Did they have a warrant? If not, then anything they found can't be used as evidence. Hell, I'm pretty sure they could get into trouble for illegally entering someone's vehicle.

A warrant for a police officer to enter car? I don't think they need one for most cases.

I had almost the same thing happen to me in October. You have 2 choices....

1. Do EXACTLY what Brian said.

2. Suck it up and pay it. I was going 16 over and my fine was $135 so you'll probably be slapped with around $200 if the rates are comparable. The reason I just paid it was because it was inconvenient to me to go to court and miss class because of it.

Traffic court is a business, that being the case, the judge and everyone else would rather have your money in their general fund than have you get off the hook.

You can also talk to the prosecutor and see if he'll drop the MPH you're being accused of. See if he'll drop it to 13 MPH (doesnt go on your insurance) and waive the fine if you do community service and take a defensive driving course. I've had this work for a couple of my friends.

They need probable cause, not a warrant. They cant just decide to search your car. If you can prove there was no reason for them to get suspicious in the first place then you're ok, but usually after they've found/planted something it doesnt matter.

Again, every cop I know by name is completely awesome. It's the cops that dont come into my work and get coffee that are *** hats.

If they could see evidence of illegal activity from their initial position of outside the vehicle, I don't see how that could be illegal.



However, if you give the officer permission to search, he or she doesn't need a warrant.

Incidentally, your car can be searched if you're arrested..whether you want it or not. :p

And you can say no when an officer asks to search your vehicle.

If an officer asks to search your vehicle, and you say no, they generally treat that as probably cause (even though it's not legal to do so). They say, "Well if this guy won't let me search his car, he must be hiding something." This is a good way to convict the cop of a crime if you have the money and a good lawyer to prosecute him. Of course, 99.99999% of people don't so they get screwed over.

Sheesh, Avenger. Haven't you ever seen an episode of COPS? That /never/ works.

They dont necesarily need probable cause to do a brief search of you or your vehicle. The only need "reasonable suspicion" which is a lot less than "probable cause." Officers dont randomly ask to search your car. If they are asking you permission to search your car, they already are suspicious of something. Saying no makes him even more suspicious. For his own protection to make sure you don't have any weapons around you, or if he believes you are a risk to try to escape, the officer does not need a search warrant. They are called "exigent circumstances" (it's not just something Law & Order made up for the sake of tv). In this case the officer would only be able to search the area around you in your car (i.e. he cant go into your trunk unless he has a warrant or places you under arrest).



"Articulable" just means he can actually say/write specifically what it was that made him suspicious.

Vash: in my opinion, your problem is that you assume all or at least most cops are honorable and trustworthy. In my experience, I have witnessed the exact opposite to be true.

It wouldn't be, except her paraphenilia was in her glove compartment which was closed. The crumbs on her floormat were in no way visible unless someone was looking directly at them from not farther than a few inches. Have you ever walked by someones car and gone "Hey it sure looks like they were eating a bagel, judging by the crumbs on their floormat!"

She's not even sure that she left her car door open. I'm just glad it didn't happen to me or I would have *****-slapped the police:rolleyes:

I'm with Mort-Hog and fishstickz.

You were consciously breaking the law and you got caught. Suffer the consequences.

Oh, man. If the state descended into some sort of anarchy, I would take the chance to stab every cop I could find.