Questionable police search of a truck
I drove past two sheriffs parked in the middle of a side road off from the road I was on. Before I knew it one the sheriffs pulled me over, and his fellow deputy decided to stick his nose in it too. The officer who pulled me over told me that my license plate wasn't visible (had a thin layer of road salt on it) and as far as I am concerned was pretty far reaching (tabs and letters stuck out just fine). Then he proceeded to ask me if my friend and I were drunk or on drugs, I truthfully answered no. The officer looked around in my vehicle for a while through the windows and couldn't find anything suspicious. With out saying anything other officer walked up on the passenger side of my vehicle and ripped open the door. He looked around the seats and on the floor and pulled a frozen water bottle out from under the pass. seat, and seemed pretty concerned about it being in my vehicle asking if I knew it was in there. I assured him it was frozen water I bring to work. Then he told me my bedside was falling off and kicked the side of my truck breaking it off lodging it into my tire. Apparently being nineteen is probable cause for searching my vehicle because he asked me if he could after his partner partially attempted it. I agreed, I have nothing to hide and nothing to personal in my truck. He told my friend and I to stand on the side of the road so he could pat us down, he did just that. The other deputy couldn't help but keep asking what we had in our pockets after the other officer finnished the pat down which we had explained before. I passed the breathalizer. They searched my truck and of course didn't find anything...brilliant. He also asked me if i knew an empty cigar tin was in my truck!?? Yea, i told him, i smoked them all. He then showed me the dusty license plate which was slightly tilted (and gave me no orders on what to do), on which he started cranking. He told us to have a good night and let us go without citation.
The next day after my four years of owning the truck the license plate had fallen off. I spent the next three days looking for it. I feel that I was unneccessarily harrassed by two corrupt law enforcement agents who like to pick on teens. Was my truck illegally searched (I know i read the above post), what probable cause did they have to search, was the damaging of my truck neccessary, and was I harrassed?
If so what can I do about this?
Thanks for your time
Re: Questionable practice of the law
If an officer asks "Can I search your truck" and you say "yes", the officer can legally search your truck.
Re: Questionable practice of the law
Yeah but i hadn't even talked to the second officer who opened my passenger door and looked in my truck and picked up a bottle. After he did this I gave permission to the first officer to search my truck. Then they both did.
Re: Questionable practice of the law
Who says they can't open your passenger door, or ask about items in plain view?
Re: Questionable police search of a truck
why is the sky blue and why don't you post some more meaningless replies.
I'm sorry I didn't go through education to become a law enforcer, so I wouldn't no exactly what they can and can't do.
I guess I don't know where to look to find this info after searching for a while and all I ask is for a step in the right direction. I figured there might be some knowledgable people in this forum willing to help someone out. I seem to get unnecessarily harassed by the cops where I live quite a lot, and I would like to do something about it for my sake and the people around me.
Who says they can open my door? What I think of as plain sight is where the cop can see by looking through your windows and that doesn't include under your passenger seat. I had committed no crime and this was completely unnecessary.
Re: Questionable police search of a truck
you did give permission to search. that gives them permission to search.
as to the pre-permission; if anything was found that resulted in a prosecution, you might would be able to contest the inclusion of such evidence due to an improper (unwarranted) search. Another possiblity is a "terry" search, which is a allowable search of your vehicle but within more restrictive tolerances, to look for weapons. The police would have to be able to articulate a reasonable justification for that as well though and if not acceptable by the courts, would allow for the exclusion of any evidence obtained by such a search.
No harm, no foul. You aren;t going to court for anything so making a deal out of this will probably get you nowhere.
Re: Questionable police search of a truck
Thanks for the meaningful information, and your time.