The treat dog

I mean you can always try. Start with being respectful at the pull over and don’t do the I know my rights bs. Anecdotally I’ve never been searched and I’ve been pulled over like ten times. It may help that I’m white too (which is bad but still)

I’ve always just turned my overhead light on, kept my hands on the steering wheel, and have been super respectful. The worst that’s happened to me was when I was visiting my parents who live in a rural county and I live in a city about an hour north. I’m guessing not many people with the out of state tags come from my city and I guess the state patrol dude at first pulled me over on a bs speeding (i think I was going less than ten over or right at ten). He just basically got my stuff and told me I was speeding but the first question out of his mouth wasn’t “did you know how fast you were going” but “hey you’re from Hamilton County, that’s Chattanooga right? What are you doing down here”

I told him my parents lived here and he let me go almost immediately. He was nice but it was just really odd.

Point being, as awful as it sounds idk if being respectful is enough if you’re a minority. It has been enough to get me out of most tickets. At worst I’ve gotten a few tickets or a lecture from a cop but never searched or asked to do sobriety checks, etc. they’ve shined their lights in my back windows when coming up to my car (it was a mess lmao) and what not before but that’s it.

Sorry for the rant. It’s just annoying and it sucks that most court cases find in the cops favor even if it makes it to SCOTUS. Even if they violate your rights, a lot of times courts have ruled that the evidence is admissible as long as they didn’t knowingly violate rights (especially with pullovers). A lot of this stuff doesn’t apply to your home which has really strong 4th amendment protections but they’re weaker with cars. It’s also harder for cops to get justification to search bags on your person if you’re walking around iirc. They’ll just try to intimidate you in to consenting. Never consent. If they get hasty and aggressive then do the entire 4th amendment thing but if they order you to get out, comply. Maybe lock your doors if you have something to hide (risky but it could work). I’d also record the audio if you can.

As for wasting time? Hell, some cops are dicks and will do that during routine stops. I have sped before to get to work and told the cop I was running late and he intentionally took for ever. Flip side one cop was already gonna write me a ticket (one of those areas where cops always write speeding tickets) but I told him I was speeding to work and he literally said “I’m gonna make this quick” and came back a couple of minutes later with a ticket. Sucks he wrote me a ticket but at least he didn’t waste my time. (Judge threw it out on good behavior tho. Just because I asked for traffic school and didn’t have recent tickets)

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