Comment by UncleMeat

Comment by UncleMeat 3 days ago

3 replies

While you are legally allowed to refuse search of your vehicle, in practice people get brutalized for standing up for their rights all the time. The exact boundaries of your legal rights are also not clear to most people (even many lawyers) so you risk refusing an actually legal order and ending up in even more trouble.

Plus, a cop can just call for a canine squad and then get the canine to signal and then use that as probable cause for a search if they really want to fuck your day up in a way that is totally legal.

This makes the idea that you should just confidently advocate for your 4th amendment rights actually pretty unappealing.

hiatus 3 days ago

> Plus, a cop can just call for a canine squad and then get the canine to signal and then use that as probable cause for a search if they really want to fuck your day up in a way that is totally legal.

Can't make you wait around for a canine without probable cause. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/239513-court-ru...

> While officers may use a dog to sniff around a car during the course of a routine traffic stop, they cannot extend the length of the stop in order to carry it out.

  • UncleMeat 3 days ago

    Sounds good, but doesn't work. They remanded back to the 8th Circuit, which found that Rodriguez's stop and canine search was legal.

  • Over2Chars 3 days ago

    At least on TV, while the first officer is "running their plates" a second k9 unit rolls up and the dog jumps around and pops the bad guy with his 50kg of contraband.

    Or at least that was the way it was shown on this one episode of whatever show I saw it on.