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This complaint letter was written to the sheriff's department and the whole story is behind it.
I was pulled over by your division on 12-31-08 for tinted windows Citation number S355702 according to the officer(s): A. Veatch (badge/employee number 506211) and R. Velasquez (badge/employee number 462136). My driving conditions were normal, driving at the speed limit with no traffic. One of the officers, a female to be specific because I do not know the name specifically, asked me the following questions, Have you ever been arrested? I answered NO. Are you currently on probation? I answered NO. Are you affiliated with any gangs? I answered NO. She also frequently kept asking me if I been ever arrested. I answered NO. I was very polite and cooperative with the officers. She asked me to step out the car and performed a search on me. Honestly in my possession was less than a gram of marijuana and a pipe. My complaint is tinted windows does give the officers a probable cause to perform a search on me according to my attorney, under the circumstances that I was alone, not under the influence of any drugs/alcohol, no illegal items were in the vehicle, the officers did not inquire if I authorized them the consent to search me or the vehicle or simply asked if I had any illegal items on me or in the vehicle BEFORE the small amount of marijuana was found. I would have been cooperative with the officers if they asked. Now I would document that as either appearance, racial or age discrimination to perform a search just for tinted windows. The second complaint I would like to discuss is after the search was performed for the vehicle everything inside was misplaced and they left a mess in the car. I also I had a FUNCTIONING laptop that was in car BEFORE the search was performed. AFTER the search was performed the laptop was misplaced and turned upside down and now the condition of the laptop is not functioning. I feel extremely discriminated and upset of the situation that proper procedures was not performed correctly by the officers and that a tint ticket results out to me in consideration of purchasing a new laptop and misdemeanor that the marijuana could have been confiscated and a warning could been issued since it was a very small amount and my records were clean with no criminal offenses.
Basically did the cops have enough probable cause to pull me out the car to search me whether the weed was present or not just for tinted windows?
They pulled you over for tinted windows, broke your laptop, and found you with marijuana? Technically, you can file a complaint, but I dont' think it will do anything. Police officers don't need consent or a warrant to search you OR your car- its kind of like, when you get your drivers liscense, you agree to get tested for drunk driving and searched whenever a police officer deems it necessary. And although MOST often, people are pulled over for traffic violations, I do believe that police officers occasionally do a routine traffic stop, just because. Or, maybe someone gave them your Liscense plate number or a description of your car and said you might have drugs, or maybe your car fit the description of a criminal. The broken laptop, however, is something they should do something about.
There is a video on Youtube called
"BUSTED: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Police Encounters"
that shows that police can only search your vehicle if they have probable cause. The video also shows what you can do to make it so they can't search it without a warrant.
The video shows how to exercise your constitutional rights during encounters with police.
In my city it depends on the depth of tint on your windows. If an officer can't clearly see you, he has probable cause. I smoked when I was young and I never was dumb enough to draw attention to myself or to my car. You are busted...
it depends where you are. tinted windows look suspicious. im not sure how old you are. but cops like to target younger drivers..thats my opinion..
anyways.. tinted windows dont really give them probable cause to search you..
babybam- having something hanging from a rear-view mirror is actually illegal, because its an obstruction of view. Dumb as it may be, it is a law. I don't know if tinted windows is though...
sorry I also forgot to add that I know someone who got searched because they had something hanging from there rearview mirror..now thats dumb too.
wahhht?
