Let Off with a Warning for a Firearm in a Vehicle

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Michigan

The short of it is that I was pulled over tonight. For something; she didn't disclose what, really. She later said "obstruction," and that it mostly had to do with the fact that I turned quickly once she was behind me. I didn't disclose that I had a secured, unloaded handgun in the car, out of reach of the driver(I have a CPL, and my car does NOT have a trunk) until she came back with my license and asked if I was carrying, at which point I let her know that I was not, but did have it stowed. She asked to search the car, which I denied, so she frisked me and then detained me (not arrested) in the back of the squad car while she waited for the drug dog to arrive. One half-hour later, it didn't hit on anything, and I never allowed them to search the interior of the vehicle. They nicely asked me to please disclose even if I'm not carrying, as well as any stored firearms, to officers when pulled over, and let me go with, "a warning on all counts." The pistol was not in plain sight, though I did describe to them the very general location of it.

My question is: Since I have limited experience, it seems that detaining someone for one half-hour while waiting to get a drug dog seems to be "serious." Should I be worried about them following up on this? Or if they had any real concerns, would they have searched the car/detained me for longer at the time? I'm concerned that by telling them as much as I did, they will try to push this.

Seeing as you did not have any drugs, they would say no harm no foul. However, they did take you into custody which qualifies as a false arrest/false imprisonment. Thirty minutes though would not get you much money. If you had drugs and got arrested, you would have a good chance of having the dog search excluded. They had no probable cause to suspect you had any drugs. They wanted to screw with you. The 30 minute detention was illegal under all the case law I have read on this issue.

Personally I would file a public records request to get the police video, a copy of all data transmission and all voice transmissions between the cars and between the cars and dispatch. I would be interested in how a patrol officer gets a dog unit to go on a wild goose chase with no reasonable suspicion, much less probable cause.

If you get pulled over, the best thing is to hand them the license with the CPL card. Keep your hands in full view and on the steering wheel.

If one is paranoid, which I am for good reason, a person can get their own in-car video system, concealed or not. I have a two camera system in my truck with a 12v portable 2-channel DVR mounted in a secure location. It also has a WiFi system so when I pull into my driveway all the video is automatically downloaded to my server and deleted from the truck. It is all date and time stamped of course. While at home the video from the truck is transmitted to my network and stored on one of my servers. I also have six video cameras for my house.

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Quoting Conrad Hunter

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Seeing as you did not have any drugs, they would say no harm no foul. However, they did take you into custody which qualifies as a false arrest/false imprisonment. Thirty minutes though would not get you much money. If you had drugs and got arrested, you would have a good chance of having the dog search excluded. They had no probable cause to suspect you had any drugs. They wanted to screw with you. The 30 minute detention was illegal under all the case law I have read on this issue.

Personally I would file a public records request to get the police video, a copy of all data transmission and all voice transmissions between the cars and between the cars and dispatch. I would be interested in how a patrol officer gets a dog unit to go on a wild goose chase with no reasonable suspicion, much less probable cause.

If you get pulled over, the best thing is to hand them the license with the CPL card. Keep your hands in full view and on the steering wheel.

If one is paranoid, which I am for good reason, a person can get their own in-car video system, concealed or not. I have a two camera system in my truck with a 12v portable 2-channel DVR mounted in a secure location. It also has a WiFi system so when I pull into my driveway all the video is automatically downloaded to my server and deleted from the truck. It is all date and time stamped of course. While at home the video from the truck is transmitted to my network and stored on one of my servers. I also have six video cameras for my house.

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Thanks for the input - at the moment, I'm not too concerned with the inconvenience/violation of rights they presented me. As it was, the detaining officer became fairly cordial once I had a chance to show I could be professional as well (she didn't take my pocket knife during while frisking me, which I found weird), so I'm not terribly upset about that.

Mostly, I'm just concerned about a bored officer/detective deciding to follow up on this. How likely is that? I have no drug worries in the slightest, but it looks like they could try to write a civil infraction for failure to disclose if they wanted to give me grief, and were feeling lucky.

Wow I'm impressed with the way you "handled" Her and the other responding police personnel - its really good to develop an adversarial relationship with the cops.... I'll bet they were impressed too and I'll bet if you, (and it sounds like you will), have future interaction with them they'll warmly remember you and your vehicle.

Really hard to do after the fact. Of course I have heard of cases where the cop mailed the ticket after the fact. No idea if that is legal or will stand up in court. Have never read any case law on it. I don't suppose anyone in that situation has appealed it to a state appeals court.

If the officer did a frisk for officer protection purposes, a bit surprised the knife was not removed from your person. I guess the officer only cared about the gun being on your person.

A person can kill another with a pocket knife with a legal blade, even by accident, much less a trained person. We have a local killed by a single stab with a small pocket knife. It is awaiting trial.

In MI, you are required to tell them you have a gun....you may wish to contact your state legislator and tell them to remove this requirement. I see this law as being more dangerous to YOU than it is for a LEO.

Yeah - she didn't remove my knife, didn't cuff me when I was in the back of the car, and after talking a little in the cruiser she said, "You don't seem much like a narcotics user," and saw her type out a message to the dog unit telling him he didn't need to come anymore. Unfortunately, he sent a very swift reply of "already there!" and pulled up. Oh well.

So am I correct in hoping there is zero chance they will follow up on this? And if so, is it actually not that big of a deal what happened?