March 17 - Memphis
This morning was interesting. I arrived in Memphis last night, crashed for the night, and as I was driving on I-40 towards downtown this morning, I was pulled over. For doing 70 in a 65! No mention was made of the SUV that blew in front of me easily doing 80. He had Tennessee license plates. Now mind you, I wasn't screwing around at all...in fact, if anything, I was a bit slower than rest of traffic as I was trying to pay attention to signs and get my bearings on where I was at. It gets better...
So the cops (in an unmarked, white Ford Explorer...what kind of highway patrol car is this??) pull me over and ask me to step out of the car and in front of their truck. Ok, so much for "license, registration and insurance, please".
They explain that they pulled me over for doing 70 in a 65 as I topped the crest of a hill.
"I understand that officers, and I'm sorry...but isn't that relatively within a reasonable margin of error given speedometer inaccuracies and hilly terrain?" That didn't go over well.
"Have you ever had a ticket?"
"Um, not in like 10 years...for a stop sign."
"Do you have any weapons or drugs on your person?" as they pat my pockets and my jacket.
"Nope."
"Where are you from? That your car? Where are you going? When did you get in town? How long are you staying here? What brings you here? Where did you come from. Where are you staying?"
I'm from California...yes, I own the car...I'm heading downtown to Beale Street (the tourist zone)...I just arrived last night...just staying for a day or two...I'm on a cross country road trip, just left Nashville and wanted to check out the music scene here in Memphis...I'm staying at some Interstate motel a few exits back"
The officers then proceed to escort me to the side of their truck and put me in the back seat. "Hmmm, this doesn't seem to be going well".
They get in the front seat and call in my license for any wants or warrants, and ask again if I'm transporting any drugs, cash or weapons. "No, officers" They then tell me they'd like to search my vehicle. Is that ok?
Alright, so I'm not a lawyer, but I watch enough Law & Order (way more than enough!) to know that they can't just search my shit without some sort of cause. And I don't believe that doing 70 in a 65 warrants a vehicle search. Now, technically, they ARE asking my permission to search it. Hmmm...does that make a difference? It's not like I particularly feel like I'm being given the choice to say 'No' at this point. Thoughts did conjure up of calling Kristina (a lawyer) right then and there, but I was really trying to not rock the boat for two cops who already had nightsticks up their asses about something. Besides, there's nothing to hide in the car except the fact that it's a complete mess from 3,500+ miles of driving over the last few weeks. Oh, and Cum Shot riding shotgun with me might take a little explaining.
So they proceed to search my car while I sit in the back seat of their police truck, and I'm just waiting for one of them to plant a bag of coke in the car so they can really give me a hard time (again, a bit too much TV).
Luckily, they returned seemed a bit diffused. "Well, your license is clean, and I don't see anything illegal in the car. So my policy is to leave well enough alone, and let you off with a warning. The speed limit here 65, and just around the next bend you'll see signs for 55. Keep it there.
"Yes officers, thank you. [Fuckers who wasted 40 minutes of my time and borderline illegally searched my car because you have nothing better to do on a Thursday morning]"
Turns out there's a police museum/annex station on Beale Street downtown. I happened in and asked one of the officers there about the experience, and he explained a few things.
* The guys who pulled me over were from a special drug detail...apparently Memphis is a MAJOR drug corridor, with I40 crossing the Mississippi right there, and I55 running North and South from New Orleans straight up to Chicago, So there's a lot of drug traffic through town and they're trying to crack down on it. There were a few recent high profile busts, and it's likely that those courriers rolled over provided info on others who'd be passing through. I probably met some of the profiling conditions...solo driver, in a nice car, relatively abiding by the speed limit (i.e. not speeding too much), and traveling 'cross country' was enough to trigger the caution flags.
* If they ASK if they can search the car, it's legal. (although, I maintain I really didn't feel as if I was being offered a choice). Apparently a lot of courriers think they've got stuff stashed well enough that they let officers search the cars (or feel like they don't have a choice), and the cops do dig up the stash. That's what happened just recently.
* If you refuse to allow them to search the car, they can detain you for a short period of time and bring out dogs. The dogs are allowed to sniff AROUND the car, and if they detect anything, the cops can then search the car.
* Generally, these guys don't bother issuing traffic citations. Technically, 70 is
speeding, but that's just the excuse they use to pull you over. ..they don't want to deal with the paperwork for traffic infractions. They're looking for big scores.
So the cops (in an unmarked, white Ford Explorer...what kind of highway patrol car is this??) pull me over and ask me to step out of the car and in front of their truck. Ok, so much for "license, registration and insurance, please".
They explain that they pulled me over for doing 70 in a 65 as I topped the crest of a hill.
"I understand that officers, and I'm sorry...but isn't that relatively within a reasonable margin of error given speedometer inaccuracies and hilly terrain?" That didn't go over well.
"Have you ever had a ticket?"
"Um, not in like 10 years...for a stop sign."
"Do you have any weapons or drugs on your person?" as they pat my pockets and my jacket.
"Nope."
"Where are you from? That your car? Where are you going? When did you get in town? How long are you staying here? What brings you here? Where did you come from. Where are you staying?"
I'm from California...yes, I own the car...I'm heading downtown to Beale Street (the tourist zone)...I just arrived last night...just staying for a day or two...I'm on a cross country road trip, just left Nashville and wanted to check out the music scene here in Memphis...I'm staying at some Interstate motel a few exits back"
The officers then proceed to escort me to the side of their truck and put me in the back seat. "Hmmm, this doesn't seem to be going well".
They get in the front seat and call in my license for any wants or warrants, and ask again if I'm transporting any drugs, cash or weapons. "No, officers" They then tell me they'd like to search my vehicle. Is that ok?
Alright, so I'm not a lawyer, but I watch enough Law & Order (way more than enough!) to know that they can't just search my shit without some sort of cause. And I don't believe that doing 70 in a 65 warrants a vehicle search. Now, technically, they ARE asking my permission to search it. Hmmm...does that make a difference? It's not like I particularly feel like I'm being given the choice to say 'No' at this point. Thoughts did conjure up of calling Kristina (a lawyer) right then and there, but I was really trying to not rock the boat for two cops who already had nightsticks up their asses about something. Besides, there's nothing to hide in the car except the fact that it's a complete mess from 3,500+ miles of driving over the last few weeks. Oh, and Cum Shot riding shotgun with me might take a little explaining.
So they proceed to search my car while I sit in the back seat of their police truck, and I'm just waiting for one of them to plant a bag of coke in the car so they can really give me a hard time (again, a bit too much TV).
Luckily, they returned seemed a bit diffused. "Well, your license is clean, and I don't see anything illegal in the car. So my policy is to leave well enough alone, and let you off with a warning. The speed limit here 65, and just around the next bend you'll see signs for 55. Keep it there.
"Yes officers, thank you. [Fuckers who wasted 40 minutes of my time and borderline illegally searched my car because you have nothing better to do on a Thursday morning]"
Turns out there's a police museum/annex station on Beale Street downtown. I happened in and asked one of the officers there about the experience, and he explained a few things.
* The guys who pulled me over were from a special drug detail...apparently Memphis is a MAJOR drug corridor, with I40 crossing the Mississippi right there, and I55 running North and South from New Orleans straight up to Chicago, So there's a lot of drug traffic through town and they're trying to crack down on it. There were a few recent high profile busts, and it's likely that those courriers rolled over provided info on others who'd be passing through. I probably met some of the profiling conditions...solo driver, in a nice car, relatively abiding by the speed limit (i.e. not speeding too much), and traveling 'cross country' was enough to trigger the caution flags.
* If they ASK if they can search the car, it's legal. (although, I maintain I really didn't feel as if I was being offered a choice). Apparently a lot of courriers think they've got stuff stashed well enough that they let officers search the cars (or feel like they don't have a choice), and the cops do dig up the stash. That's what happened just recently.
* If you refuse to allow them to search the car, they can detain you for a short period of time and bring out dogs. The dogs are allowed to sniff AROUND the car, and if they detect anything, the cops can then search the car.
* Generally, these guys don't bother issuing traffic citations. Technically, 70 is
speeding, but that's just the excuse they use to pull you over. ..they don't want to deal with the paperwork for traffic infractions. They're looking for big scores.
posted by Dave @ 10:21 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:14 PM,
Anonymous said…
You didn't have to let them. They had no probable cause. Still, it's a judgment call, and letting them probably let you go on your way quicker. (Too bad they didn't beat you, THEN we'd have ourselves a lawsuit!)
-Kristina (the attorney)
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