I was on the grand jury in my local county here in the southeast of the US
about 10 years ago.  We met one day a month for a year and returned
indictments based on testimony from law officers.  I heard about every
felony in my community for that year.  It was surprising how many cases
started, "routine traffic stop, I asked the driver for permission to search
the vehicle, and he/she said I could search the car.  I then found..."  a
gun under the seat, drugs in the trunk, etc.  You don't have to give
permission.  If you don't and they want to search, I think they will find a
way.  If I've got nothing to hide, I would just let them search as I will
likely be on my way more quickly.  If I had something to hide I would
refuse, since then I would at least have grounds to try to challenge the
search.  But I never have anything to hide.  And I'm usually a clean cut
white guy, obey the rules of the road, so I don't even get stopped.  I am
embarrassed to say I have miswired trailer lights on my van though.  (so I
guess I *am* a scofflaw!)  I trailer very rarely and close to home.  What's
a good source for the little box that fixes the separate-turn-signal-bulb
issue?  ebay?

Edward

At 08:31 PM 5/13/2006, you wrote:
>For various reasons your 'rights' in a vehicle are not as broad or as secure
>as they would be in your home. Here in California we don't have a scheduled
>'safety inspection' to go along with the smog inspection, but an officer can
>pull you over and conduct one on the spot for any mechanical violation they
>see, if they so choose. For instance if you have a tail light out, they can
>go ahead and do the full safety inspection. If they follow the whole
>checklist, it's pretty involved. You'll wind up opening the hood and the
>trunk, and they'll be sticking their hands in the back seat trying to pull
>out the belts, looking under the seats to see if they're properly mounted or
>whatever. The upshot of this is that anything they see 'in the normal course
>of their duties' is fair game- they don't need a warrant for it. That
>doesn't mean they can slash your seats apart looking for drugs on the tail
>light issue, but if in the course of doing the safety check they find a
>roach in the ashtray or a baggie behind the spare tire, they now have
>probable cause to tear the whole car apart.
>The safety inspection in of itself becomes a pretty thorough search by
>design. Lately they've been using 'car seat checks' as another excuse for
>this. They can say that your kid's car seat looked improperly installed to
>them and they can pull you over to inspect your car seat fitment, of course
>scanning the rest of the vehicle while they're at it. This can also turn
>into a 'safety inspection', if a seat belt doesn't lock/retract properly,
>etc. They've got the whole process pretty well wired.
>Actually you might be surprised at how often they actually find guns and
>drugs that way- at least they do around here.
>I've actually heard of the cops searching cars because they had tools in
>them- suspicion based on 'possession of burglary tools/kits'.
>I don't approve of using these loopholes to get around the rights of the
>citizen, of course but so far as I know those that have challenged these
>things in the courts haven't had much success.
>Gotta be careful.
>
>Cya,
>Robert