot of discretion to pull a car over for any reason Under the Sun and this is just something that motorists have to appreciate and so when you are in that situation even if you think that essentially that you are being perhaps you are being profiled in some way the fact is you don't always know what is in the heart and mind of the police officer and what's going on you know in you know with their culture and that their Police Department at that situation the best thing to do is to always remain calm and courteous and be prepared to assert your constitutional rights don't consent to any searches if you start being interrogated say officer I really don't want to answer any more questions am I free to go and if something happens and you do wind up getting arrested the best thing to say at that point is nothing

Channel: LibertyPen

Views: 221,646

Rating: 4.8958783 out of 5

Keywords: flex your rights, Fourth Amendment, search and seizure, citizen, police, police state, police encounter, warning citation, ticket, warrantless searches, consent, pretense, terrorism, drug war, arrest, crime, Fifth Amendment, probable cause, marijuana, smell, detainment, permission, rights, asset forfeiture, civil forfeiture, First Amendment, recording, smart phones, police misconduct, bambuser, Supreme Court, evidence, policing for profit, revenue, profiling

Id: kOJZeMFA6K8

Length: 9min 26sec (566 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 04 2014