Concealed gun in car....hypothetical question

Mountain--Probable cause is a set of facts that leads an LEO to have a strong belief that a person is guilty of a crime. A bumper sticker is hardly probable cause that you have committed a crime (it might be in Mass. though ha ha). With your question about the locked case, if he stopped you on a traffic violation, you could lie to the officer and say its valueable computer equipment or something. The LEO is not going to bother getting a warrant for a locked case unless he has some probable cause on you already (which means you have committed a crime) like DUI or drugs, NOT a traffic violation. He is going to get your license and run it to check if you have any wants or warrants and if you don't he will write you a ticket for the traffic violation he stopped you for or let you go.

Kamakaze--Most the time a LEO knows if you are lying if their is inconsistencies in your story. That's why they ask all those questions! If you answer all his questions and there are no holes then you will have no problems. If you have answers like "Aaahhh, that belongs to a friend of mine", he sez, "whats your friends name", you say "Bob", he sez "Bob who?", you say "I don't remember or I don't know" You're in for it.... get the point.

Ober--There is no law against a cop following someone! He was probably a motor cop, meaning he wants to give tickets, especially to out of state vehicles. Motor cops are usually geeks, but that is their job, giving tickets. Any motor cop can follow you and I guarantee he can find some violation in about 2 blocks! He probably could have pulled you over if he wanted to. He would have pulled you over, checked your license and once you checked out fine, he probably would have given you a traffic ticket. He did not have probable cause to search anything though. A traffic violation is NOT considered PC to search your vehicle!
 
Back
Top