In Chapter 2 we will look at your privacy rights when you have contact with the police in your car. When you get in your car, you leave nearly all of your Fourth Amendment rights at home or on the sidewalk with one main exception; as a general rule the police cannot stop or detain you in your vehicle for no reason. The police must at least have reasonable suspicion stop your car. Recall the police can always approach you as you are walking down the street, but they can’t detain you without reasonable suspicion.

A vehicle, however, is a double-edged sword. The police can almost always find dozens, if not hundreds, of petty traffic offense-related reasons to pull you over and detain you long enough to peer into your car, ask a few questions or call for a drug dog. Let’s take a look at the same basic scenarios from Chapter 1, but apply them to a vehicle. In other words, let’s look at your Fourth Amendment rights when: (1) the police have no real reason to pull you over; (2) the police have reasonable suspicion you have committed a traffic infraction or a crime; and (3) the police have probable cause to arrest you from your vehicle.

A) Consent

Unlike the casual contact the police are allowed to initiate when you are walking down the street or sitting on a barstool, the police cannot pull you over in your car or initiate what is referred to as a “traffic stop” without a legitimate cause; at a minimum, reasonable suspicion that you have committed a traffic infraction or a crime. The police are not allowed to pull you over for no other reason than to ask for consent to search, or on a hunch that you might be committing a crime, or just to see if you have a valid driver’s license. In other words, while the police can approach you in the mall and strike up a conversation, they can’t pull you over in your car just to chat (note, however, that the police can still approach your vehicle if it is not moving, i.e. in a parking lot or on the side of the street, however, they cannot detain you without reasonable suspicion and you would be free to drive away). If the police approach your stopped car, simply state, “I have been advised not to waive my rights. Am I free to go?”

In a series of cases, including United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873 (1975) and Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648 (1979), the Supreme Court determined that a traffic stop is a “seizure” that implicates some degree of Fourth Amendment protection... (click here to read more)