Steve Palmer [00:00:00]:

Alright. Here we are. Lawyer Talk off the record. Back on the air. When do I get to sit quit saying back on the air? Well, we'll give it a couple more weeks or maybe a couple more months, but I am back. Lawyer Talk is back here with another session of q and a. And by the way, thank you for all the listeners, who are obviously going to lawyertalkpodcast.com and submitting questions because we are getting questions. And this one comes from Jay, and it's a great question.

Steve Palmer [00:00:23]:

I deal with this every day in my law practice upstairs. He says, hey, guys. If the cops stop my car for a suspected traffic violation, does that give them the right to demand a search? What grounds can a cops or what grounds can cops search your car without a warrant? Great question. I get this all the time. This is my one of my favorite topics in law school is criminal procedure because as an old contact of mine once said or a friend of mine once said, it's what the bastards can't do to you. So criminal procedure protects your rights. This is a 4th Amendment question. So let's start at the at the at the beginning here.

Steve Palmer [00:00:52]:

So the police cannot just stop your car, and the US Supreme Court, I think Delaware versus Prowse said, police stop of a motor vehicle is a significant intrusion which requires justification under the 4th Amendment, meaning they they can't just randomly pull over cars. Now that is morphed into all sorts of things like checkpoints for DUI sobriety. There's some other law in there we won't get into, but generally speaking, they have to have a traffic violation or something called reasonable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. Here in Ohio, we had Terry versus Ohio, which gave us that, bit of wisdom. But they gotta have a reason to stop you. Sometimes that's furtive gestures. Sometimes they it's a traffic violation. Sometimes it's something else, but they gotta be able to justify it.

Steve Palmer [00:01:27]:

It can't just be a random hunch. Once they get you pulled over, the question here from Jay is, can they search your car? Well, there's a couple circumstances where they can. 1, if you say actually, his question is is a little bit nuanced because he said, can they just demand to search your car? Yes. They can make the demand, but you don't have to consent. And you I would encourage you not to consent. So when the police ask to search your car, you get to say no. And as I like to as I like to parrot some of my mentors, no is a is a complete sentence. You can say, no.

Steve Palmer [00:01:55]:

You can't search my car. That is not giving consent. Then what? Well, if they have something called probable cause, they can start, poking around your car, and they can even or they can, look in look around, and then they have to have additional probable cause to start opening compartments in your car or close containers in your car. What is probable cause? Well, it's sort of like, who knows? But I know it when I see it. A lot of times probable cause is the police would say, well, you know, I had the guy at the at the car and or at the window, and I smelled an odor of marijuana. And then I saw some shake on the passenger side seat, So I knew that there must be marijuana in the car, so I began to look more. So the marijuana gave them the additional impetus to, start searching for more, and then it progresses from there, and they build up probable cause at each incremental level. The other question I get all the time is, is can they order me out? I see these YouTube videos, TikTok videos, and frankly, a lot of them are just flat wrong.

Steve Palmer [00:02:48]:

The police have an absolute right to order you out of your car if they pull you over. And if you think you're gonna refuse that, you're gonna go home in handcuffs, and this is why a lot of people get in trouble. They think, well, this is BS, man. I ain't getting out of the car. Why did you pull me over? Blah blah blah blah blah. Under Pennsylvania versus MIMS, the police can order you out. They don't even have to have good reason other than officer safety to do that. You should comply.

Steve Palmer [00:03:10]:

What I always tell people is don't make any statements, but guess what? The police have the gun, the police have the badge, and the police have all the power on the side of the road. And if you think you're gonna fight that, good luck to you. I can't help you, but if you don't make any statements, you keep quiet, and, you call me, I can help you in court. I can't help you on the side of the road other than to say this. Don't make any statements. Don't tell them yes when they demand to search your car, and they can do so, as we said, without a warrant. They can do so, without anything other than reasonable suspicion to start pulling you over. Well, I hope that answers your question.

Steve Palmer [00:03:41]:

This is Lawyer Talk Off the Record on the Air. Another q and a edition. And by the way, if you've got your own question, happy to answer it at lawyertalkpodcast.com. And until next time, we are off the record on the air, at least until now.