When Can the Police Search Your Car at the Roadside? Lehto's Law - Ep. 3.44

hello and welcome once again to Leto his law I'm Steve Laird attorney at law in state of Michigan I'm practicing on over 25 years in the fields of consumer protection and lemon law I often heard about the stuff replacing road and track comm and I've written a few books as well today we're talking about can the police stop your car and search it without probable cause or can the police stop your car and search it without your permission and what do they need to do that well the reason this comes up is any time I read an article about the police traffic stops or anything like that I always get comments from people who say you don't have to do any of that stuff this guy doesn't know what he's talking about you are free to just kind of like do what you want by the side of the road and ignore cops well you're free to do whatever you want okay but if you want to actually know what you're allowed to do legally I'm gonna explain it to you because I am an attorney so again I'm licensed in the state of Michigan where I'm telling you is rock solid advice in Michigan and is probably true where you are as well because the law that governs this actually comes to the US Supreme Court but we'll talk about that as well but the key here is a police officer pulls you over for whatever reason what can you do and what do you have to do if asked by the police officer so it often goes like this I read an article I say if you get pulled over by a cop here's what you do and I always get the comment from somebody says you don't have to do anything you can leave your window rolled up you can refuse to talk to the cop some people that said you know to pull over try that and see what happens but here's the thing what we're talking about whether you're being detained at the side of the road or questioned in public the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution remember the Bill of Rights the ten amendments okay first second okay well the fourth is the one that talks about the right of the people to be secure in their persons houses papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause and now you'll notice doesn't mention automobiles but it doesn't mention your effects and they didn't have cars back then okay Bill of Rights is written back in the 1700s so they were anticipating that there are going to be things you have that we have a right of some sort of privacy to although the right of privacy does not exist in that exact sense in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights but the Fourth Amendment is we talked about with reflects two searches and seizures okay searches and seizures and we're talking today about traffic stops so you're driving along the road one day minding your own business as far as you know you're not doing anything wrong you see the lights going behind you you pull over to the side of the road that is what we call a traffic stop now doesn't take a lot of work to figure this out but the police officer is pulling you over does not have a warrant to pull you over unless you're living really dangerously and has actually warrants out for your arrest but let's assume for a moment that we're talking about a warrantless traffic stop now some people and I know this because I get two comments on the website and so on some people say Steve the police officer cannot pull you over because he hasn't got a warrant well here's a thing the US Supreme Court has ruled on a variety of issues arising from traffic stops and other detentions and has pointed out that our society would crumble if police officers weren't allowed to do anything without warrants so there's a couple things they are allowed to do and one of them is a traffic stop so if a police officer witnesses you breaking the law or doing something that is illegal which I guess would be breaking the law okay some kind of traffic violation and he sees that or she sees that they can pull you over without a warrant there's a variety of reasons for this not the least of which is that quite often traffic setting does not involve a crime it often involves a civil infraction okay so this is not a crime even in the first place so a police officer pulls you over for speeding for instance in the state of Michigan and writes you ticket for doing ten over it's a civil infraction it's not even a crime but here's the point for them to pull you over the courts have ruled that they can do that if they have a reasonable suspicion that you've broken the law any reasonable suspicion means they suspect you've broken the law it's the word suspicion but reasonable means they have to have based upon a reason so a police officer just drive along and say foon I think that looks suspicious no other reason that it just looks suspicious to me police officer can't pull you over for that purpose now we all know that if you look suspicious and act suspicious a police officer can pull you over and then later say well I did it because and they can probably conjure up something it sounds reasonable but simply put they need to have a reasonable suspicion that you've broken the law then they can detain you briefly okay and this is a temporary detainment they're not arresting you there's simply detaining you to determine whether or not a law has been broken returned with that you're the one who broke it and so on and so forth and there's a law the Supreme Court case called Terry versus Ohio 1968 so this goes back aways where the US Supreme Court said a couple things regarding detentions and they said that they can it's become called a Terry stop but a police officer can detain you briefly upon reasonable suspicion to determine whether or not a crimes you know happened and whether that you're the person who did it and not only can they stop you but they can also Pat you down for weapons and this is a real big issue that arose in Terry versus Ohio because here's the issue okay police officers talking to you okay they're just talking or interacting you verbally the moment the police officer says I would like to Pat you down for weapons they're actually touching your body they're putting their hands on you and as anybody's gone through TSA knows it's not a pleasant experience to have a total stranger just patting you down okay now I understand that you know there's a lot of different contexts here but a police officer can also Pat you down for weapons now this is the big distinction so let's suppose you have a piece of paper in your pocket it's just got some notes written on it that are somehow evidence of a crime and it's folded flat it's stuck in your pocket in such a way that it's obviously not a weapon it's not contraband it's nothing but police officer Pat's you down finds no weapons finds no drugs finds it but says what's this piece of paper and reaches in and pulls that piece of paper out that's probably going to far because the Terry stop were they allowed to Pat you down for weapons it's supposed to be unintrusive and simply to determine whether or not you are a threat to the police officer or to the public at large so what this does with respect to a traffic stop is a typical traffic stop goes like this you're driving along lights go on you pull over the side of the road police officer walks up to your car and says you know how fast you're going and as I told you before the correct answer to that is I'm not sure I think as doing the speed limit but I'm not sure however police officers will often at this point then say things such as would you mind getting out of the car may I ins may I look in your car may I search your car will you pop the trunk - my car - your car and that's where the gray area becomes because according to the law in most states and particularly in Michigan a police officer can number one ask to see your driver's license registration proof of insurance and that's simply because you are required by law to have those three things on you and so it's not considered to be too intrusive it's not considered to even need probable cause or even reasonable suspicion because you're driving a car you need to have those things on you okay it's the same your car needs a license plate - and you know so police officer pulls you over to just kind of see these three things you hand him or her those three things you've now complied with that now the police officer might return to your car and say okay this all checks out get out of the car now you're going to have to get out of the car and the reason to get out of the car is that a police officer again like I said before can do a quick pat-down to make sure you have got weapons on you and I don't but any people gonna say wait why would you do a pattern on a guy sitting in a car with with you know weapons but theoretically it's it's it's something they can do okay the pat downs unintrusive the line gets drawn though at the car itself so if they ask can I look in your car can I search your car you are free to say no no thank you I prefer that you didn't now here's the thing for them to search your car when they've got nothing else to go on except that they saw you run a red light for instance okay they don't have probable cause to search the car and they don't have reasonable suspicion the car the the running the traffic lights got nothing doing whether someone's in your car you know contraband in your car so they don't have the right to search your car without a warrant and without your permission and this is the extremely tricky part because police officers will usually ask may I search your car okay and they asked that because if you say yes all the rest of it goes out the window they don't need a warrant they don't need reasonable suspicion there any probable cause they don't get anything if you give them permission and they know that the average person doesn't know this and the average person is scared to say no you can't search my car so police officer asks may I search your car you say no thank you okay III advise you to put the words thank you on the end the words because it'll sound polite no thank you and they'll say why not and you say I saw a video by a guy named Steve Leto who's an attorney and he said I can say that okay or you can just say I don't know the Constitution Bill of Rights uh I don't know I just I don't I don't think I have to give you a reason now what's weird about this is and I will I will be truthful with you honestly here to an embarrassing extent I can actually think of three different occasions who ride police officers searching my car and this goes way back and I actually once I'm got pulled over or driving about three o'clock in the morning and looking back on it night I think I simply pulled over because I was late three o'clock in the morning and a police officer asked me you know what are you doing out so late and I told him I was coming home from work and then he said you know ask me some other questions where you're going where you're from that kind of thing and I said can I look in your car and I was about 21 or 22 years all the time and I thought nothing in the car knock yourself up go right ahead cop dug around in the car for few minutes found nothing goes can I look in your trunk again I've got nothing to hide I could have said no but I said sure go right ahead pops the trunk pokes running their little beings up okay cuz you're free to go okay so I mean now I didn't have to do that I probably didn't even know at the time that I could refuse can I look in your cutting in your trunk no can I search your car no no thank you okay I on another occasion was in a vehicle and with somebody else and the police officers approached and said can I search your car and I said sure go ahead and now I was outside the car and one of the cops and she came back goes okay whose cocaine is that cop doesn't know me okay I don't drink I've never smoked and I've never even seen cocaine in a real life I don't think I've seen it in movies Scarface had mountains of it on his desk I've never touched cocaine used cocaine I would take a drug test any day of the week any day of the year going back 20 years going forward till the day I die and I'll guarantee you I'll do a zero point zero in any test you give me it's in the cop goes whose cocaine is that I looked at my goes up cocaine in that car and he goes yeah there is whose is it I look and I go to you why are you lying to me and the cop is turned on he walked away he's hoping as I say you found the cocaine I hid in that secret compartment oh my gosh how did you find the compartment but you know looking back and I'm like you know that's why you don't give him permission to search your car if they're just me jerks about it okay there's nothing in the car so you just thought he'd make the afternoon a little more exciting but saying whose cocaine is that why bother so here's the deal okay you're pulled over by the side of the road police officer approaches the car he can ask you for your driver's license your registration your proof of insurance he can ask you other questions but you don't have to answer them I would advise you to answer them politely as best you can but if he says can I search your car you say I'm sorry no thank you can I look in your trunk no thank you he's just gonna lie and say he found cocaine anyways right and then you just get out of the car well you got to get out of the car okay get out of the car if you decides to do a you know the Terry pat-down well let him do the Terry pat-down I'm hoping you're not carrying a weapon that you don't you know shouldn't have on you and that's about as far as it should go now the one thing I also need to point out to you is that as a police officer approaches your car the cars windows in it right they can see in the wind so if there's something in plain view in the car okay you got a big ol bale of marijuana on a seat next to you and you don't have a marijuana medical card that allows you to carry it by the bail a police officer walks up and says you know driver's license proof of insurance and by the way what's that bale of marijuana doing on the passenger seat you can't say hey you've got no warrant you can't search my car well it's in plain view okay so there's some obvious exceptions to these constitutional rights you've got likewise if a police officer walks up your front door knocks on the door looks in the window and sees the machine gun on your coffee table he can say by the way what does that a machine gun do you have a license that it's in plain view so plain view is one of the exceptions they can see with their own eyes they don't need a warrant to go and say hey I saw it can I get a warrant to do it okay so the whole point is against unreasonable searches and seizures and it's not unreasonable for a police officer to use his own or her own eyeballs to look inside your car while he or she is talking to you okay so be aware of the plain view exception also but one of the things I'd like to talk about and very very briefly explain is the traffic stop itself okay can only be as long as necessary for the police officer to conduct his business for the traffic stop so let's assume you ran the red light I mentioned earlier okay police officer walks up says hey you know fast you're going you know what I pulled you over okay you ran a red light whatever driver's license registration proof of insurance takes him back to his car runs them all comes back and hands you a ticket the traffic stop is over at that point now of course if the police officer wants to chitchat with you for a little bit chitchat a little bit okay but but there was a case very very recently in Michigan where a guy got pulled over I believe an i-94 traffic stop went down just like that the cop actually walked up gave him all his information said said you know something can I look in your trunk and the guy goes no no can't look at my trunk and the police officer goes well you know I can get a warrant if I want to by the way that's one of the favorite tricks ago I can get a warrant yeah you can it'll take you awhile and quite frankly it'll probably take longer than this traffic stop but be that as it may I can get a warrant in in the guy goes uh you know whatever you know but you don't have my permission so the police officer then called a k-9 unit and a k-9 by the way twitch is not a warrant unless a dog's name was warrant come here warrant so the police officer calls a k-9 unit who shows up a little while later and the k-9 unit walks around the guys car and reacts to something in the trunk now he says I've got probable probable cause because my dog is reacting saying is something in the trunk they pop the trunk they find dealer quantities of marijuana cocaine I forgot what it was but it's contraband and there's no question it was illegal so they arrest the guy and of course the exhibit a in his trial is going to be this stuff that they seized after the police dog alerted to the presence of something in the trunk of the car but it was after the traffic stop was concluded and the police officer had given the guy the ticket and then said I'm gonna detain you longer because I just have the suspicion but not based upon any reason Michigan's Court of Appeals correctly threw out that case and said you cannot prosecute that man based upon the stuff you found in his trunk that you did with a search that took place after the detention should have ended on the traffic stop okay so they're gonna pull you over and the pretext of pulling you over as a traffic stop they're allowed to conduct the traffic stop for however long the traffic stop ought to be and when it ends it has to be over and you can go on your way okay the police officer admitted at the hearing that they had in that guy's case that yeah I was done I handed the guys ticket and and that was the end of that and then I just had a thought hey I wonder what's in his trunk hey when you have a thought that begins with the phrase hey generally speaking that's not going to overcome the Fourth Amendment's strictures on when a reasonable or unreasonable search or seizure has taken place so the right of the people to be secure in their persons houses papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause so keep in mind what's happening inside of the road is not probable cause it is the reasonable suspicion the police officer has you committed a crime or a traffic violation pulls you over for that they can deal with that they can even have you get out of the car they can ask you for identification and papers you know that go along with you driving but they can't detain you for any longer the traffic stop and if they ask you questions such as can I look in the trunk of your car or can I search your car you are free to say no thank you I'd prefer that you didn't so that's what the police can and cannot do when they stop your car without probable cause but with reasonable suspicion or as this title most likely is gonna read can the police stop your car and search it without probable cause questions or comments shooting my way late to let it come i'm on twitter at steve little ste vele HT oh and this shows on iTunes stitcher SoundCloud pod bean Google Play and YouTube thanks for watching listening bye bye

Channel: Steve Lehto

Views: 1,543,538

Rating: 4.764894 out of 5

Keywords: Lemon Law, Michigan, Attorney, Lawyer, Traffic Laws, Traffic Tickets, Southfield, Detroit, Oakland County

Id: 49ueZ9fl78g

Length: 18min 49sec (1129 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 02 2017

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